In the Nation

CHILMARK, Mass. - President Obama played tennis and golf yesterday, starting his first vacation in office on Martha's Vineyard, a picturesque island known as a refuge for the wealthy.

Obama began the day with a workout, then played tennis with his wife, Michelle, White House spokesman Bill Burton said. Obama later played golf with UBS investment bank president Robert Wolf and Chicago physician Eric Whitaker, both friends. White House aide Marvin Nicholson was also in the foursome.

White House officials have stressed that the president is on a private vacation and that little is planned. He did receive a daily briefing in person from a National Security Council official. He also received an economic briefing through memos. - AP

WASHINGTON - Military commanders in Afghanistan are not rejecting requests by reporters who want to accompany U.S. troops in Afghanistan because their prior coverage of the military has been negative, Pentagon spokesman Bryan Whitman said.

The denial came after the Stars and Stripes reported that the Rendon Group, a public-relations firm with a controversial past, was screening work by journalists seeking "embed" assignments and giving them positive, neutral, or negative ratings as part of a background profile.

Rendon came under heavy criticism for its work before and during the Iraq war. Critics contended it was hired by the Pentagon to create an information campaign aimed at convincing the public and members of Congress that Iraq was an imminent threat. An investigation by the Pentagon inspector general found no evidence of that, but the classified review revealed how extensively the Pentagon has relied on Rendon for communications advice and analysis of media coverage. - AP

COLUMBIA, S.C. - Five young men who staged one of the largest armored-car heists in U.S. history, then spent their loot on strippers, Mother's Day gifts, and other luxuries were denied pleas for mercy yesterday and ordered to spend at least 25 years in prison.

Judge Michelle Childs sentenced three of the men to at least 25 years each in prison for armed robbery, kidnapping, assault and battery, and conspiracy in the $9.8 million robbery. A fourth man was sentenced to three years for conspiracy, and the judge refused to reduce 25-year sentences for two others convicted.

Four of the men were college students at the time of the 2007 holdup, which led to the beating of a guard left bloody and bound on a secluded road. More than half the money stolen remains missing. - AP

A Los Angeles jury decided yesterday that cigarette-maker Philip Morris USA should pay $13.8 million in punitive damages to the daughter of a longtime smoker, Betty Bullock, who died of lung cancer. Bullock, who sued in 2001, died in 2003. Last year, an appeals court reversed a previous jury's decision in the case and remanded it for a new trial over the punitive damages.