| New Obama adviser sorry for 'snark' Posted: 18 Dec 2013 08:35 AM PST  John Podesta apologizes to GOP leader for Jonestown cult comparison.
|
| White House to release task force report on spying Posted: 18 Dec 2013 10:04 AM PST  WASHINGTON (AP) — The White House says it's releasing a task force report that recommends changes on how the National Security Agency collects intelligence data.
|
| Romney's election night moment of truth revealed in new film Posted: 18 Dec 2013 08:44 AM PST  A new behind-the-scenes documentary coming to Netflix next month shows a more candid side of the 2012 presidential nominee.
|
| Protest smooch seen around the world Posted: 18 Dec 2013 08:50 AM PST  The photo of a young Italian woman kissing a police officer's helmet visor during a protest has gone viral, with a police union threatening to sue her for "sexual violence". The 20-year-old student, Nina De Chiffre, was snapped by a photographer working for AFP as she went to kiss the policeman, Salvatore Piccione, at a protest against a new high-speed rail line in the Alps. Her act was interpreted by many as a loving gesture and proved a hit on social media, although the photographer Marco Bertorello and De Chiffre herself pointed out that it was intended as an act of mockery. Franco Maccari, the head of the COISP police union, earlier this month vowed to sue the protester for "sexual violence and insulting a public official".
|
| India cuts duty-free booze, other perks after envoy's NYC arrest Posted: 18 Dec 2013 08:29 AM PST  By Shyamantha Asokan and Frank Jack Daniel NEW DELHI (Reuters) - India took retaliatory measures against the United States on Wednesday in a dispute over an Indian diplomat who complained of being stripped and forced to undergo "cavity searches" while in U.S. detention. The measures included a revision of work conditions of Indians employed at U.S. consulates and a freeze on the import of duty-free alcohol. Devyani Khobragade, a deputy consul general at the Indian Consulate in New York, was arrested on December 12 on charges of visa fraud and underpaying her housekeeper, an Indian national. India has responded furiously to what it considers the degrading treatment of a senior diplomat by the United States, a country it sees as a close friend.
|
| APNewsBreak: Insurers extend premium deadline Posted: 18 Dec 2013 09:38 AM PST WASHINGTON (AP) — Consumers worried that tight deadlines around the holidays and lingering computer problems could thwart their efforts to secure coverage under President Barack Obama's health overhaul will get extra time to pay, the health insurance industry said Wednesday. |
| Lucky lotto tickets sold in Atlanta, San Jose Posted: 18 Dec 2013 10:27 AM PST  ATLANTA (AP) — Two lucky winning tickets were sold in this week's near-record $636 million Mega Millions drawing: one at a tiny newsstand in Atlanta, the other more than 2,000 miles away at a gift shop in California.
|
| Egypt's Morsi to face new trial on terror charges Posted: 18 Dec 2013 10:29 AM PST  CAIRO (AP) — Egypt's top prosecutor on Wednesday referred toppled Islamist President Mohammed Morsi to trial on charges he conspired with the Palestinian group Hamas, Lebanon's Hezbollah and others to carry out a campaign of terrorist violence to destabilize the country following his ouster.
|
| India diplomat says she faced cavity search in NYC Posted: 18 Dec 2013 07:42 AM PST  NEW DELHI (AP) — An Indian diplomat said U.S. authorities subjected her to a strip search, cavity search and DNA swabbing following her arrest on visa charges in New York City, despite her "incessant assertions of immunity."
|
| Govt: 500 reported killed in South Sudan Posted: 18 Dec 2013 10:16 AM PST  JUBA, South Sudan (AP) — At least 500 people, most of them soldiers, have been killed in South Sudan since Sunday, a senior government official said as an ethnic rivalry threatened to tear apart the world's newest country.
|
| Russia passes amnesty bill, questions remain Posted: 18 Dec 2013 08:32 AM PST  MOSCOW (AP) — Russia's parliament on Wednesday passed an amnesty bill that will likely apply to the 30-member crew of a Greenpeace ship detained after an Arctic protest, but it wasn't immediately clear if and when the activists would be allowed to leave the country.
|
| Information battle in Ukraine amid mass protests Posted: 18 Dec 2013 08:30 AM PST  KIEV, Ukraine (AP) — Since the mass anti-government protests started in Ukraine about a month ago, authorities and the opposition have waged an information battle. Both sides have an interest in demonizing each other, and the opposition is also eager to keep up the protest spirit.
|
| Haiti faults orphanage run by well-off US church Posted: 18 Dec 2013 09:46 AM PST  PORT-AU-PRINCE, Haiti (AP) — At the Olde Good Things antique store on Manhattan's Upper West Side, a French crystal chandelier can go for tens of thousands of dollars. A marble mantel sells for more than $20,000 and hand-carved dinner tables are priced even higher.
|
| Ukraine PM vows stability after Moscow deal Posted: 18 Dec 2013 07:03 AM PST  KIEV, Ukraine (AP) — Ukraine's leadership on Wednesday praised a Russia-financed bailout as a guarantee of financial stability, while opposition activists and critics claimed the deal will deepen the country's economic troubles and increase dependence on Moscow.
|
| Fed decision on pace of bond purchases is awaited Posted: 18 Dec 2013 05:05 AM PST  WASHINGTON (AP) — Investors are waiting to see whether one of Ben Bernanke's final acts as chairman of the Federal Reserve will be to announce a pullback in the Fed's bond purchases. The purchases have been intended to keep long-term loan rates low to spur economic growth.
|
| Ousted Egypt president to be tried for conspiracy Posted: 18 Dec 2013 08:04 AM PST CAIRO (AP) — Egypt's top prosecutor referred Wednesday toppled Islamist President Mohammed Morsi to trial for conspiring with the Palestinian group Hamas, Lebanon's Hezbollah and others to carry out a campaign of violence to destabilize the country following his ouster. |
| Christmas is more cultural than religious for many Posted: 18 Dec 2013 06:54 AM PST NEW YORK (AP) — For a significant number of Americans, Christmas has largely lost its religious meaning, becoming an occasion focused instead on visiting family and friends and exchanging gifts, according to a new survey released Wednesday. |
| Official: 500 killed, 700 injured in South Sudan Posted: 18 Dec 2013 08:02 AM PST JUBA, South Sudan (AP) — South Sudan's information minister says at least 500 people, most of them soldiers, have been killed in violence following what the government said was an alleged coup attempt Sunday. |
| Store owner learns during interview that she'll get $1M for selling lotto ticket Posted: 18 Dec 2013 06:46 AM PST  Young Soo Lee knew she'd be getting some money for selling one of the two winning Mega Millions lottery tickets. But she was unaware that the prize was $1 million until a reporter informed her.
|
| Obama meets with NSA task force Posted: 18 Dec 2013 07:42 AM PST  The president appointed the panel to review privacy issues and government surveillance.
|
| Report: Pippa Middleton engaged to boyfriend Nico Jackson Posted: |
| Egypt's Morsi to be tried for 'espionage', Hamas ties Posted: 18 Dec 2013 09:10 AM PST  Egypt's deposed president Mohamed Morsi and ex-aides will stand trial for "espionage" that helped a "terrorist" campaign involving the Palestinian militant Hamas and jihadists, the prosecution said Wednesday. Morsi, an Islamist toppled by the military in July after a single year of turbulent rule, is already on trial for his alleged involvement in the killings of opposition protesters. Prosecutors had been investigating his alleged links to Hamas during mass prison breaks in an early 2011 uprising against ousted strongman Hosni Mubarak, when Morsi and other Islamist prisoners escaped. He and 35 others, including former aides and leaders of his Muslim Brotherhood, now stand accused of "espionage for foreign organisations abroad to commit terrorist attacks in the country", a state prosecution service statement said.
|
| Obama selects gay athletes for Sochi delegation Posted: 18 Dec 2013 04:00 AM PST  The president sent Russia a clear message about its treatment of gays and lesbians.
|
| Iran says nuclear talks with world powers to resume Posted: 18 Dec 2013 09:24 AM PST  Tehran is hoping for limited relief from sanctions.
|
| Russia adopts amnesty likely to free Pussy Riot, help Greenpeace 30 Posted: 18 Dec 2013 04:35 AM PST  Russia's parliament on Wednesday approved an amnesty which lawyers said would free two jailed members of punk band Pussy Riot and enable 30 people arrested in a Greenpeace protest against Arctic oil drilling avoid trial. The lower house of parliament passed the amnesty, which President Vladimir Putin proposed to commemorate the 20th anniversary of the passage of Russia's post-Soviet constitution. Lawyers said the amnesty, which could enter into force this week, would lead to the early release of Pussy Riot members Nadezhda Tolokonnikova and Maria Alyokhina, whose two-year sentences over an anti-Putin protest in a cathedral have been criticized in the West as excessive.
|
| Two winners in $636M Mega Millions drawing Posted: 18 Dec 2013 12:40 AM PST Lottery officials say the winning tickets were sold in California and Georgia. |
| Bipartisan budget agreement nears final passage Posted: 18 Dec 2013 10:05 AM PST  WASHINGTON (AP) — A modest, bipartisan budget pact designed to keep Washington from lurching from fiscal crisis to fiscal crisis and to ease the harshest effects of automatic budget cuts is on the brink of passing the Senate Wednesday despite increasing political heat over a proposal to curb the growth of the pensions claimed by working age military retirees.
|
| South Sudan leader offers talks as violence spreads Posted: 18 Dec 2013 08:22 AM PST  Juba (AFP) - South Sudan's President Salva Kiir offered Wednesday to hold talks with his arch-rival he accuses of leading a coup bid that has sparked days of fierce fighting in the world's youngest nation.
|
| Blind man, guide dog survive fall to NYC subway tracks Posted: 17 Dec 2013 02:36 PM PST  A blind man and his guide dog were hit after falling onto the New York City subway tracks. Fortunatley, thanks to Orlando the black Labrador's quick-thinking, both dog and man escaped with relatively minor injuries.
|
| Obama tweaks Putin with U.S. Olympic delegation Posted: 17 Dec 2013 02:45 PM PST  President Barack Obama? Nope. Vice President Joe Biden? Nope. Current Cabinet officials? Nope. First lady Michelle Obama? Nope.
|
| 400 to 500 reported dead in South Sudan clashes, UN official says Posted: 17 Dec 2013 04:45 PM PST  Hundreds of bodies have reportedly been taken to hospitals in South Sudan's capital after clashes between rival army factions.
|
| Tech leaders: Aggressive NSA reform is needed Posted: 17 Dec 2013 11:35 AM PST  Silicon Valley execs discuss government surveillance with President Obama.
|
| Debt ceiling fight looms in 2014 Posted: 17 Dec 2013 01:03 PM PST  The Senate's top Republican hints at another showdown with Obama next year.
|
| Deportations on track for 6-year low Posted: 17 Dec 2013 01:03 PM PST  The Obama administration likely deported the fewest people in six years last fiscal year, according to new Immigration and Customs Enforcement data.
|
| Judge who issued NSA ruling often bucks executive branch Posted: 17 Dec 2013 08:22 PM PST  WASHINGTON (AP) — Richard Leon, the judge who declared that the National Security Agency's bulk collection of millions of Americans' telephone records is likely unconstitutional, has a long record of taking on executive branch actions.
|
