First AirAsia funeral as bad weather hampers search

First AirAsia funeral as bad weather hampers search
North Korean leader open to summit with South
Five ways to know you’re speaking to white supremacists
Shanghai NYE stampede kills 36 after fake money thrown from building
NYC rings in new year with heightened security in Times Square
Two killed in crash of sheriff's office helicopter in Arizona
Magnitude 5.1 quake hits in waters off Northern California coast
1st of 9 bodies from AirAsia crash identified
N. Korea's Kim moots summit with South
2014 New Year's Eve in NYC's Times Square
New Year's Eve stampede kills 35 on Shanghai's Bund tourist strip
10 who might have an impact on 2016 campaign
Taylor Swift, crystal orb usher in 2015 in New York
Times Square braces for a million people at New Year’s Eve celebration

Posted: 01 Jan 2015 05:29 AM PST

Relatives held the first funeral for a victim of AirAsia Flight QZ8501 Thursday as bad weather hampered efforts to locate the wreckage of the plane which crashed into the Java Sea off Borneo with 162 aboard. Nine bodies have so far been retrieved in the search for the Airbus A320-200, which disappeared from radar during a storm Sunday en route from Indonesia's second city of Surabaya to Singapore. "The problem we faced today is unfriendly weather conditions," search and rescue agency chief Bambang Soelistyo told a press conference. He said a National Transport Safety Committee team was in Pangkalun Bun, a town on Borneo island with the nearest airstrip to the crash site.

North Korean leader open to summit with South

Posted: 31 Dec 2014 11:48 PM PST

PYONGYANG, North Korea (AP) — North Korean leader Kim Jong Un said in a New Year's speech Thursday that he is open to more talks or even a summit with his South Korean counterpart, a statement welcomed by Seoul, which in turn urged the North to take concrete steps toward normalization of relations.

Five ways to know you’re speaking to white supremacists

Posted: 01 Jan 2015 02:38 AM PST

There was a simpler time in America, a time when racists wore white hoods and carried torches, when Nazis wore swastikas and a skinhead could shave his scalp without being mistaken for a metrosexual. But those days are long behind us. Now, apparently, white supremacists hold conferences with guest speakers and video hookups to their colleagues overseas, kind of like a Davos for the intellectually vacant.

Shanghai NYE stampede kills 36 after fake money thrown from building

Posted: 01 Jan 2015 07:33 AM PST

By Adam Jourdan SHANGHAI (Reuters) - A stampede killed at least 36 people during New Year's Eve celebrations in Shanghai, authorities said, but police denied reports it was caused by people rushing to pick up fake money thrown from a building overlooking the city's famous waterfront. The government in China's gleaming business capital said large crowds started to stampede on Chen Yi Square, in the riverside area known as the Bund, just before midnight. It was the worst disaster in the cosmopolitan city since 58 died in an apartment building fire in 2010. ...

NYC rings in new year with heightened security in Times Square

Posted: 01 Jan 2015 10:18 AM PST

By Sebastien Malo NEW YORK (Reuters) - Roughly 1 million revelers packed New York's Times Square and rang in the new year with the city's annual crystal ball drop under unusually tight security for the nation's biggest New Year's Eve celebrations. While security is always tight in Times Square on New Year's Eve, particularly since the attacks on the World Trade Center in 2001, extra precautions were put in place on Wednesday to prevent violence at the famed midtown Manhattan crossroads. ...

Two killed in crash of sheriff's office helicopter in Arizona

Posted: 01 Jan 2015 09:16 AM PST

(Reuters) - A pilot and a mechanic died in the crash of a helicopter used by Arizona's Cochise County Sheriff's Office and a federal investigation was under way on Thursday into what caused the crash, officials said. The helicopter had just undergone routine maintenance in the Phoenix area and the pilot on Wednesday was flying with the mechanic from there to the Sierra Vista airport in Cochise County when it went down, the Sheriff's Office said in a statement released late on Wednesday. The debris field was discovered near Benson in southern Arizona, according to the Sheriff's Office. ...

Magnitude 5.1 quake hits in waters off Northern California coast

Posted: 01 Jan 2015 07:41 AM PST

(Reuters) - A magnitude 5.1 earthquake struck in the Pacific Ocean off the Northern California coast on Thursday, about 70 miles (113 km) west of the town of Ferndale, the U.S. Geological Survey said. A Ferndale police dispatcher said there were no reports of injuries or damage from the quake, which according to the USGS's website occurred at 4:16 a.m. Pacific Time. No tsunami warning was issued for the area following the magnitude 5.1 quake, according to the USGS and the Pacific Tsunami Warning Center. Ferndale is about 190 miles (306 km) northwest of Napa, California, where a magnitude 6. ...

1st of 9 bodies from AirAsia crash identified

Posted: 01 Jan 2015 05:01 AM PST

SURABAYA, Indonesia (AP) — A passenger aboard AirAsia Flight 8501 became the first victim of the crash to be returned to her family Thursday, one of many painful reunions to come, as search crews struggled against wind and heavy rain to find more than 150 people still missing.

N. Korea's Kim moots summit with South

Posted: 31 Dec 2014 04:03 PM PST

North Korean leader Kim Jong-Un proposed the "highest-level" talks with South Korea Thursday, opening the way to a historic summit as his communist country battles to fend off UN prosecution over its human rights record. The sudden move, made during Kim's traditional New Year message, would clear the path for the first inter-Korean leaders' meeting since a 2007 summit in Pyongyang. Seoul welcomed the overture as "meaningful", coming after the North's state media had previously used sexist and personal language in attacks on South Korea's first female president, Park Geun-Hye. President Park has repeatedly said the door to dialogue with Pyongyang is open, but insists the North must first take tangible steps towards abandoning its nuclear weapons programme.

2014 New Year's Eve in NYC's Times Square

Posted: 31 Dec 2014 11:43 AM PST

Bruce Li, left, and his girlfriend Phyllis Zhong, of Toronto, kiss just after midnight in New York's Times Square, Thursday Jan. 1, 2015. (AP Photo/Tina Fineberg)

New Year's Eve stampede kills 35 on Shanghai's Bund tourist strip

Posted: 31 Dec 2014 02:42 PM PST

The stampede occurred in a waterfront area in central Shanghai, official Chinese government television CCTV America reported on its website. It quoted online media company Sina News as saying that masses of crowds in Chen Yi Square on the Bund led to the stampede. It said authorities were working to rescue and aid the wounded. (Editing by Howard Goller)

10 who might have an impact on 2016 campaign

Posted: 01 Jan 2015 12:09 AM PST

WASHINGTON (AP) — In the year that will pass before the 2016 campaign for president formally kicks off with the votes in the Iowa Caucus, any number of candidates, donors, political operatives — and people who have nothing to do with American politics — will shape the race for the White House. Here's a look at 10 people (OK, 12 people) who will be worth watching in the next year.

Taylor Swift, crystal orb usher in 2015 in New York

Posted: 31 Dec 2014 10:13 PM PST

As many as a million revelers braved frigid weather and poured into New York's Times Square for America's annual New Year party, which this year featured Taylor Swift. Revelers in the Big Apple, wearing red traditional festive top hats, kissed and snapped selfies as a giant illuminated crystal ball slid down a pole, touching ground at precisely the stroke of midnight. TV celebrity Ryan Seacrest hosted a televised live show ahead of the countdown to 2015, and several musical acts including Taylor Swift and singer-songwriter Idina Menzel are set to perform. "We made it!" he told the New York Daily News, sporting an American flag across his shoulders and a pair of 2015 glasses.

Times Square braces for a million people at New Year’s Eve celebration

Posted: 31 Dec 2014 11:33 AM PST

One million people are expected to watch the ball drop in New York City's Times Square on Wednesday night. But elsewhere, other cities are preparing to ring in 2015 in their own unique ways.