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| Is Andrew Johnson the worst president in American history? Friday, Dec 27, 2013 03:20 AM PST This weekend marks the birthday of perhaps the most-maligned president in American history. But was Andrew Johnson really that bad, or just the target of some second-guessing historians? Full Story | Top |
| Uncovering the Greatest Information Breach in CIA History Friday, Dec 27, 2013 12:32 PM PST In the early 90's Sandra Grimes, a CIA expert in Soviet intelligence, cracked the case of the greatest information breach in the history of the CIA, leading to the arrest of CIA spy and colleague, Aldrich Ames. Ames had passed the names or identifying information on every current reporting source the CIA had on the [...] Full Story | Top |
| Gambler rewards man who returned $300K left in cab Friday, Dec 27, 2013 02:37 PM PST LAS VEGAS (AP) — A poker player who left $300,000 in the back seat of a Las Vegas taxi made good on his promise this week, handing over a $10,000 reward to the honest cabbie who returned the stash. Full Story | Top |
| 1.3 million losing unemployment benefits Saturday Friday, Dec 27, 2013 02:07 PM PST  WASHINGTON (AP) — More than 1 million Americans are bracing for a harrowing, post-Christmas jolt as extended federal unemployment benefits come to a sudden halt this weekend, with potentially significant implications for the recovering U.S. economy. A tense political battle likely looms when Congress reconvenes in the new, midterm election year. Full Story | Top |
| India seeks possible U.S. tax violations as stand hardens in row Friday, Dec 27, 2013 01:23 PM PST  By Sanjeev Miglani NEW DELHI (Reuters) - India has sought details about staff in American schools in the country for possible tax violations and revoked ID cards of U.S. consular officials and their families, retaliatory steps for the arrest of an Indian diplomat in New York. The measures suggest that the two countries are no closer to a resolution of a diplomatic dispute over the treatment of Deputy Consul General Devyani Khobragade this month on charges of visa fraud and underpayment of her housekeeper. Khobragade, who has denied the charges, was handcuffed and strip-searched while in custody, sparking outrage in India. An Indian government official said on Friday that New Delhi had asked the U.S. embassy to provide details about people working in American schools and other U.S. government facilities to determine if they had permission to do so and if they were paying taxes that are mandatory under Indian law. Full Story | Top |
| Rescue of stranded Antarctic ship stalls Friday, Dec 27, 2013 11:39 PM PST  The Australian Maritime Safety Authority (AMSA), which is coordinating the rescue of the Russian passenger ship MV Akademik Shokalskiy, said the icebreaker came within six-and-a-half nautical miles of the ship but had to stop. "The Chinese vessel unfortunately encountered some heavy ice that it's not capable of breaking through," AMSA spokeswoman Andrea Hayward-Maher told AFP. Passengers are now waiting for the arrival, expected late Sunday, of Australia's Antarctic resupply ship Aurora Australis which has the highest icebreaking rating of the three vessels originally asked to respond. It is not yet clear whether the Aurora Australis will be able to go any further than the Chinese vessel, the Snow Dragon. Full Story | Top |
| Police file on Newtown yields chilling portrait Friday, Dec 27, 2013 07:50 PM PST  NEW HAVEN, Conn. (AP) — Connecticut police released thousands of pages Friday from their investigation into the Newtown massacre, providing the most detailed and disturbing picture yet of the rampage and Adam Lanza's fascination with murder, while also depicting school employees' brave and clearheaded attempts to protect the children. Full Story | Top |
| Obama, Democrats push for extension of unemployment benefits Friday, Dec 27, 2013 01:52 PM PST  By Caren Bohan WASHINGTON (Reuters) - On the eve of the expiration of federal benefits for the long-term unemployed, U.S. President Barack Obama and his Democratic allies are stepping up pressure on Republicans to renew the program. Top White House economic adviser Gene Sperling said in a statement issued on Friday that a failure to renew emergency jobless benefits would harm the economy and he urged Congress to move quickly to pass a short-term extension of the aid. Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid, a Democrat, has vowed to bring to a vote a bill extending federal unemployment insurance benefits as soon as Congress returns from its holiday recess on January 6. "While we remain disappointed that Congress did not heed the president's call to extend emergency unemployment benefits for next year before the holidays, the president as well as the Democratic congressional leadership have made clear the importance of extending the benefits immediately upon Congress's return," Sperling said in a statement. Full Story | Top |
| Police release documents on Newtown massacre Friday, Dec 27, 2013 01:40 PM PST NEW HAVEN, Conn. (AP) — Police in Connecticut have released thousands of pages of documents from the investigation into the school massacre in Newtown. They provide the most detailed picture yet of the rampage and of the 20-year-old gunman's fascination with guns and violence. Full Story | Top |
| U.S. judge says NSA phone surveillance is lawful Friday, Dec 27, 2013 11:46 AM PST  By Jonathan Stempel NEW YORK (Reuters) - A federal judge ruled that a National Security Agency program that collects records of millions of Americans' phone calls is lawful, calling it a "counter-punch" to terrorism that does not violate Americans' privacy rights. Friday's decision by U.S. District Judge William Pauley in Manhattan diverged from a ruling by another judge this month that questioned the program's constitutionality, raising the prospect that the Supreme Court will need to resolve the issue. In a 54-page decision, Pauley dismissed an American Civil Liberties Union lawsuit contending that the NSA collection of "bulk telephony metadata" violated the bar against warrantless searches under the Fourth Amendment of the U.S. Constitution. The judge also referred often to the September 11, 2001 attacks, in which nearly 3,000 people died, and said broad counter-terrorism programs such as the NSA's could help avoid a "horrific" repeat of those events. Full Story | Top |
| Federal judge rules NSA phone surveillance legal Friday, Dec 27, 2013 02:35 PM PST  NEW YORK (AP) — The heated debate over the National Security Agency's bulk collection of millions of Americans' telephone records fell squarely into the courts Friday, when a federal judge in Manhattan upheld the legality of the program and cited its need in the fight against terrorism just days after another federal judge concluded it was likely not constitutional. Full Story | Top |
| A&E reverses decision on 'Duck Dynasty' patriarch Friday, Dec 27, 2013 10:55 PM PST  LOS ANGELES (AP) — A&E landed in the middle of America's culture wars when "Duck Dynasty" patriarch Phil Robertson sounded off on gays and the Bible. The channel quickly found there was no safe ground. Full Story | Top |
| South Sudan government agrees to end hostilities Friday, Dec 27, 2013 03:25 PM PST JUBA, South Sudan (AP) — South Sudan's government agreed Friday at a meeting of East African leaders to end hostilities against rebels accused of trying to overthrow the young country, but the cease-fire was quickly thrown into doubt because the head of the rebellion was not invited. Full Story | Top |
| Gyms For Overweight Members Only Friday, Dec 27, 2013 07:42 AM PST In a culture that values thin, the fat debate is on fire. From plus-size models strutting the catwalks, to curvaceous superstars like Adele belting it out at the Oscars (and winning one for "Skyfall") and Lena Dunham proudly bearing it all in her hit HBO show, "Girls," plus-size is going mainstream. Two-thirds of Americans are [...] Full Story | Top |
| Democrats plan big push on jobless aid in new year Friday, Dec 27, 2013 04:48 PM PST  By Caren Bohan WASHINGTON (Reuters) - President Barack Obama and Democrats will make a major push when Congress returns January 6 to renew expired benefits for the unemployed and will seek to pressure Republicans over the issue by painting them as uncaring toward the middle class. Federal unemployment benefits will officially expire for 1.3 million out-of-work Americans on Saturday. With Congress in recess, no last-minute fix is possible. Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid has vowed to make an extension of the benefits the top issue in his chamber when Congress returns on January 6. Full Story | Top |
| 2013’s top political ads: The campaign-winning Afro, Shaq went political, and Duck Dynasty quacked Friday, Dec 27, 2013 02:54 AM PST Comedian Mark Eaton weighs in on some of 2013's most memorable and ridiculous ads Full Story | Top |
| Israel plans 1,400 more West Bank settlement homes, official says Friday, Dec 27, 2013 12:21 PM PST  Israel plans to build 1,400 homes in its settlements in the occupied West Bank and will announce the projects next week after releasing a group of Palestinian prisoners, an Israeli official said on Friday. The Palestinians have said any further expansion of Israeli settlements on land they seek for a state could derail U.S.-brokered peace talks that resumed in July after a three-year break and are set to last until April. The United States said Israel had informed it of plans to release the group of prisoners on December 30, a day later than expected. The release of about two dozen Palestinians, the third group to be freed since the peace talks resumed, is seen by the United States as a vital confidence-building measure. Full Story | Top |
| Action star Jet Li treated for overactive thyroid Friday, Dec 27, 2013 11:20 AM PST  HONG KONG (AP) — Jet Li says he's being treated for an overactive thyroid, but he's determined to fight the condition head-on. Full Story | Top |
| Utah, growing desperate, to ask Supreme Court to halt gay marriages Friday, Dec 27, 2013 12:27 PM PST Utah could file its request to the Supreme Court for a stay by early next week. In the meantime, county clerks' offices have been flooded with requests for marriage licenses from same-sex couples. Some counties are also defying the court order and refusing to grant same-sex marriage licenses until the appeals process is over. If Friday's ruling is overturned and the ban on gay marriage reinstated, the legal status of same-sex couples given marriage licenses would be in limbo, though some experts suggest that the licenses might remain legal. Full Story | Top |
| US boy, 9, is youngest to reach Aconcagua summit Friday, Dec 27, 2013 03:47 PM PST  BUENOS AIRES, Argentina (AP) — A 9-year-old boy from Southern California has become the youngest person in recorded history to reach the summit of Argentina's Aconcagua mountain, which at 22,841 feet (6,962 meters) is the tallest peak in the Western and Southern hemispheres. Full Story | Top |
| Iranian official calls for direct talks with US Friday, Dec 27, 2013 09:04 AM PST  TEHRAN, Iran (AP) — The top foreign adviser to Iran's supreme leader on Friday called for separate talks directly with the United States amid the multilateral negotiations over Iran's nuclear program. Full Story | Top |
| White man charged with 'knockout game' hate crime. Racial hypocrisy? Friday, Dec 27, 2013 09:41 AM PST The US Department of Justice on Thursday stepped into the cultural fray about the so-called "knockout game" when it brought federal hate crime charges against a white Texas man for assaulting an unsuspecting black man. The decision shines a brighter spotlight on the knockout game, in which an assailant tries to knock out a bystander with a single punch. The fact that the Justice Department has elected to step in now, when a black man was the victim, has led to criticism among conservative pundits that the Obama administration is applying the hate-crime statute unevenly. Conrad Barrett was arrested Thursday and charged under federal hate crimes law, which defines a hate crime as "motivated by enmity or animus against a protected class." (The Federal Bureau of Investigation also lists anti-white crimes as hate crimes.) Full Story | Top |
| Good Samaritan Finds Little Girl's Lost Letter to Santa, Fulfills Wish Friday, Dec 27, 2013 11:29 AM PST An unlikely scenario played out before Christmas: A man assumed the role of Santa Claus for a 5-year-old whom he had never met. The story began on Tuesday morning at Saint Rose of Lima School in Chula Vista, Calif. A group of 23 students wrote letters to Santa, attached the letters to red and green balloons, and sent them off into the sky. The goal was for the letters to reach the North Pole. Full Story | Top |
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