| Senior Hezbollah commander killed in Beirut Posted: 04 Dec 2013 12:27 PM PST  BAALBEK, Lebanon (AP) — The attackers waited in an olive grove around midnight. As the Hezbollah commander pulled into the garage of his nearby apartment building, they went in after him. Five bullets were pumped into his head and neck from a silencer-equipped pistol — an assassination that reverberated across the Middle East.
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| Obama: Income inequality a defining challenge Posted: 04 Dec 2013 04:07 PM PST  WASHINGTON (AP) — President Barack Obama prodded Congress to raise wages and secure the social safety net as he issued an overarching appeal Wednesday to correct economic inequalities that he said make it harder for a child to escape poverty. "That should offend all of us," he declared. "We are a better country than this."
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| 10 whales dead, dozens stranded in Everglades Posted: 04 Dec 2013 04:50 PM PST  EVERGLADES NATIONAL PARK, Fla. (AP) — Wildlife workers in boats struggled unsuccessfully Wednesday to coax nearly four dozen pilot whales out of dangerous shallow waters in Florida's Everglades National Park, hoping to spare them the fate of 10 others that already had died.
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| Report: NSA tracks billions of cellphones daily Posted: 04 Dec 2013 04:34 PM PST  WASHINGTON (AP) — The National Security Agency tracks the locations of nearly 5 billion cellphones every day overseas, including those belonging to Americans abroad, The Washington Post reported Wednesday.
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| Boxing champ turns opposition leader in Ukraine Posted: 04 Dec 2013 01:41 PM PST  KIEV, Ukraine (AP) — Towering over his fellow protest leaders, Vitali Klitschko, the reigning world heavyweight boxing champion, has emerged as Ukraine's most popular opposition figure and has ambitions to become its next president.
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| Bashir leaves MSNBC over inflammatory remarks Posted: 04 Dec 2013 02:42 PM PST  NEW YORK (AP) — MSNBC host Martin Bashir resigned from the network Wednesday, nearly three weeks after making graphic remarks on his show about former Alaska Gov. Sarah Palin.
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| Universal shuts down 'Fast & Furious 7' production Posted: 04 Dec 2013 02:57 PM PST  NEW YORK (AP) — Universal Pictures has shut down production on "Fast & Furious 7" indefinitely following the death of its star, Paul Walker.
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| NFL fines Steelers coach Mike Tomlin $100,000 Posted: 04 Dec 2013 04:00 PM PST  PITTSBURGH (AP) — Here's another adjective Pittsburgh Steelers coach Mike Tomlin can call his ill-timed two-step onto the field last Thursday night against Baltimore.
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| Mexico official: Stolen cobalt-60 found Posted: 04 Dec 2013 03:50 PM PST  MEXICO CITY (AP) — Mexico's nuclear safety director says that missing radioactive cobalt-60 has been found near where the stolen truck transporting the material was abandoned in central Mexico state.
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| Lawyer: Engineer in 'daze' before NYC train crash Posted: 04 Dec 2013 12:00 PM PST  YONKERS, N.Y. (AP) — An engineer whose speeding commuter train ran off the rails along a curve, killing four people, experienced a hypnotic-like daze and nodded at the controls before he suddenly realized something was wrong and hit the brakes, a lawyer said as a federal regulator called for the railroad to make immediate safety improvements.
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| Mexico: Stolen radioactive cobalt box found empty Posted: 04 Dec 2013 03:37 PM PST MEXICO CITY (AP) — A stolen container of radioactive material was found empty Wednesday and radioactivity was detected nearby, Mexico's nuclear safety director said. |
| Mexico: Stolen box with radioactive material found Posted: 04 Dec 2013 03:13 PM PST MEXICO CITY (AP) — Mexico's nuclear safety director says a stolen container of radioactive material has been found empty. |
| Nearly week of frigid temperatures for West Posted: 04 Dec 2013 04:38 PM PST  DENVER (AP) — The jet stream hunkered to the south Wednesday, promising to bring nearly a week of temperatures that could dip to 20-below or worse in the northern midsection of the country, and forcing much of the rest of the nation to deal with unexpectedly cool temperatures. In Minnesota, the cold has forced Salvation Army bell ringers inside and canceled holiday parties, while dense, cold air sunk into Rocky Mountain valleys and kept some lower elevations freezing in the West.
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| Newtown 911 audio: calm and chaos Posted: 04 Dec 2013 11:08 AM PST  Newtown 911 recordings: Chaos in an impossible situation.
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| Toronto Mayor Rob Ford may have tried to buy crack video Posted: |
| Could your ancestors be Denisovans? Compelling DNA findings Posted: 04 Dec 2013 10:11 AM PST  The oldest known human DNA found yet reveals human evolution was even more confusing than thought, researchers say. These new findings could shed light on a mysterious extinct branch of humanity known as Denisovans, who were close relatives of Neanderthals, scientists added. Although modern humans are the only surviving human lineage, others once strode the Earth. These included Neanderthals, the closest extinct relatives of modern humans, and the relatively newfound Denisovans, who are thought to have lived in a vast expanse from Siberia to Southeast Asia.
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| Land of Fire and Ice Posted: 04 Dec 2013 08:00 AM PST  Iceland is known as the Land of Fire and Ice and these images capture the essence of that perfectly. (IURIE BELEGURSCHI/CATERS NEWS) |
| Bitter-cold storm leaves six dead Posted: 04 Dec 2013 09:59 AM PST  Storm pushes through Rockies, Midwest; bitter cold's effects reach Calif. crops.
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| Better pay for U.S. teachers might help improve student scores Posted: 04 Dec 2013 09:24 AM PST  America's lackluster performance on international math, reading and science tests released Tuesday has rekindled the debate over the status and pay of U.S. teachers.
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| Walker died of trauma, thermal injury, says coroner; movie shoot shut down Posted: 04 Dec 2013 02:26 PM PST  By Eric Kelsey and Lisa Richwine LOS ANGELES (Reuters) - "Fast & Furious" actor Paul Walker died from multiple injuries in a weekend car crash, the Los Angeles County coroner said on Wednesday, as Universal Pictures suspended production of the seventh instalment in its lucrative car racing film franchise. Walker, 40, was a passenger in a fiery one-car crash on Saturday in Santa Clarita, California, about 30 miles (48 km) northwest of Los Angeles, that also killed 38-year-old driver Roger Rodas. The coroner said Walker's death resulted from "traumatic and thermal injuries." While the coroner did not elaborate, thermal injuries are heat-related and are commonly burns.
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| Newtown 911 calls show calm response Posted: 04 Dec 2013 09:26 AM PST  Tapes released today in response to legal challenge.
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| Dozens of whales beached in Florida's Everglades, 10 die Posted: 04 Dec 2013 01:36 PM PST  By Jane Sutton MIAMI (Reuters) - Ten whales have died and rescuers were trying to save dozens more that beached in Everglades National Park in southwest Florida, park and wildlife officials said on Wednesday. Wildlife officers euthanized four whales because they could not be saved, the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration, or NOAA, said. NOAA said via Twitter that survival rates were typically low in such instances. The whales were first sighted on Tuesday afternoon in a remote part of the park near the Gulf of Mexico, park spokeswoman Linda Friar said.
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| Woman drives 'Liberty Van' 5,000 miles to fight ticket, wins Posted: 04 Dec 2013 06:42 AM PST  A 56-year-old grandmother drove from Kentucky to New Jersey several times in order to fight a $56 traffic ticket over her so-called "Liberty Van." Good news for the woman: She won.
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| Mexico finds stolen radioactive material outside box Posted: 04 Dec 2013 04:32 PM PST  The vehicle was transporting a "teletherapy source" containing cobalt-60 from a hospital.
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| A drop in the bucket? Christie's appraises Detroit's art Posted: 04 Dec 2013 02:33 PM PST  By Joseph Lichterman DETROIT (Reuters) - The auction house Christie's put a price tag on one of Detroit's highest-profile city assets, its share of the Detroit Institute of Arts collection, stating that nearly 3,000 works controlled by the city are worth between $452 million and $866 million. The finding by Christie's, hired to place a value on art treasures that could become a contested element of the Detroit bankruptcy, puts a range of value on 2,781 works owned or partially owned by the city. The holdings represent only about 5 percent of the DIA's full collection, but with the finding Tuesday that Detroit is bankrupt under Chapter 9 of the federal bankruptcy code, it is possible the city may seek to monetize some of the artwork. Detroit emergency manager Kevyn Orr retained Christie's in August to appraise city-owned works as part of Detroit's bankruptcy case.
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| 'Dangerous' radioactive material stolen in Mexico truck: IAEA Posted: 04 Dec 2013 03:30 AM PST  Thieves have made off with a truck in Mexico carrying a dangerous radioactive material used in medical treatments, the United Nations nuclear watchdog said on Wednesday. The International Atomic Energy Agency, the Vienna-based U.N. nuclear body, did not give details on how much of the radioactive source, cobalt-60, was in the truck at the time. Cobalt-60 can potentially also be used to make a so-called "dirty bomb", where conventional explosives are used to disperse radiation from a radioactive source. But the IAEA made no mention of this in its statement.
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| Celebrity chef Nigella Lawson admits cocaine use Posted: 04 Dec 2013 12:00 PM PST  LONDON (AP) — Celebrity chef Nigella Lawson admitted in court Wednesday that she had taken cocaine, but denied being a habitual user. She accused her ex-husband of trying to "destroy" her, during a lacerating day of testimony that laid bare a materially affluent but deeply troubled marriage.
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| Afghanistan won't sign U.S. pact unless Karzai's demands met - spokesman Posted: 04 Dec 2013 06:32 AM PST  Karazi is demanding the United States end U.S. raids on Afghan homes.
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| 'The Car Poolers' documents Mexican workers doing what it takes to get by Posted: 04 Dec 2013 06:31 AM PST  Photographer Alejandro Cartagena offers a new perspective on how some workers commute to their jobs in Monterrey, Mexico
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| Feds blast NY railroad in wake of fatal derailment Posted: 04 Dec 2013 06:05 AM PST YONKERS, N.Y. (AP) — The head of the Federal Railroad Administration is blasting a New York railroad following a derailment that killed four people and injured more than 60. |
| Cold snap felt across western half of nation Posted: 04 Dec 2013 02:34 AM PST  Frigid temps prompt safety warnings in the Rockies and threaten crops in California.
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| News from North Korea, but is it true? Posted: 04 Dec 2013 03:24 AM PST  SEOUL, South Korea (AP) — It's intriguing news: the claim by South Korea's spy agency that North Korean leader Kim Jong Un probably sacked the country's second-most-powerful official — his uncle. But the first question is, is it true?
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| Mandela putting up 'courageous fight' Posted: 04 Dec 2013 06:21 AM PST  JOHANNESBURG (AP) — Ailing former South African President Nelson Mandela is not "doing well" but is continuing to put up a courageous fight from his "deathbed," members of his family have told the South African Broadcasting Corporation in an interview.
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| Lawyer: Engineer had 'daze' before deadly crash Posted: 03 Dec 2013 11:37 PM PST  The engineer nodded at the controls before realizing something was wrong and hitting the brakes, a lawyer said.
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