| Thousands seek refuge at Central African airport Posted: 06 Dec 2013 02:37 PM PST  BANGUI, Central African Republic (AP) — Thousands of Christian civilians sought refuge at an airport guarded by French soldiers Friday, fleeing from the mostly Muslim ex-rebels with machetes and guns who rule the country a day after the worst violence to hit the chaotic capital in nine months.
|
| 6 detained in Mexico theft of radioactive material Posted: 06 Dec 2013 03:13 PM PST  MEXICO CITY (AP) — Six people being tested for possible radiation exposure in a hospital in central Mexico are suspects in the theft of highly radioactive cobalt-60, a government official said Friday.
|
| Obama, Bush, Clinton to travel to South Africa Posted: 06 Dec 2013 04:46 PM PST  WASHINGTON (AP) — At least three American presidents will travel to South Africa to attend memorial services for anti-apartheid icon Nelson Mandela, who died Thursday at age 95.
|
| Icy storm slams Southwest, shuts down North Texas Posted: 06 Dec 2013 04:52 PM PST  DALLAS (AP) — Freezing rain and stinging winds slammed the Southwest Friday and made a strangely blank landscape out of normally sun-drenched North Texas: mostly empty highways covered in a sometimes impassable frost, closed schools and businesses, and millions of residents hunkered down for icy conditions expected to last through the weekend.
|
| New consumer tips for Obama's fixer-upper website Posted: 06 Dec 2013 03:06 PM PST  WASHINGTON (AP) — It doesn't rival Amazon and Travelocity, but President Barack Obama's much-maligned health insurance website finally seems to be working reasonably well most of the time.
|
| Dylan's electric guitar sells for nearly $1M Posted: 06 Dec 2013 03:27 PM PST  NEW YORK (AP) — Like Elvis' no-hips-allowed appearance on "The Ed Sullivan Show," or the Beatles' arrival in America, or Woodstock, it is considered one of the milestone moments in rock history: Bob Dylan going electric at the 1965 Newport Folk Festival.
|
| AP PHOTOS: Mandela remembered around the world Posted: 06 Dec 2013 12:59 PM PST  Mourners sing and dance outside Nelson Mandela's old house in Johannesburg. In Pakistan, children gather around his portrait holding candles. Well-wishers leave flowers outside South African diplomatic missions in Beijing and New York.
|
| Defending champion Spain gets repeat of 2010 final Posted: 06 Dec 2013 01:43 PM PST  COSTA DO SAUIPE, Brazil (AP) — One of the worst finals in World Cup history — Spain vs. the Netherlands — will be reprised in one of the first games of the 2014 edition.
|
| Cargo bikes the new minivan for cycling families Posted: 06 Dec 2013 03:17 PM PST  SEATTLE (AP) — One fisherman uses a bike to deliver hundreds of pounds of salmon to local markets. A mom who regularly shuttles her two kids around town once tried to haul a twin mattress home. And some companies are using the bikes to deliver beer kegs or pick up recycling.
|
| Solid US job growth cuts unemployment to 7 pct. Posted: 06 Dec 2013 12:14 PM PST  WASHINGTON (AP) — The U.S. job market has been recovering fitfully for three years. Now, it's starting to show consistency.
|
| Report: Central African death toll up to 280 Posted: 06 Dec 2013 01:16 PM PST BANGUI, Central African Republic (AP) — Christian civilians fled by the thousands to the airport guarded by French forces in this chaotic capital Friday as the mostly Muslim armed fighters who have ruled the country since March hunted door-to-door for their enemies and the death toll from inter-communal violence increased to 280 people. |
| Icy winter storm shuts down North Texas Posted: 06 Dec 2013 12:34 PM PST DALLAS (AP) — Freezing rain and stinging winds slammed the Southwest Friday and made a strangely blank landscape out of normally sun-drenched North Texas: mostly empty highways covered in a sometimes impassable frost, closed schools and businesses, and millions of residents hunkered down for icy conditions expected to last through the weekend. |
| Yemen: Saudis among Defense Ministry attackers Posted: 06 Dec 2013 11:43 AM PST  ADEN, Yemen (AP) — Yemeni military investigators say 12 militants, mostly Saudi nationals, were responsible for a brazen attack on the Defense Ministry's complex in the capital.
|
| Mourned Mandela to be buried Dec. 15 Posted: 06 Dec 2013 02:03 PM PST  Some worry the nation is vulnerable again to racial, social tensions.
|
| Massive storm snarls highways, grounds thousands of flights Posted: 06 Dec 2013 01:32 PM PST  The National Weather Service has issued ice and winter storm advisories for more than a dozen states. Oklahoma, Arkansas and Tennessee have already declared states of emergency. Snow, ice and freezing rain are moving to the Northeast.
|
| President Obama lights National Christmas Tree Posted: 06 Dec 2013 03:59 PM PST  President Barack Obama and his family have flipped the switch for the 90th annual lighting of the National Christmas Tree.
|
| Photos: Johannesburg honors Nelson Mandela Posted: 06 Dec 2013 03:00 AM PST  Large crowds gather outside former South African President Nelson Mandela home on Vilakazi Street in Soweto to celebrate his life on December 6, 2013. Johannesburg, South Africa on December 6, 2013. (Photo by Charlie Shoemaker/Getty Images for Yahoo News) |
| Mexico hospitalizes six suspected of stealing radioactive material Posted: 06 Dec 2013 03:42 PM PST  By Miguel Gutierrez MEXICO CITY (Reuters) - Six men suspected of stealing a dangerous radioactive cargo from a truck outside Mexico City earlier this week have been treated in a hospital for signs of radiation exposure and remain under police guard, officials said on Friday. On Monday, thieves hijacked the truck that had been carrying cobalt-60, a radioactive substance used for medical and industrial applications that can also be used as an ingredient in a "dirty bomb." Police located the truck on Wednesday but found that the robbers had removed the radioactive material from a protective case, exposing themselves to dangerous levels of radiation, before dumping it less than a mile away. Pedro Noble, the health secretary of the state of Hidalgo, told local television the men showed signs of "critical, close contact" with radioactive material. The truck, which was taking the material from a hospital in the northern city of Tijuana to a radioactive waste-storage center, was seized when its driver stopped at a gas station in the town of Temascalapa, 35 km (22 miles) northeast of Mexico City.
|
| Travelers left behind $531,395.22 at U.S. airports in 2012 Posted: 06 Dec 2013 11:13 AM PST  Travelers left behind a record $531,395.22 in loose change at security checkpoints in US airports in fiscal 2012, the Transportation Security Administration says. In a report to Congress, seen by the Washington Post, the TSA said more than $10,000 in change was forgotten at each of 13 major airports in such cities as New York, Dallas, Atlanta and San Francisco. Passengers at Miami International Airport, a prime gateway for Latin American travellers, left $39,613, more than at any other airport. Under US law, the TSA -- with a $7.6 billion budget for the fiscal 2012 year that ended September 30 -- is supposed to spend any loose change it finds on civil aviation security.
|
| Supreme Court will decide if software can be patented Posted: 06 Dec 2013 12:29 PM PST  The Supreme Court agreed on Friday to rule on the divisive issue of what kinds of software are eligible for patent protection in a case being closely watched by the technology industry. The court said in a one-line order that it would hear a case brought by Alice Corporation Pty Ltd, which holds a patent for a computer system that facilitates financial transactions. The deep interest that the software industry and patent experts have in what is a threshold issue in patent litigation was underscored by the number of companies and industry groups that asked the court to decide the issue. Companies including Google Inc, Hewlett-Packard Co, Facebook Inc and Netflix Inc had already signaled their interest in the issue by asking the court to hear the WildTangent case.
|
| Scientists to Congress: We can find alien life Posted: 06 Dec 2013 03:09 AM PST  To find extraterrestrial life, be it microbes or intelligent life, scientists need telescopes capable of detecting Earth-like planets in Earth's neighborhood and ways to detect biological signatures of life or signs of alien technology. "This is the first time in human history we have the technological reach to find life on other planets," Sara Seager, a planetary scientist at MIT, said at a House Committee on Science, Space and Technology hearing today. "Astrobiology has become a crosscutting theme of all NASA space science endeavors," and continued funding is important, said Congresswoman Eddie Bernice Johnson (D., Texas). The Kepler mission has identified more than 3,500 potential planets outside Earth's solar system, including 10 that are Earth-size and lie within their star's habitable zone.
|
| U.S. draw 'group of death' in World Cup: Germany, Ghana, Portugal Posted: |
| Mandela, anti-apartheid icon, mourned world over Posted: 06 Dec 2013 04:07 AM PST  Nelson Mandela inspired and challenged the world to stand up for others.
|
| In the name of wind energy, U.S. allows killing eagles Posted: 06 Dec 2013 12:21 PM PST  WASHINGTON (AP) — The Obama administration said Friday it will allow some companies to kill or injure bald and golden eagles for up to 30 years without penalty, an effort to spur development and investment in green energy while balancing its environmental consequences.
|
| Photographs: Shanghai pollution stops flights, forces health warning Posted: 04 Dec 2013 12:00 PM PST  An electronic screen and buildings are seen amid heavy smog at the financial district of Pudong in Shanghai December 6, 2013. China's stability-obsessed leadership has become increasingly concerned by the abysmal air quality in cities, as it plays into popular resentment over political privilege and rising inequality in the world's second-largest economy. REUTERS/Aly Song (CHINA - Tags: POLITICS ENVIRONMENT CITYSCAPE SOCIETY) |
| Unemployment rate hits five-year low, eyes on the Fed Posted: 06 Dec 2013 03:07 PM PST  The report, which showed broad gains in employment and a rise in hourly earnings, suggested strength in the economy heading into year-end. "It will add further confidence to the Fed of a reduced need for monetary stimulus in the U.S. economy. The unemployment rate dropped three tenths of a percentage point to its lowest level since November 2008 as some federal employees who were counted as jobless in October returned to work after a 16-day partial shutdown of the government.
|
| Aide of Kim's uncle seeks asylum in S. Korea: report Posted: 06 Dec 2013 03:32 AM PST  An aide of North Korean leader Kim Jong-Un's uncle is seeking asylum in South Korea after fleeing his country ahead of a leadership purge, a report said Friday. South Korean officials believe the escapee might have managed funds for Jang Song-Thaek, who until this week was regarded as Kim's political regent, said the South's cable news network YTN, citing intelligence sources. The report also said he may have information on secret funds controlled by the Kim family. The South's National Intelligence Service (NIS) told a parliamentary committee Tuesday that it believed Kim's uncle Jang had been removed and two associates executed.
|
| Mandela, the man once branded a 'terrorist' by the US Posted: 06 Dec 2013 02:41 AM PST  In 2008 just before his 90th birthday, the United States gave Nelson Mandela a special present, striking him from a decades-old terror watch list and ending what US officials called "a rather embarrassing matter." By then the anti-apartheid icon had long left behind the jail cells where he was incarcerated for 27 years, and was already enjoying retirement and his status as one of the most revered statesmen of the 20th century after becoming South Africa's first black president. On Thursday, when Mandela died at age 95, President Barack Obama hailed him as belonging "to the ages" and ordered that flags on US government buildings be flown at half-mast -- a rare tribute to a foreign leader. Yet decades ago many in America did not share in the adulation of Mandela and his African National Congress (ANC), which had been billed a terrorist organization by both South Africa and the United States.
|
| South Africa mourns Mandela, will bury him on December 15 Posted: 06 Dec 2013 01:26 PM PST By Tosin Sulaiman and Peroshni Govender JOHANNESBURG (Reuters) - South Africans united in mourning for Nelson Mandela on Friday, but while some celebrated his remarkable life with dance and song, others fretted that the anti-apartheid hero's death would leave the nation vulnerable again to racial and social tensions. President Jacob Zuma said Mandela would be buried on December 15 at his ancestral home in the Eastern Cape. South Africans heard from Zuma late on Thursday that their first black president, a Nobel Peace Prize winner, had died peacefully at his Johannesburg home in the company of his family after a long illness. Zuma also announced Mandela would be honored at a December 10 memorial service at Johannesburg's Soccer City stadium, the site of the 2010 World Cup final. |
| World reacts to death of Nelson Mandela Posted: 05 Dec 2013 10:00 PM PST  A woman offers flowers outside the house of former President Nelson Mandela in Johannesburg December 6, 2013. South African anti-apartheid hero Mandela died peacefully at home in Johannesburg at the age of 95 on Thursday after months fighting a lung infection, leaving his nation and the world in mourning for a man revered as a moral giant. REUTERS/Mujahid Safodien (SOUTH AFRICA - Tags: OBITUARY POLITICS SOCIETY TPX IMAGES OF THE DAY) |
| Hillary or Biden? They’d both be great, Obama says Posted: 05 Dec 2013 05:51 PM PST  There may come a day when President Barack Obama has to say whether he'd rather hand the keys to the White House to Vice President Joe Biden or former secretary of state Hillary Clinton. That day is not today.
|
