| Iraq: IS leader wounded in airstrike Posted: 09 Nov 2014 02:51 PM PST  Abu Bakr al-Baghdadi was hurt in airstrikes carried out by Iraqi forces.
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| Alaska storm brings frigid weather to swath of US Posted: 09 Nov 2014 02:43 PM PST  A massive storm fueled by the remnants of Typhoon Nuri did not do much damage in Alaska's sparsely populated Aleutian Islands, but forecasters say it's anchoring a system that will push a frigid blast of air into the mainland United States and send temperatures plunging early this week.
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| Syria rebels, Qaeda capture key southern town: monitor Posted: 09 Nov 2014 01:00 PM PST  Syrian rebels and Al-Qaeda seized the southern town of Nawa Sunday from troops loyal to President Bashar al-Assad after months of intense fighting, the Syrian Observatory for Human Rights said.
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| Obama defends plan to act on immigration: CBS interview Posted: 09 Nov 2014 09:54 AM PST  WASHINGTON (Reuters) - U.S. President Barack Obama defended his plan to use executive powers to implement some immigration reforms, saying in an interview broadcast on Sunday he had waited long enough for Congress to act. Obama told congressional leaders on Friday he would try to ease some restrictions on undocumented immigrants, despite warnings from Republican leaders that such actions would "poison the well" or would be "a red flag in front of a bull". The meeting came after Obama's Democratic Party was punished in midterm elections on Tuesday. Republicans seized the U.S. ...
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| U.S. officials hope new HealthCare.gov avoids last year's problems Posted: 09 Nov 2014 12:57 PM PST  By Howard Schneider WASHINGTON (Reuters) - U.S. officials planned to unveil an improved healthcare insurance website on Sunday they hope will allow the second enrollment period under President Barack Obama's health reform plan to avoid the technical meltdown that plagued its launch last year. The reconfigured HealthCare.gov insurance marketplace will go live Sunday night before a three-month open enrollment period that begins Nov. 15, during which existing policyholders can change their coverage. ...
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| Two Americans freed by North Korea return to U.S. soil Posted: 09 Nov 2014 12:23 AM PST  By Bill Rigby TACOMA Washington (Reuters) - Two Americans freed from secretive North Korea stepped off a plane into the welcoming arms of family on Saturday after the surprise involvement of the top-ranking U.S. intelligence official who traveled to Pyongyang to bring them home. Kenneth Bae and Matthew Todd Miller, who had been doing hard labor for months in North Korea, were accompanied on their journey home by Director of National Intelligence James Clapper, a senior U.S. official said. Their release comes less than three weeks after another American was freed by Pyongyang. ...
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| Catalan volunteers labour to make breakaway vote count Posted: 09 Nov 2014 11:45 AM PST  With see-through ballot boxes and dozens of electoral workers milling around, the Maristas school in Barcelona is a polling station like any other, with one difference: this vote is forbidden. In other respects, the volunteers at this school near the city's iconic Sagrada Familia Cathedral -- along with 40,000 others across the region -- are doing things by the book. Spain's government mounted legal challenges to Catalonia's independence vote on Sunday, putting the volunteers running the 6,700 polling stations in a delicate spot.
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| Vivid memories of 'pure joy' on Berlin Wall anniversary Posted: 09 Nov 2014 10:27 AM PST  Huddled in wintry weather for a giant street party at the Brandenburg Gate, visitors prepared for the evening's highlight of nearly 7,000 illuminated white balloons along the Wall's former route ascending into the night sky.
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| Ukraine rebels bolster frontline as shelling rocks stronghold Posted: 09 Nov 2014 10:38 AM PST  Armoured convoys headed to bolster rebel positions in east Ukraine Sunday as shelling rocked separatist stronghold Donetsk and fears mounted of a return to full-scale fighting. Shelling rumbled on throughout the afternoon on the edge of Donetsk, where government forces regularly exchange heavy fire with insurgent fighters, but was less intense than overnight when mortar fire was heard close to the centre for around two hours, an AFP journalist reported.
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| Thousands of balloons rise to sky to fete Berlin Wall fall Posted: 09 Nov 2014 12:43 PM PST  German Chancellor Angela Merkel said Sunday that the fall of the Berlin Wall 25 years ago was a message to a conflict-torn world that "dreams can come true".
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| Ebola nurse to remain a voice against quarantines Posted: 09 Nov 2014 07:25 AM PST  The Maine nurse who defied quarantine attempts after treating Ebola patients in West Africa is looking forward to stepping out her front door - "like normal people."
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| Queen Elizabeth II leads UK memorial ceremony Posted: 09 Nov 2014 09:04 AM PST  Queen Elizabeth II honored fallen soldiers from Britain and the Commonwealth Sunday in a dignified ceremony at the heart of central London.
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| Last 2 U.S. captives in North Korea return home Posted: 09 Nov 2014 02:39 PM PST  Analysts their release probably was a bid by Pyongyang to ease pressure in connection with its human rights record.
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| Iraq investigating IS chief's fate after air strikes Posted: 09 Nov 2014 07:24 AM PST  Iraq was on Sunday investigating whether Islamic State jihadist group chief Abu Bakr al-Baghdadi was killed in air strikes by US-led coalition warplanes targeting the group's leaders. The death of the elusive Baghdadi would be a major victory for the coalition of countries carrying out air strikes against IS and providing assistance to Iraqi forces fighting to regain large areas of Iraq that the jihadists have overrun. The announcement of the strikes came after President Barack Obama unveiled plans to send up to 1,500 more US troops to Iraq to advise and train the country's forces, deepening Washington's commitment to the open-ended war against IS.
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| Lynch called civil rights defender Posted: 08 Nov 2014 05:57 PM PST  Obama's choice for attorney general has history of prosecuting police misconduct.
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| Gorbachev says world is on brink of new Cold War Posted: 08 Nov 2014 11:03 AM PST  By Bettina Borgfeld BERLIN (Reuters) - Former Soviet leader Mikhail Gorbachev warned in a speech in Berlin on Saturday that East-West tensions over the Ukraine crisis were threatening to push the world into a new Cold War, 25 years after the fall of the Berlin Wall. Gorbachev, who is credited with forging a rapprochement with the West that led to the demise of communist regimes across Eastern Europe, accused the West, and the United States in particular, of not fulfilling their promises after 1989. "The world is on the brink of a new Cold War. ...
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