| Hezbollah: we don't want war with Israel but do not fear it Posted: 30 Jan 2015 10:20 AM PST  Hezbollah says it has the right to respond to Israeli attacks any time, anywhere.
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| Ukraine rebels vow to push offensive if talks fail Posted: 30 Jan 2015 10:14 AM PST  Pro-Russian separatists say they will push their latest offensive in eastern Ukraine further.
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| Mitt Romney says he will not make 2016 White House bid Posted: 30 Jan 2015 07:48 AM PST  The 2012 GOP nominee announced he won't make a third bid for the presidency.
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| Qaeda group launches assault on Western-backed Syria rebels Posted: 30 Jan 2015 08:46 AM PST  Al-Qaeda's affiliate in Syria battled Western-backed rebels Friday as the jihadists pressed their bid to seize control of northern areas, a monitoring group and rebels said. The fighting comes nearly three months after Al-Nusra Front expelled another group of Western-backed opposition fighters from Idlib province. The Syrian Observatory for Human Rights said the jihadists launched their offensive against the Western-armed Hazem movement on Thursday in Aleppo province. "The jihadists expelled the rebels from Regiment 111, once a regime army base that Hazem had taken over," Observatory director Rami Abdel Rahman told AFP.
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| Dartmouth College bans hard liquor Posted: 29 Jan 2015 12:54 PM PST On Thursday, school President Philip Hanlon announced that starting March 30, all students, regardless of age, will be prohibited from possessing hard alcohol on campus. The school's Greek societies have also been warned that they need to improve their behavior or risk being banned. The White House says the behavior has led to an "epidemic" of sexual assault on school campuses. According to the National Institute of Alcohol Abuse and Alcoholism, 1,825 college students between the ages of 18 and 24 die each year from alcohol-related unintentional injuries and 97,000 students are victims of alcohol-related sexual assault or date rape. |
| Florida prosecutor drops case against Zimmerman Posted: 30 Jan 2015 09:05 AM PST  By Barbara Liston ORLANDO, Fla. (Reuters) - A Florida prosecutor announced on Friday he will not pursue an aggravated assault charge against former neighborhood watchman George Zimmerman stemming from a domestic incident earlier this month after the alleged victim recanted. Zimmerman, who was acquitted in 2013 in a fatal shooting of an unarmed black teenager, has had several brushes with the law since his trial. His latest arrest on Jan. 9 in central Florida was in connection with a domestic disturbance involving his then-girlfriend who had accused him of throwing a wine bottle at her and smashing her cell phone during an argument. Zimmerman claimed he acted in self-defense when he shot and killed Trayvon Martin, 17, in February 2012, when he was patrolling as a neighborhood watch volunteer.
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| 'Suge' Knight arrested for murder Posted:  'Suge' Knight faces murder charges
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| Jordan awaits proof hostage is alive after swap deadline Posted: 30 Jan 2015 12:15 PM PST  Families of a Japanese journalist and Jordanian military pilot remained in limbo.
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| Is Mitt Romney running for president? Posted: 30 Jan 2015 01:44 PM PST Romney will update supporters today about his plans for 2016. |
| Obama calls for spending surge, buoyed by rising economy Posted: 29 Jan 2015 07:28 PM PST  WASHINGTON (AP) — Declaring an end to "mindless austerity," President Barack Obama called for a surge in government spending Thursday, and asked Congress to throw out the sweeping budget cuts both parties agreed to four years ago when deficits were spiraling out of control.
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| Suge Knight arrested on murder charge Posted: 30 Jan 2015 04:27 PM PST  LOS ANGELES (AP) — Marion "Suge" Knight, the impresario of gangster rap, has long been a perpetrator and victim of the violent life he promoted in song.
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| Defense in Etan Patz murder trial in New York attacks confession Posted: 30 Jan 2015 02:57 PM PST  By Natasja Sheriff NEW YORK (Reuters) - Mental illness sparked a false confession by the accused killer of Etan Patz and the real suspect in the 1979 disappearance of the boy in New York City is another man - a convicted child molester - a defense attorney told the jury on Friday. In his opening statement at the murder trial of Pedro Hernandez, the attorney said investigations both immediately after the boy vanished on May 25, 1979 and later in 2012 turned up nothing to connect the former delicatessen worker to the crime, except his own words in a 2012 confession to police. "He cannot distinguish between what is real and what is not," defense attorney Harvey Fishbein told the jury in a state court in Manhattan. Massive publicity surrounded the 6-year-old boy's disappearance while walking alone to a school bus stop for the first time in New York's Soho neighborhood, sparking a national movement to find missing children.
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| Obama, Dalai Lama due to attend U.S. prayer event February 5 Posted: 30 Jan 2015 03:25 PM PST  By David Brunnstrom WASHINGTON (Reuters) - U.S. President Barack Obama and the Dalai Lama are scheduled to attend the U.S. National Prayer Breakfast in Washington next week, but it was unclear if they will have a private meeting like one last year that angered Beijing. The White House said Obama would deliver remarks at the Feb. 5 event about the importance of upholding religious freedom, and that the organizers had also invited the Dalai Lama. Asked if there was any plan for a private meeting with the Dalai Lama, White House spokeswoman Bernadette Meehan said: "As he has done in the past, the President will see many religious leaders at the event, but we don't have any specific meeting with the Dalai Lama to announce." White House deputy spokesman Patrick Ventrell said the president had "a great relationship with the Dalai Lama." "They have met three times, including just last February.
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| 'Peace between us,' Raul Castro says of U.S. ties Posted: 29 Jan 2015 06:05 PM PST  Cuban President Raul Castro gave an endorsement to peace between the United States and his communist country, with the two nations in talks to restore ties after decades of animosity. Asked by a journalist at a summit of Latin American and Caribbean states what he would most like to see after the US economic embargo of Cuba is lifted, Castro barked: "Peace, peace between us, peace between the United States and us. Castro first said he would have to consider the question because the end of the economic embargo may be a long way away. US and Cuban diplomats met last week in Havana in landmark talks aimed at renewing ties that broke off in 1961.
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| Texas lawmaker under fire for divisive Facebook post Posted: 29 Jan 2015 12:11 PM PST  A newly-elected Texas state lawmaker is under fire for a divisive Facebook post asking Muslim visitors to an event at the state capitol in Austin to pledge allegiance to the United States.
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