| Chicago officer pleads not guilty to murder charges Posted: 29 Dec 2015 12:47 PM PST  CHICAGO (AP) — A white Chicago police officer charged with murder in the 2014 fatal shooting of black teenager Laquan McDonald pleaded not guilty Tuesday.
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| The NSA spied on Israeli prime minister during Iran talks, says WSJ Posted: 29 Dec 2015 03:25 PM PST  In 2014, Washington was buzzing over a controversial new nuclear agreement between the US and Iran — but the negotiations may have kept America's spy agencies busy as well. A new report in The Wall Street Journal claims the negotiation process saw sustained efforts by the National Security Agency to monitor the communications of Israeli prime minister Benjamin Netanyahu, particularly once he came to Washington to lobby Congress to oppose the deal. The Journal had previously reported on Israel's own efforts to spy on the closed door talks.
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| Officials: 'Affluenza' teen, mother planned flight to Mexico Posted: 29 Dec 2015 04:34 PM PST  FORT WORTH, Texas (AP) — A teen fugitive who's known for using an "affluenza" defense and his mother attempted to disguise themselves and disappear among the American tourists thronging a Mexican resort city for the holidays, but are now in custody and will be returned to the U.S. after a cellphone used to order pizza gave away their location, authorities said Tuesday.
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| IS leader linked to Paris attacks 'mastermind' killed in Syria Posted: 29 Dec 2015 02:53 PM PST  An Islamic State leader with "direct" ties to the alleged mastermind of the Paris attacks was among 10 of the group's higher-ups killed in Syria and Iraq this month, the Pentagon said Tuesday. The US military says such strikes are helping to weaken the jihadist group, which captured large parts of Iraq and Syria last year but has recently seen significant setbacks including this week's loss of Ramadi in Iraq. Baghdad-based US military spokesman Colonel Steve Warren said French national Charaffe el Mouadan was killed in a US-led coalition strike on December 24.
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| Texas 'affluenza' teen to be returned to U.S. from Mexico after capture Posted: 29 Dec 2015 09:27 AM PST  FORT WORTH, Texas/MEXICO CITY (Reuters) - A wealthy Texas teen who had been a fugitive after breaking his probation sentence for killing four people while driving drunk, was likely to be returned to the United States later on Tuesday after being caught in Mexico, Mexican authorities said. Ethan Couch, 18, and his mother, Tonya Couch, were taken into custody on Monday evening in the Pacific Ocean resort of Puerto Vallarta. Couch became known in the United States as the "affluenza" teen during his trial in juvenile court over the 2013 deaths, when a psychologist said he was so wealthy and spoiled he could not tell the difference between right and wrong.
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| Severe floods hit Missouri as U.S. storms sweep north Posted: 29 Dec 2015 04:36 PM PST  By Kevin Murphy and Mary Wisniewski KANSAS CITY, Mo./CHICAGO (Reuters) - Missouri residents struggled through a fourth straight day of storms on Tuesday, fighting rising floodwaters that inundated homes, forced evacuations and closed highways and even part of the Mississippi River. Missouri has been pounded by downpours since Saturday, and forecasters warned that its major rivers were still days away from cresting at record levels. At the confluence of the Mississippi and Missouri rivers, about 20 miles (32 km) north of St. Louis, residents of the small cities of West Alton and Arnold were told to evacuate on Tuesday due to rising waters.
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| Chicago officer who shot black teen pleads not guilty to murder Posted: 29 Dec 2015 02:53 PM PST  The Chicago police officer who shot a black teenager last year pleaded not guilty to murder on Tuesday, as Mayor Rahm Emanuel cut short a vacation to return to the city to deal with the fallout from two more fatal police shootings over the weekend. Meanwhile, protesters demonstrated outside the Cuyahoga County prosecutor's office in Cleveland, a day after a grand jury decided not to charge two white police officers in the 2014 shooting death of Tamir Rice, a black 12-year-old boy who was playing in a park with a replica gun that shoots plastic pellets. Tensions over race and policing in Chicago and Cleveland come amid intense scrutiny of police killings in the United States over the past 18 months, especially of black men.
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| Trump campaign reportedly planning ‘major’ TV ad blitz Posted: 28 Dec 2015 06:53 PM PST  Donald Trump has received plenty of free publicity from the media for his 2016 presidential bid, but the Republican frontrunner's campaign is reportedly about to open the billionaire's war chest for a major TV ad blitz to bolster his candidacy ahead of the Iowa caucuses.
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