Monday, December 31, 2012

"Fiscal cliff" deal reached between White House, lawmakers: source

"Fiscal cliff" deal reached between White House, lawmakers: source

"Fiscal cliff" deal reached between White House, lawmakers: source

Posted: 31 Dec 2012 06:42 PM PST

Man walks past the U.S. Capitol Building in WashingtonWASHINGTON (Reuters) - The White House and congressional lawmakers have reached a deal to avoid the "fiscal cliff" that would delay harsh spending cuts by two months, Obama administration officials said on Monday. President Barack Obama called Democratic Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid and House of Representatives Minority Leader Nancy Pelosi, who both signed off on the deal, one source said. The agreement includes a balance of spending cuts and revenue increases to pay for the delay in the automatic spending cuts that would go into effect without a deal by lawmakers. ...

U.S. House aims to split Sandy aid bill into two parts

Posted: 31 Dec 2012 06:37 PM PST

A destroyed ocean-front home is seen in the Ortley Beach area of Toms River, NJWASHINGTON (Reuters) - The U.S. House of Representatives is expected to split a $60.4 billion Superstorm Sandy disaster aid bill into two parts, staging votes on $27 billion to fund immediate recovery needs and $33 billion for long-term and other projects, Republican lawmakers and aides said on Monday. The plan for votes on Tuesday or Wednesday would meet the demands of many Republican lawmakers to vote on a smaller initial package of aid for victims of the October 29 storm that devastated New York and New Jersey coastlines. ...

Sour end to 2012 masks positive trends in America

Posted: 31 Dec 2012 05:53 PM PST

Fireworks explode over Times Square as the crystal ball is hoisted in New YorkCHICAGO (Reuters) - Many Americans seem to be in a sour mood as 2013 begins, after Hurricane Sandy ravaged parts of the East Coast, a gunman massacred 20 school children in Connecticut and a long, contentious election campaign was followed by failure to resolve the "fiscal cliff" issue by year-end. Americans have not been very optimistic since the Great Recession of 2008-2009, but the gloom had begun to lift this year until the blast of bad news as 2012 ended, IPSOS pollster Cliff Young said on Monday. IPSOS polling showed that some angst set in as the year ended. ...

State Department made "grievous mistake" over Benghazi: Senate report

Posted: 31 Dec 2012 10:23 AM PST

The U.S. Consulate in Benghazi is seen in flames during a protestWASHINGTON (Reuters) - The State Department made a "grievous mistake" in keeping the U.S. mission in Benghazi open despite inadequate security and increasingly alarming threat assessments in the weeks before a deadly attack by militants, a Senate committee said on Monday. A report from the Senate Homeland Security Committee on the September 11 attacks on the U.S. mission and a nearby CIA annex, in which the U.S. ambassador to Libya and three other Americans died, faulted intelligence agencies for not focusing tightly enough on Libyan extremists. ...

Clinton suffers clot behind right ear, full recovery seen

Posted: 31 Dec 2012 05:39 PM PST

File photo of U.S. Secretary of State Clinton delivering a speech at Dublin City University in IrelandWASHINGTON/NEW YORK (Reuters) - U.S. Secretary of State Hillary Clinton suffered a blood clot in a vein between her brain and skull behind her right ear but is expected to make a full recovery, her doctors said on Monday in a statement released by the State Department. Clinton did not suffer a stroke or neurological damage as a result of the clot, the doctors said, adding that "she is in good spirits, engaging with her doctors, her family and her staff." The U.S. ...

2012 marred by U.S. mass shooting casualties

Posted: 31 Dec 2012 04:06 PM PST

Woman holds a child next to a makeshift memorial for victims who died in the December 14 shootings at Sandy Hook Elementary School, in Newtown, ConnecticutMILWAUKEE (Reuters) - A single bullet hole. Surrounded by peeling orange paint. Marked by a small plaque inscribed with "We Are One" and "8-5-12." While diminutive, it is a powerful reminder to those who come now to pray here of the carnage that descended on this Sikh temple nearly five months ago. A white supremacist went on a rampage, killing six worshipers and wounding four, including a police officer, before being shot by police and then taking his own life. "We left one bullet hole to remember them ... ...

Federal safety team joins probe of fatal Oregon bus crash

Posted: 31 Dec 2012 05:40 PM PST

Tow truck operators work on wrecked tour bus in OregonPENDLETON, Oregon (Reuters) - Federal safety investigators joined Oregon state police on Monday in trying to find out what caused a tour bus to veer off a mountain highway and plunge down a snow-covered slope, killing nine passengers and injuring 39 others. The charter bus was carrying nearly 50 people, about two dozen of them holding foreign passports, through the Blue Mountains of northern Oregon en route from Las Vegas to Vancouver, British Columbia, when it crashed through a guard rail on Interstate 84 shortly after 10 a.m. on Sunday, authorities said. ...

Revelers gather in NY's frigid Times Square on New Year's Eve

Posted: 31 Dec 2012 03:57 PM PST

Revellers begin to fill up Times Square for New Year's celebrations in New YorkNEW YORK (Reuters) - Revelers gathered hours ahead of midnight in New York's frigid Times Square on Monday for the traditional New Year's Eve celebration that ends with the descent of a huge crystal ball at the stroke of midnight. Up to a million people were expected in the blocks around Times Square, and another billion people were expected to watch on television, city officials said. People filled pens in the center of Times Square hours before the end of 2012. Police set up barricades to keep away the overflow crowd. ...

Maryland ushers in New Year with its first gay weddings

Posted: 31 Dec 2012 04:08 PM PST

BALTIMORE (Reuters) - Wedding bells were set to ring in the New Year for seven gay couples in Maryland early on Tuesday, the first wave of nuptials since voters in the state backed the legalization of same-sex marriage. Baltimore Mayor Stephanie Rawlings-Blake will pronounce the seven couples "lawfully married" rather than "husband and wife" at the 12:30 a.m. ceremony on New Year's Day in City Hall. "It's just a long time coming," said Darcia Anthony, 32, who serves in the National Guard and will be married in the City Hall ceremony to her high school sweetheart, Danielle Williams, 32, a chef. ...

Connecticut attorney general says Newtown legal claim misguided

Posted: 31 Dec 2012 12:12 PM PST

(Reuters) - A $100 million claim filed against the state of Connecticut in the wake of a school shooting that left 20 children and six adults dead two weeks ago is misguided, Connecticut's attorney general said in a statement on Monday. Last week, a New Haven-based attorney filed an intention to sue the state on behalf of a 6-year-old survivor of the December 14 attack - the second deadliest school shooting in U.S. history. Under Connecticut law, any claim against the state must be approved by the state claims commissioner before it can move forward. ...

Chief justice stresses need for judges, funds despite US fiscal strain

Posted: 31 Dec 2012 04:55 PM PST

File photo of Supreme Court Chief Justice John Roberts arriving for inauguration ceremony of Barack Obama as President of the United States in Washington(Reuters) - U.S. Chief Justice John Roberts on Monday called on the White House and Congress to provide sufficient funding and enough judges to ensure that the federal judiciary can do its job well despite the fiscal problems the country faces. In his annual report on the federal judiciary, Roberts recognized the battle in Washington over the "fiscal cliff," saying the country has a fiscal ledger that has "gone awry" and must address the longer-term problem of a "truly extravagant and burgeoning national debt. ...

January groundbreaking for Atlanta's College Football Hall of Fame

Posted: 31 Dec 2012 04:00 PM PST

ATLANTA (Reuters) - Groundbreaking for a new College Football Hall of Fame in downtown Atlanta is set for January 28, and the first visitors are expected to walk through the doors in August 2014, the National Football Foundation said on Monday. The Foundation decided three years ago that it was moving the Hall of Fame to Atlanta from South Bend, Indiana, near the campus of the University of Notre Dame, a college football powerhouse. The South Bend facility closed on Sunday. ...

N.C. governor grants pardons in divisive civil rights-era case

Posted: 31 Dec 2012 02:56 PM PST

WINSTON-SALEM, North Carolina (Reuters) - North Carolina Governor Bev Perdue pardoned on Monday a mostly African-American group known as the "Wilmington 10" after they were falsely convicted of firebombing a white-owned grocery store in 1971 during a time of bitter racial unrest. Human and civil rights groups had long decried the convictions and prison sentences ranging from 15 to 34 years for the nine black men and one white woman, arguing they were victims of racial prejudice and prosecutorial misconduct. ...

Chief justice stresses need for judges, funds despite fiscal strain

Posted: 31 Dec 2012 03:05 PM PST

File photo of Supreme Court Chief Justice John Roberts arriving for inauguration ceremony of Barack Obama as President of the United States in Washington(Reuters) - U.S. Chief Justice John Roberts on Monday called on the White House and Congress to provide sufficient funding and enough judges to ensure that the federal judiciary can do its job well despite the fiscal problems the country faces. In his annual report on the federal judiciary, Roberts recognized the battle in Washington over the "fiscal cliff," saying the country has a fiscal ledger that has "gone awry" and must address the longer-term problem of a "truly extravagant and burgeoning national debt. ...

Federal safety team joins probe of fatal Oregon bus crash

Posted: 31 Dec 2012 12:32 PM PST

Tow truck operators work on wrecked tour bus in OregonPORTLAND, Oregon (Reuters) - Federal safety investigators joined the Oregon state police on Monday in seeking to determine what caused a tour bus to careen off a mountain highway and plunge down a snow-covered slope, killing nine passengers and injuring at least 27 others. The charter bus was carrying about 40 people through the Blue Mountains of northern Oregon en route from Las Vegas to Vancouver, British Columbia, when it crashed through a guard rail on Interstate 84 on Sunday morning, authorities said. ...

Texas health program can exclude Planned Parenthood: judge

Posted: 31 Dec 2012 02:06 PM PST

SAN ANTONIO, Texas (Reuters) - Texas won a court victory on Monday in its effort to stop state funds under a health program for low-income women from going to clinics affiliated with Planned Parenthood, a group that provides abortions at some of its facilities. A Texas judge allowed the state to go ahead with a revamped program for poor women, the Women's Health Program, that does not include Planned Parenthood. Planned Parenthood said it does not provide abortions at clinics that participate in the state women's health program. ...

Gun groups seek boycott of newspaper that named permit-holders

Posted: 31 Dec 2012 01:31 PM PST

NEW YORK (Reuters) - Gun-owner groups called on Monday for an advertising boycott of a suburban New York newspaper that is under fire for publishing the names and addresses of pistol permit-holders in New York City suburbs. A map published in the White Plains, New York-based Journal News last week listed thousands of permit-holders in Westchester and Rockland counties, just north of New York City. The newspaper has said it is compiling yet more names of pistol permit-holders in suburban Putnam County that it intends to publish as well. ...

Last Cuban "commuters" retire from jobs at U.S. Navy base

Posted: 31 Dec 2012 01:37 PM PST

(Reuters) - The last two Cuban workers at the Guantanamo Bay U.S. naval base in Cuba retired on Monday from jobs they began more than five decades ago when the United States and its reluctant host enjoyed friendlier relations. Harry Henry, an 82-year-old office supply technician, and Luis La Rosa, a 79-year-old welder, had worked on the U.S. base in southeast Cuba since they were teenagers. They were among thousands of Cuban laborers who once commuted to the base each day, back when U.S. sailors spent their shore leave on Cuban-controlled territory outside the base. ...

NY subway fare-jumper attacks police officer at Times Square

Posted: 31 Dec 2012 01:45 PM PST

NEW YORK (Reuters) - A suspected subway fare-jumper attacked a New York City police officer who was attempting to arrest him at the Times Square subway station on New Year's Eve, the latest in a series of crimes to disturb users of the underground train system. In two separate incidents this month, commuters were pushed to their deaths in front of subway cars as stunned travelers looked on in horror. On Monday morning, a 19-year-old man attacked a police officer who was arresting him for jumping the subway entrance turnstile without paying his fare, police said. ...

New York City breaks tourism record for third straight year

Posted: 31 Dec 2012 01:30 PM PST

Tourists gather in Times Square in New York(Reuters) - Some 52 million visitors traveled to New York City in 2012 in a third straight record-breaking year for tourism, the mayor's office and the city's tourism organization said on Monday. More than a million additional tourists visited to New York in 2012 than in 2011, a 2.1 percent increase, Mayor Michael Bloomberg's office and NYC & Company, New York's tourism and marketing organization, said in a news release. New York received 41 million visitors from elsewhere in the United States, and 11 million traveled from a foreign country. The tourists spent $36. ...

Los Angeles man charged with setting homeless woman on fire

Posted: 31 Dec 2012 12:04 PM PST

LOS ANGELES (Reuters) - A 24-year-old Los Angeles area man accused of setting a homeless woman on fire as she slept on a bus stop bench was charged on Monday with attempted murder and aggravated mayhem. Prosecutors say Dennis Petillo doused the 67-year-old woman with a flammable liquid as she slept on a bench in the Los Angeles section of Van Nuys in the early morning hours of December 27 and then set her on fire. The woman, who has not been identified by authorities, survived the attack but remains hospitalized in critical condition. ...

2012 most expensive year for motorists: AAA

Posted: 31 Dec 2012 09:19 AM PST

Customers wait in line for gas at a Hess fuelling station in Brooklyn, New YorkNEW YORK (Reuters) - The average gasoline price in 2012 was a record-high $3.60 a gallon, topping the previous high of $3.51 in 2011, travel group AAA said on Monday. AAA blamed refinery outages, major hurricanes and unrest in the Middle East for the rise. Drivers in states like Hawaii, Alaska, California and New York paid the highest prices. However, the price fell to $3.30 a gallon in December, the lowest monthly average for the year, AAA said. (Reporting by Selam Gebrekidan)

New York bomb suspects had "terrorist encyclopedia"

Posted: 31 Dec 2012 10:06 AM PST

NEW YORK (Reuters) - Police arrested a New York City couple in their apartment on Saturday after authorities investigating a credit card theft found a highly explosive compound, bomb-making manuals, a sawed-off shotgun and ammunition, officials said on Monday. Morgan Gliedman, 27, and Aaron Greene, 31, are being charged with two counts of suspicion of criminal possession of a weapon, for the shotgun, court documents show. One sheaf of papers found in the apartment had a cover page that read "The Terrorist Encyclopedia," according to court documents. ...

Ban on demanding Facebook passwords among new 2013 state laws

Posted: 31 Dec 2012 08:11 AM PST

The Facebook logo is shown at Facebook headquarters in Palo AltoCHICAGO (Reuters) - Employers in California and Illinois will be prohibited from demanding access to workers' password-protected social networking accounts and teachers in Oregon will be required to report suspected student bullies thanks to new laws taking effect in 2013. In all, more than 400 measures were enacted at the state level during 2012 and will become law in the new year, according to the National Conference of State Legislatures (NCSL). Some of the statutes, which deal with everything from consumer protection to gun control and healthcare, take effect at the stroke of midnight. ...

Newtown gunman's body collected by father's family

Posted: 31 Dec 2012 10:18 AM PST

(Reuters) - The body of gunman who killed 27 people and himself in Newtown, Connecticut, this month in the second-deadliest school shooting in U.S. history has been collected by his family from the state medical examiner's office, a spokesman for his father's family said on Monday. A location and date for Adam Lanza's burial was not disclosed. His father, Peter Lanza of Stamford, Connecticut, claimed the body, said the spokesman, who spoke on condition of anonymity. Connecticut's chief medical examiner released Lanza's body on December 27, a spokesman for the office said. ...
Posted by Harshad at 7:14 PM

No comments:

Post a Comment

Subscribe to: Post Comments (Atom)