Yahoo! News: Politics News

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• Last-minute fiscal cliff talks in Senate
• Obama says immediate action needed on fiscal cliff
• Obama: Troops aiding African diplomat evacuation
• Former President George H.W. Bush moved out of intensive care
• Employer wins relief from U.S. contraceptives mandate
• Death of India rape victim stirs anger, promises of action
• Berlusconi says Monti plotting with Italy's center left
• Former President Bush moved out of intensive care
• Analysis: After "fiscal cliff" dive, more battles, new cliffs
• Four killed when Russian airliner crash lands
• Over the fiscal cliff: Soft or hard landing?
• Senate leaders work to avoid New Year's "fiscal cliff"
• Syria doomed to "hell" without political deal: envoy
• Blood spattered on the bricks where Syria bomb falls
• Yale under fire for new campus in restrictive Singapore
• Obama: Congressional leaders may avoid cliff dive
• Budget battle sends mixed signals on health care
• State Dept. strengthens Haiti travel warning
• Analysis: For Senate leaders, a mission impossible from Obama
• Venezuela sees 2012 inflation at 19.9 percent, below target
• Same-sex couples marry in Maine for first time
• The Bright Side of Falling Off the Fiscal Cliff
• Starbucks expands cup campaign aimed at U.S. fiscal deal
• Argentina asks U.S. court to block payouts for debt holdouts
• Brazil proposes looser fiscal rules to spur growth
• Wall Street Week Ahead: Cliff may be a fear, but debt ceiling much scarier
• Rejected French tax measures worth 300-500 million euros: finance minister
• French court rejects 75 percent millionaires' tax
• U.N. confronts failure of diplomacy in Syria
• Rebels extend reach in Central African Republic ahead of peace talks
• SyriaAir cancels flight from Cairo to Aleppo
• Trotter cites legal trouble in ending US House run
• Guest lineups for the Sunday news shows
• Only political process can save Syria from "hell": envoy
• Egypt lets building material cross its border into Gaza
• Ex-Times editor Rees-Mogg, who supported Mick Jagger, dies
• Arab officials visit cash-strapped Palestinian territory
• Spaniard convicted in Cuban dissident death returns home

Last-minute fiscal cliff talks in Senate Posted: 29 Dec 2012 03:04 PM PST WASHINGTON (AP) — Senate leaders groped for a last-minute compromise Saturday to avoid middle-class tax increases and possibly prevent deep spending cuts at the dawn of the new year as President Barack Obama warned that failure could mean a "self-inflicted wound to the economy."

Obama says immediate action needed on fiscal cliff Posted: 28 Dec 2012 03:07 PM PST WASHINGTON (AP) — President Barack Obama says "the hour for immediate action is here" on a deal to avert the fiscal cliff.

Obama: Troops aiding African diplomat evacuation Posted: 29 Dec 2012 01:02 PM PST WASHINGTON (AP) — President Barack Obama says 50 U.S. troops have deployed to the African country of Chad to help evacuate U.S. citizens and embassy personnel from the neighboring Central African Republic's capital of Bangui in the face of rebel advances toward the city.

Former President George H.W. Bush moved out of intensive care Posted: 29 Dec 2012 02:58 PM PST HOUSTON (Reuters) - Former President George H.W. Bush's condition improved enough for him to be moved on Saturday out of the intensive care unit and into a regular room at the Houston hospital where he was admitted last month for respiratory problems, a spokesman said. Bush, 88, who served as president from 1989 to 1993, entered Methodist Hospital on November 23 for treatment of what doctors said was bronchitis, and he was moved into the ICU last Sunday after suffering a number of medical complications, including a persistent fever. ...

Employer wins relief from U.S. contraceptives mandate Posted: 29 Dec 2012 02:37 PM PST (Reuters) - A divided federal appeals court has temporarily barred the U.S. government from requiring an Illinois company to obtain insurance coverage for contraceptives, as required under the 2010 healthcare overhaul, after the owners objected on religious grounds. More than 40 lawsuits are challenging a requirement in the Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act that requires most for-profit companies to offer workers insurance coverage for contraceptive drugs and devices and other birth control methods. Friday's 2-1 order by a panel of the 7th U.S. ...

Death of India rape victim stirs anger, promises of action Posted: 29 Dec 2012 02:07 PM PST NEW DELHI/SINGAPORE (Reuters) - A woman whose gang rape provoked protests and rare national debate about violence against women in India died from her injuries on Saturday, prompting promises of action from a government that has struggled to respond to public outrage. The unidentified 23-year-old medical student suffered a brain injury and massive internal damage in the attack on December 16 and died in hospital in Singapore where she had been taken for treatment. ...

Berlusconi says Monti plotting with Italy's center left Posted: 29 Dec 2012 01:45 PM PST ROME/MILAN (Reuters) - Silvio Berlusconi said on Saturday that outgoing Prime Minister Mario Monti was plotting with the left in his centrist alliance's bid to win Italy's national election in February, but centrist leaders denied any secret accord. Monti, who replaced Berlusconi as prime minister last year when Italy was scrambling to avert a financial crisis, said on Friday he wanted to unite a broad coalition of factions around a reform agenda aimed at easing the country's economic woes. ...

Former President Bush moved out of intensive care Posted: 29 Dec 2012 01:22 PM PST Former President George H.W. Bush's condition continued to improve Saturday, prompting doctors to move him out of intensive care, a spokesman said.

Analysis: After "fiscal cliff" dive, more battles, new cliffs Posted: 29 Dec 2012 01:20 PM PST WASHINGTON (Reuters) - Whether or not the "fiscal cliff" impasse is broken before the New Year's Eve deadline, there will be no post-cliff peace in Washington. With the political climate toxic in Congress as the cliff's steep tax hikes and spending cuts approach, other partisan fights loom, all over the issue that has paralyzed the capital for the past two years: federal spending. The first will come in late February when the Treasury Department runs out of borrowing authority and has to come to Congress to get the debt ceiling raised. ...

Four killed when Russian airliner crash lands Posted: 29 Dec 2012 12:55 PM PST MOSCOW (Reuters) - A Russian airliner flying without passengers broke into pieces after it slid off the runway and crashed onto a highway outside Moscow upon landing on Saturday, killing four of the eight crew on board and leaving smoking chunks of fuselage on the icy road. The crash during peak holiday travel ahead of Russia's New Year's vacation, which runs from Sunday through January 9, cast a spotlight on the country's poor air-safety record despite President Vladimir Putin's calls to improve controls. ...

Over the fiscal cliff: Soft or hard landing? Posted: 29 Dec 2012 12:25 PM PST WASHINGTON (AP) — Efforts to save the nation from going over a year-end "fiscal cliff" were still in disarray as lawmakers returned to the Capitol to confront the tax-and-spend crisis. A tone-setting quotation was Democratic Sen. Harry Reid's assertion that the House under Republican Speaker John Boehner had been "operating with a dictatorship."

Senate leaders work to avoid New Year's "fiscal cliff" Posted: 29 Dec 2012 11:32 AM PST WASHINGTON (Reuters) - Congressional negotiators burrowed into their Capitol offices on Saturday to see if they can stop the economy from falling off a "fiscal cliff" in just three days when the biggest tax increases ever to hit Americans in one shot are scheduled to begin. Aides to Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid, a Democrat, and Senate Republican leader Mitch McConnell were expected to work through the day on a possible compromise that would set aside $600 billion in tax increases and across-the-board government spending cuts that are set to kick in next week. ...

Syria doomed to "hell" without political deal: envoy Posted: 29 Dec 2012 10:40 AM PST MOSCOW/AZAZ, Syria (Reuters) - The international mediator touting a peace plan for Syria warned on Saturday of "hell" if the warring sides shun talks, and Moscow accused enemies of President Bashar al-Assad of blocking negotiations. U.N.-Arab League envoy Lakhdar Brahimi said in Moscow that responsible people inside and outside Syria should "help the Syrians stop their descent into more and more bloodshed, into more and more chaos and perhaps a failed state". ...

Blood spattered on the bricks where Syria bomb falls Posted: 29 Dec 2012 10:38 AM PST AZAZ, Syria (Reuters) - Standing in the wreckage of his home, destroyed in an air strike two hours before, Abu Badri surveyed the damage as relatives scoured the rubble for any valuables they could retrieve. "We'll have to find a tent to stay in near the border with Turkey. What else can we do?" said the 38-year-old man, walking on a pile of broken concrete under a collapsed roof. ...

Yale under fire for new campus in restrictive Singapore Posted: 29 Dec 2012 10:36 AM PST NEW HAVEN (Reuters) - For more than 300 years, Yale University has prided itself on training top students to question and analyze, to challenge and critique. Now, Yale is seeking to export those values by establishing the first foreign campus to bear its name, a liberal arts college in Singapore that is set to open this summer. The ambitious, multimillion-dollar project thrills many in the Yale community who say it will help the university maintain its prestige and build global influence. ...

Obama: Congressional leaders may avoid cliff dive Posted: 29 Dec 2012 10:27 AM PST WASHINGTON (AP) — President Barack Obama is urging Congress to reach a deal to avoid the fiscal cliff, saying the nation "can't afford a politically self-inflicted wound to our economy."

Budget battle sends mixed signals on health care Posted: 29 Dec 2012 10:16 AM PST WASHINGTON (AP) — Confused about the federal budget struggle? So are doctors, hospital administrators and other medical professionals who serve the 100 million Americans covered by Medicare and Medicaid.

State Dept. strengthens Haiti travel warning Posted: 29 Dec 2012 09:59 AM PST The State Department has issued a revised Haiti travel advisory, warning Americans planning to travel to the Caribbean island nation about robbery, lawlessness, infectious disease and poor medical facilities.

Analysis: For Senate leaders, a mission impossible from Obama Posted: 29 Dec 2012 09:22 AM PST WASHINGTON (Reuters) - Following a Friday meeting with congressional leaders, an impatient and annoyed President Barack Obama said it was "mind boggling" that Congress has been unable to fix a "fiscal cliff" mess that everyone has known about for more than a year. He then dispatched Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid, a Democrat, and Minority Leader Mitch McConnell, a Republican, on a mind-boggling mission: coming up with a bipartisan bill to break the "fiscal cliff" stalemate in the most partisan and gridlocked U.S. Congress of modern times - in about 48 hours. ...

Venezuela sees 2012 inflation at 19.9 percent, below target Posted: 29 Dec 2012 09:07 AM PST CARACAS (Reuters) - Venezuelan inflation reached 19.9 percent in 2012, the central bank said in a preliminary estimate on Saturday, beating its official target thanks to strict price controls that business leaders say are unsustainable in the long term. The government of President Hugo Chavez has capped prices for a wide range of consumer goods, helping contain inflation that has traditionally been the highest in Latin America. The 2012 target had been between 22 and 25 percent. ...

Same-sex couples marry in Maine for first time Posted: 29 Dec 2012 08:53 AM PST PORTLAND, Maine (Reuters) - The first gay and lesbian couples to wed under Maine's new same-sex marriage law exchanged vows early on Saturday in a series of spare but joyous civil ceremonies held shortly after midnight. "We finally feel equal and happy to be living in Maine," an exuberant Steven Bridges, 42, said shortly after he and his newly wedded husband, Michael Snell, 53, became the first couple at City Hall in Maine's largest town to tie the knot. ...

The Bright Side of Falling Off the Fiscal Cliff Posted: 29 Dec 2012 08:47 AM PST As 2012 sputters to a close, it wraps up with a yawning gap between widespread economic pessimism and the actual state of economic affairs.

Starbucks expands cup campaign aimed at U.S. fiscal deal Posted: 29 Dec 2012 08:43 AM PST (Reuters) - Starbucks Corp is expanding its campaign of using messages written on coffee cups to inspire U.S. lawmakers to reach a deal and avoid going over the "fiscal cliff" of automatic tax hikes and government spending cuts. As President Barack Obama and congressional leaders were in a final effort to reach a budget agreement before year's end, Starbucks this week began urging workers in its roughly 120 Washington, D.C.-area shops to write the words "come together" on customers' cups. A spokesman for the world's largest coffee chain said the company would expand the effort to all U.S. ...

Argentina asks U.S. court to block payouts for debt holdouts Posted: 29 Dec 2012 08:27 AM PST NEW YORK (Reuters) - Argentina is urging a U.S. appeals court to reverse an order requiring the country to pay $1.33 billion to creditors who did not participate in its two debt restructurings, a legal case that could have huge ramifications for global debt markets. Lawyers for Argentina's government said in court papers filed late on Friday that a trial judge was "wrong to ignore the chorus of voices" who opposed his November order on payments to so-called "holdout" creditors. ...

Brazil proposes looser fiscal rules to spur growth Posted: 29 Dec 2012 08:26 AM PST SAO PAULO (Reuters) - Brazil's government has proposed changes to a fiscal responsibility law that set the foundation for a decade of economic prosperity in Latin America's largest economy, two local newspapers said on Saturday. The changes would make it easier for the government to cut Brazil's high tax burden and enact other stimulus measures after two years of slow economic growth, but they could also rattle investors who fear President Dilma Rousseff has been too quick to modify bedrock economic principles. ...

Wall Street Week Ahead: Cliff may be a fear, but debt ceiling much scarier Posted: 29 Dec 2012 08:25 AM PST (Reuters) - Investors fearing a stock market plunge - if the United States tumbles off the "fiscal cliff" next week - may want to relax. But they should be scared if a few weeks later, Washington fails to reach a deal to increase the nation's debt ceiling because that raises the threat of a default, another credit downgrade and a panic in the financial markets. ...

Rejected French tax measures worth 300-500 million euros: finance minister Posted: 29 Dec 2012 08:25 AM PST PARIS (Reuters) - The French Constitutional Council's rejection on Saturday of a 75 percent upper income tax rate and other minor measures in the 2013 budget will affect some 300-500 million euros worth of tax revenues, Finance Minister Pierre Moscovici said. "The rejected measures represent 300 to 500 million euros. Our deficit-cutting path will not be affected," Moscovici told BFM television. He added that the Socialist government would resubmit a proposal to raise taxes on high incomes in 2013 and 2014. (Reporting by Julien Ponthus and Catherine Bremer; Editing by Mark Heinrich)

French court rejects 75 percent millionaires' tax Posted: 29 Dec 2012 08:25 AM PST PARIS (Reuters) - France's Constitutional Council on Saturday rejected a 75 percent upper income tax rate to be introduced in 2013 in a setback to Socialist President Francois Hollande's push to make the rich contribute more to cutting the public deficit. The Council ruled that the planned 75 percent tax on annual income above 1 million euros ($1.32 million) - a flagship measure of Hollande's election campaign - was unfair in the way it would be applied to different households. ...

U.N. confronts failure of diplomacy in Syria Posted: 29 Dec 2012 08:13 AM PST UNITED NATIONS (Reuters) - Attempts by the United Nations to end the bloody 21-month-old Syrian conflict through diplomacy have been a resounding failure and there is little reason to expect a quick change given the Russian-U.S. rift on Syria. After a year of intensive diplomatic efforts by the world body, U.N.-Arab League peace mediator Lakhdar Brahimi of Algeria has made no more progress than his predecessor, former U.N. ...

Rebels extend reach in Central African Republic ahead of peace talks Posted: 29 Dec 2012 08:07 AM PST BANGUI (Reuters) - Rebels in Central African Republic took control of a strategic town north of the capital on Saturday after soldiers defending it withdrew, ramping up tensions ahead of planned peace talks. The three-week-old uprising by SELEKA rebels poses the biggest threat yet to President Francois Bozize's near ten-year rule over the former French colony - a nation plagued by poverty and turmoil despite its rich natural resources. ...

SyriaAir cancels flight from Cairo to Aleppo Posted: 29 Dec 2012 08:06 AM PST CAIRO (Reuters) - Syria's national airline cancelled a flight from Cairo to Aleppo on Saturday due to poor security conditions around the airport, Cairo airport officials said. Rebels fighting to overthrow Syrian President Bashar al-Assad said last week they would target Aleppo's international airport and opposition activists said on Saturday there had been a big explosion near the complex overnight. The SyriaAir flight had been due to fly to Aleppo before continuing to Damascus. ...

Trotter cites legal trouble in ending US House run Posted: 29 Dec 2012 07:59 AM PST CHICAGO (AP) — An Illinois state lawmaker who was a frontrunner to replace former U.S. Rep. Jesse Jackson Jr. says he's ending his candidacy because he doesn't want the felony gun charges he faces to detract from the district's important issues.

Guest lineups for the Sunday news shows Posted: 29 Dec 2012 07:19 AM PST WASHINGTON (AP) — Guest lineups for the Sunday TV news shows:

Only political process can save Syria from "hell": envoy Posted: 29 Dec 2012 07:11 AM PST MOSCOW (Reuters) - Syria faces "hell" if no deal is struck to end 21 months of bloodshed, an international mediator said on Saturday, but his talks in Russia brought no sign of a breakthrough after a week of intense diplomacy. U.N.-Arab League envoy Lakhdar Brahimi and Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov both said there was still a chance for a negotiated solution to the conflict, which has killed more than 44,000 people and set world powers against one another. ...

Egypt lets building material cross its border into Gaza Posted: 29 Dec 2012 06:45 AM PST ISMAILIA, Egypt (Reuters) - Islamist-led Egypt allowed building materials into Gaza via the Rafah crossing on Saturday for the first time since Hamas seized control of the Palestinian enclave in 2007, an Egyptian border official said. It was part of a shipment of building materials donated by the Gulf Arab state of Qatar, which has pledged $400 million to finance reconstruction in Gaza. The Islamist group Hamas has run Gaza since driving out its rivals in the Palestinian Authority. ...

Ex-Times editor Rees-Mogg, who supported Mick Jagger, dies Posted: 29 Dec 2012 06:33 AM PST LONDON (Reuters) - William Rees-Mogg, a former editor of Britain's Times newspaper who famously backed Mick Jagger when the Rolling Stones singer was jailed for a drug offence, has died at the age of 84. On its website, the Times said Rees-Mogg, a former chairman of the Arts Council and vice-chairman of the BBC, had been suffering from oesophageal cancer. Rees-Mogg became editor of the paper in 1967 and, despite establishment credentials built up at independent school and Balliol College, Oxford, soon showed a rebellious streak. ...

Arab officials visit cash-strapped Palestinian territory Posted: 29 Dec 2012 06:08 AM PST RAMALLAH, West Bank (Reuters) - Top Arab officials paid a rare visit to the Israeli-occupied West Bank on Saturday to discuss a Palestinian financial crisis that President Mahmoud Abbas hopes will be eased by Arab donations. Arab League Chief Nabil Elaraby and Egyptian Foreign Minister Mohamed Kamel Amr congratulated the Palestinians on a successful United Nations status upgrade last month, but stopped short of promising the badly-needed funds. "Palestine is in need of material and political support," Elaraby told a news conference in the Palestinians' de facto capital of Ramallah. ...

Spaniard convicted in Cuban dissident death returns home Posted: 29 Dec 2012 05:53 AM PST MADRID (Reuters) - A Spanish political activist who was convicted in the death of prominent Cuban dissident Oswaldo Paya in a car crash in Cuba in July arrived in Spain on Saturday to serve out his four-year prison sentence, media reports said. Angel Carromero, a leader of the youth wing of Spain's ruling People's Party, was tried in Cuba and found guilty of reckless driving in the accident which killed one of the most important leaders of Cuba's small opposition community. ...

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