Pat Dollard

HAVANA, Dec 21 (Reuters) – Cuba accused U.S. President Barack Obama on Monday of being “imperial, arrogant” and dishonest during last week’s global climate conference in the latest sign of deteriorating relations between Havana and Washington. Cuban Foreign Minister Bruno Rodriguez said in a televised press conference that Obama lied during the United Nations summit [...]

Politico: POLITICO has learned that Rep. Parker Griffith, a freshman Democrat from Alabama, will announce today that he’s switching parties to become a Republican. According to two senior GOP aides familiar with the decision, the announcement will take place this afternoon in Griffith’s district in northern Alabama. Griffith’s party switch comes on the eve of [...]

CBS: The City of Chicago will be shutting down early for the Christmas holiday, as part of Mayor Daley’s plan to save the cash-strapped city money. City Hall, public libraries, health clinics and most other city offices will be closed on Christmas Eve as those city workers are being forced to take the day off [...]

Times Online: The Christmas travel nightmare was grinding on today with more snow and ice causing havoc on the roads and further disruption for rail and air services. Plunging overnight temperatures have transformed many of yesterday’s snowfalls into treacherous surfaces, with the Met Office warning of “widespread icy roads” for most of England and Wales [...]

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Dec. 21 (Bloomberg) — The Air Force as soon as Christmas Day will deliver to Afghanistan the first of 24 new Hawker Beechcraft Corp. planes modified by L-3 Communications Holdings Inc. to support ground troops with video, still images and eavesdropping. The four-man, twin-propeller plane “should arrive on or shortly after Dec. 25th,” about one [...]

Poor people who are desperate for cash have been advised to go forth and shoplift from major stores – by an Anglican priest. The Rev Tim Jones said in his Sunday sermon that stealing from successful shops was preferable to burglary, robbery or prostitution. He told parishioners it would not break the eighth commandment ‘thou [...]

WASHINGTON (AP) – Twice now, abortion was almost a dealbreaker. This time, it was a dealmaker. But of hundreds of deals cut so health care legislation can stay alive, the hardest to keep may be the Senate’s abortion compromise – achieved after 13 hours of negotiation. The volatile issue remains the biggest threat to getting [...]

The Guardian: American special forces have conducted multiple clandestine raids into Pakistan’s tribal areas as part of a secret war in the border region where Washington is pressing to expand its drone assassination programme. A former Nato officer said the incursions, only one of which has been previously reported, occurred between 2003 and 2008, involved [...]

Guardian: Britons were last night steeling themselves for one of the most fraught Christmas getaways in years, as bad weather and snow closed major airports, paralysed roads and disrupted train services. As the UK again found itself struggling to cope with a winter snap, transport operators warned that the backlog caused by cancellations of flights [...]