Fox News: U.S. Marines in southern Afghanistan will treat Christmas like most other days – they will plan patrols and hope the day ends with no casualties. The troops, who are at Patrol Base Talibjan living in the Taliban heartland of Musa Qala district, can expect a chemically heated meal of preserved meat and a [...]
McClatchy Newspapers: ‘Tis the season for making whoopee. The Christmas-New Year’s period produces a year-high spike in sexual activity and conceptions in the United States, according to biorhythm researchers and makers of sex-related products. They attribute the increase to holiday leisure and New Year’s resolutions to have children. New Year’s irresolution fueled by alcohol and [...]
Politico: If conservatives expected Republican Rep. Lamar Smith to champion the most controversial anti-immigration measures when he takes control of the House Judiciary Committee next month, they’re in for a surprise. After weeks of speculation that he would pursue a scorched-earth immigration agenda, Smith detailed his to-do list for the first time in an interview [...]
Washington (AP) – Vice President Biden predicted Friday the evolution in thinking that will permit gays to soon serve openly in the military eventually will bring about a U.S. consensus for same-sex marriage. Changes in attitudes by military leaders, those in the service and the public allowed the repeal by Congress of the “don’t ask, [...]
MUMBAI, India (AP) – Police searched India’s financial capital on Friday for four men who authorities believe entered Mumbai to carry out a terrorist attack, a top police official said. Authorities issued a terror alert for the city, where a three-day terrorist seige in 2008 killed 166 people. Since then, police have periodically raised the [...]
An Israeli child plays with Christmas decorations at a market stall in Nazareth NAZARETH ILLIT, Israel (AFP) – The mayor of a Jewish suburb of Nazareth sparked outrage on Wednesday after refusing to allow Christmas trees to be placed in town squares, calling them provocative. Predominantly Jewish Nazareth Illit, or Upper Nazareth, is adjacent to [...]
Las Vegas (AP) – Las Vegas police are trying to determine if the body found in Arizona on Tuesday is Deborah Flores-Narvez, the Las Vegas dancer that disappeared two weeks ago, the Las Vegas Review-Journal reports. Tourists stumbled upon a woman’s body while hiking in the Lake Mead National Recreational Area on Thursday. Clark County [...]
Washington Times: The Constitution frequently gets lip service in Congress, but House Republicans next year will make sure it gets a lot more than that – the new rules the incoming majority party proposed this week call for a full reading of the country’s founding document on the floor of the House on Jan. 6. [...]
The Hill: North Korea’s official news agency blasted the incoming chairwoman of the House Foreign Affairs Committee — while mistaking her for a chairman. Rep. Ileana Ros-Lehtinen (R-Fla.), a Cuban immigrant, has been a regular target of dictator Fidel Castro and his Latin American allies Venezuelan President Hugo Chavez and Bolivian President Evo Morales. But [...]
Wall Street Journal: As the economy gradually recovers, some big U.S. companies are cranking up their recruiting and advertising thousands of job openings, ranging from retail clerks and nurses to bank tellers and experts in cloud computing. Many of the new jobs are in retailing, accounting, consulting, health care, telecommunications and defense-related industries, according to [...]
NEW YORK (Reuters Health) — More and more people are dying from abusing or misusing drugs, including both prescription and illegal drugs, new research suggests. In some groups, deaths from “accidental poisonings” — most the result of drug overdoses — are more than ten times higher than they were in the late 1960s, the study [...]
(Reuters) – U.S. authorities are warning air travelers to expect greater scrutiny of thermoses and other insulated drink containers at security checkpoints after intelligence suggested they could be used to hide explosives. There is “no information related to any specific or imminent threat,” Ann Davis, a spokeswoman for the Transportation Security Administration, told Reuters on [...]
BETHLEHEM, West Bank (AP) – Thousands of tourists, pilgrims and clergy converged on Bethlehem on Friday as the town of Jesus’ birth prepared to celebrate Christmas Eve. Boy Scout marching bands played in Manger Square, just outside the Church of the Nativity, which Christian tradition identifies as the site of Jesus’ birth in a stable [...]
A Secret Service agent draws a gun on a man evading arrest by Honolulu police KAILUA, Hawaii (AP) – A man fleeing from local police drove through an outer perimeter checkpoint set up near President Barack Obama’s Hawaii vacation home Friday, the U.S. Secret Service said. Photographers took pictures of a Secret Service agent sprinting [...]
Moscow (AP) – Russian lawmakers gave preliminary approval Friday to an arms agreement with the United States, but signaled they would slow progress on the so-called New START treaty to a crawl after it was rushed through Congress earlier this week with some 11th-hour arm-twisting by President Obama. The treaty cleared an initial hurdle through [...]
SACRAMENTO, CA – An airline pilot is being disciplined by the Transportation Security Administration (TSA) for posting video on YouTube pointing out what he believes are serious flaws in airport security. The 50-year-old pilot, who lives outside Sacramento, asked that neither he nor his airline be identified. He has worked for the airline for more [...]
Jalopnik: 30-year-old Cody Replogle was hoping to sell his extensively modified Corvette and used the YouTube videos of himself supposedly going 195 mph around Oklahoma City freeways as some sort of enticement to would-be buyers who might be impressed by how easy it is to be a complete and utter moron in the car. He [...]
