| | |
| First lady plans March 19-26 visit to China Monday, Mar 03, 2014 11:22 AM PST  WASHINGTON (AP) — Michelle Obama plans a weeklong solo visit to China this month that includes meetings with China's first lady and high school and university students. Full Story | Top |
| Sushi and sleep: World's oldest person offers tips for a long life Monday, Mar 03, 2014 10:19 AM PST Seeking advice on how to live a long time? You could do a lot worse than Misao Okawa. The Japanese woman will turn 116 on Wednesday. Full Story | Top |
| Disney Plans to Stop Funding the Boy Scouts by 2015 Sunday, Mar 02, 2014 10:21 PM PST  On Friday, Disney announced that they planned to halt funding to the Boy Scouts of America beginning in 2015 over the Scouts' controversial ban on gay leaders. Disney does not contribute to the BSA directly but its VoluntEARS program allows employees to perform volunteer work in exchange for donations to organizations of their choice. The Boy Scouts are no longer eligible for funding through that program. The news first came to light after a troop council in Florida alerted local troops of the decision (Walt Disney World is in Orlando, and so the company has many ties to the community). Full Story | Top |
| 4 Reasons Putin Is Already Losing in Ukraine Monday, Mar 03, 2014 01:14 PM PST Even a week ago, the idea of a Russian military intervention in Ukraine seemed far-fetched if not totally alarmist. But the arrival of Russian troops in Crimea over the weekend has shown that he is not averse to reckless adventures, even ones that offer little gain. In the coming days and weeks, Putin will have to decide how far he is prepared to take this intervention and how much he is prepared to suffer for it. At home, this intervention looks to be one of the most unpopular decisions Putin has ever made. Full Story | Top |
| Moscow: troops in Ukraine defending Russians Monday, Mar 03, 2014 08:33 AM PST  GENEVA (AP) — Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov on Monday justified the use of Russian troops streaming into neighboring Ukraine's Crimea region as a necessary protection for his country's citizens living there, and called on Kiev to abide by an EU-sponsored deal that Moscow did not sign. Full Story | Top |
| Cruz steering Texas Republicans further right in primary fights Monday, Mar 03, 2014 09:40 AM PST  By Jon Herskovitz and Marice Richter AUSTIN, Texas (Reuters) - The longest shadow in Tuesday's primary election in Texas is being cast by a politician not even in the running, freshman U.S. Senator Ted Cruz, a Republican. Cruz, just two years into his first major elected office, has arguably become the most loved politician among Republicans in Texas, an incubator for national conservative policies where the party dominates the statehouse and has not lost a statewide race since 1994. Cruz has turned an already right-leaning Texas Republican Party even further to the right, analysts said. "Cruz scared the daylights out of center and center-right conservatives to the extent that they do not feel comfortable enough to run on their true positions and feel compelled to cater to the most conservative elements of the Texas Republican primary electorate," said Mark Jones, a political science professor at Rice University in Houston. Full Story | Top |
| The World's Youngest Billionaires 2014: 31 Under 40 Sunday, Mar 02, 2014 10:46 PM PST  There are 31 billionaires in the world under the age of 40. Here are their remarkable stories. Full Story | Top |
| A Cold War reprise as US seeks Moscow's isolation Monday, Mar 03, 2014 04:31 AM PST WASHINGTON (AP) — In a sudden reprise of Cold War sensibilities, the U.S. and its allies are weighing sanctions on Moscow and whether to bolster defenses in Europe in response to Russia's military advances on Ukraine. Secretary of State John Kerry, soon on his way to Ukraine's capital, said world leaders "are prepared to go to the hilt in order to isolate Russia with respect to this invasion." Full Story | Top |
| Will Sgt. Bergdahl be left behind in Afghanistan? Monday, Mar 03, 2014 12:09 AM PST WASHINGTON (AP) — The case of Army Sgt. Bowe Bergdahl, held by the Taliban since 2009, has arisen again as the U.S. and other countries engage in diplomatic efforts to free him. Full Story | Top |
| Couple's Long-Ago Abortion Casts Shadow Over Ex-Wife Sunday, Mar 02, 2014 09:00 PM PST DEAR ABBY: Before my husband and I were married, I became pregnant with his baby. We decided together that we weren't ready for the responsibility and made the mutual decision to end the pregnancy early in the first trimester. We did marry eventually and had a baby girl a few years ago who is now in college. My ex and I divorced many years ago because of his many affairs, including one with his best friend's wife. ... Full Story | Top |
| Russian markets nosedive as Ukraine panic takes hold Monday, Mar 03, 2014 07:57 AM PST  Investors in Russia reacted with panic Monday to the potentially disastrous economic consequences of Russian military intervention in Ukraine, with Moscow stock markets crashing up to 12 percent and the ruble plunging to historic lows against the dollar and euro. In an emergency move to limit the losses for the ruble amid what risks becoming at least Russia's worst economic crisis since 2009, Russia's central bank hiked its main interest rate by 150 basis points. President Vladimir Putin on Saturday won approval from Russia's upper house of parliament to send troops into Ukraine due to the stand-off in Crimea following the ousting of pro-Moscow president Viktor Yanukovych. Full Story | Top |
| Giant Virus Resurrected from Permafrost After 30,000 Years Monday, Mar 03, 2014 12:21 PM PST  A mysterious giant virus buried for 30,000 years in Siberian permafrost has been resurrected. Even so, the new discovery raises the possibility that as the climate warms and exploration expands in long-untouched regions of Siberia, humans could release ancient or eradicated viruses. "There is now a non-zero probability that the pathogenic microbes that bothered [ancient human populations] could be revived, and most likely infect us as well," study co-author Jean-Michel Claverie, a bioinformatics researcher at Aix-Marseille University in France, wrote in an email. Full Story | Top |
| At White House, Israel's Netanyahu pushes back against Obama diplomacy Monday, Mar 03, 2014 04:16 PM PST  By Jeffrey Heller and Matt Spetalnick WASHINGTON (Reuters) - Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu bluntly told Barack Obama on Monday that he would never compromise on Israel's security even as the U.S. president sought to reassure him on Iran nuclear diplomacy and pressure him on Middle East peace talks. In a White House meeting overshadowed by the Ukraine crisis, the two leaders avoided any direct clash during a brief press appearance but were unable to paper over differences on a pair of sensitive diplomatic drives that have stoked tensions between them. Obama assured Netanyahu of his "absolute commitment" to preventing Iran from developing atomic weapons, despite the Israeli leader's deep skepticism over U.S.-led efforts to reach a final international deal to curb Tehran's nuclear program. But, warning that time was running out, Obama also urged Netanyahu to make "tough decisions" to help salvage a faltering U.S.-brokered peace process aimed at reaching a framework agreement with the Palestinians and extending talks beyond an April target date for an elusive final accord. Full Story | Top |
| Russia sets Ukraine agenda with diplomacy, threats Monday, Mar 03, 2014 05:15 PM PST  KIEV, Ukraine (AP) — Russian troops said to be 16,000 strong tightened their stranglehold on Ukraine's Crimean Peninsula Monday, openly defying the U.S. and the European Union and rattling world capitals and stock markets. Full Story | Top |
| Why Ben Affleck is lending his star power to the people of the Congo Monday, Mar 03, 2014 04:09 AM PST The actor is making the case for the U.S. to become more involved in solving the conflict Full Story | Top |
| Russia to the West: We're the good guys in Crimea Monday, Mar 03, 2014 11:57 AM PST The Russian president has yet to address his nation, so the full calculus behind Moscow's stunning weekend decision to assert its right to use military force "on the territory of Ukraine" remains a matter of guesswork. But judging from officials' public comments and interviews with Kremlin-connected analysts, it appears that Russia sees itself as acting defensively to protect fellow Russians in Crimea, and possibly Russian-speakers in other parts of eastern Ukraine. The threat, in their eyes: a Western-inspired "coup d'état" in Kiev, which brought an illegitimate, minority-backed, and anti-Russian government to power in Ukraine. Ukraine is not only one of Russia's closest neighbors and trade partners, but also a land whose eastern half was part of Moscow-led states for over 300 years. Full Story | Top |
| California farmers hire dowsers to find water Sunday, Mar 02, 2014 11:18 PM PST  ST. HELENA, Calif. (AP) — With California in the grips of drought, farmers throughout the state are using a mysterious and some say foolhardy tool for locating underground water: dowsers, or water witches. Full Story | Top |
| No role for US military in Ukraine crisis: McCain Monday, Mar 03, 2014 10:14 AM PST  Defense hawk Senator John McCain stressed Monday that deployment of US military force to Ukraine remained unthinkable, but said President Barack Obama nevertheless has failed to stand up to Russian counterpart Vladimir Putin. McCain has spent days criticizing Putin's aggression in Ukraine, Europe's worst standoff since the Cold War, with the veteran American lawmaker arguing that Russia's president seeks to use unrest in the key former Soviet republic as a pretext to reassert Russian dominance there. "It's a blatant act on the part of Vladimir Putin and one that must be unacceptable to the world community. It cannot stand," McCain told the annual policy conference of the American Israel Public Affairs Committee. Full Story | Top |
| U.S. Supreme Court declines immigration cases Monday, Mar 03, 2014 07:29 AM PST By Lawrence Hurley WASHINGTON (Reuters) - The U.S. Supreme Court on Monday rejected attempts by towns in Texas and Pennsylvania to revive local laws that cracked down on illegal immigration. The court decided against hearing appeals filed by the towns of Farmers Branch, Texas, and Hazleton, Pennsylvania, which were seeking to overturn appeals court rulings that said the ordinances were trumped by federal immigration law. In doing so, the court left intact the appeals court rulings and avoided wading into the divisive issue of immigration at a time in which reform efforts have stalled in the U.S. Congress. Prompted by concerns that the federal government was not adequately enforcing immigration laws, officials in both towns enacted ordinances that, among other things, required tenants to provide identification that could later be verified with immigration authorities and penalized landlords from renting to illegal immigrants. Full Story | Top |
| Obama's 2015 budget appeals to Democrats Monday, Mar 03, 2014 05:02 PM PST  WASHINGTON (AP) — Striving for unity among Democrats rather than compromise with Republicans, President Barack Obama will unveil an election-year budget on Tuesday that drops earlier proposals to cut future Social Security benefits and seeks new money for infrastructure, education and job training. Full Story | Top |
| Pope Francis: Potty mouth Monday, Mar 03, 2014 12:00 PM PST Pope Francis dropped the Italian equivalent of an F-bomb during Sunday's address from the Vatican's Apostolic Palace. Full Story | Top |
| N.Korea fires Scud missiles as US-S.Korea hold drills Monday, Mar 03, 2014 01:35 PM PST North Korea fired short-range Scud missiles off its east coast for the second time in a week, drawing condemnation from Washington and Seoul as the allies held joint military exercises. South Korea called Monday's missile launches a "reckless provocation" while the United States demanded the North show restraint and abide by UN Security Council resolutions. The two Scud missiles "flew in a northeasterly direction and landed in the sea," Pentagon spokesman Lieutenant Colonel Damien Pickart told AFP. The missile tests have clearly been timed to coincide with annual South Korea-US military exercises that started a week ago and run until mid-April. Full Story | Top |
| Giant Wave Crashes Through Windows of Santa Barbara Restaurant Monday, Mar 03, 2014 09:57 AM PST Sunday night at the Academy Awards, host Ellen DeGeneres joked about the rain that was depressing Southern California. There was probably one restaurant in Santa Barbara that didn't find anything funny about the storm and the high surf that came with it. According to KNBC TV in Los Angeles and multiple YouTube videos, customers of Moby Dick Restaurant in Santa Barbara witnessed and filmed a scary incident Saturday. Due to the winter storm, a group of giant waves came up so strong that they smashed through the building's windows. Full Story | Top |
| Prisoner gets Supreme Court hearing using handwritten form Monday, Mar 03, 2014 11:00 AM PST The Supreme Court added five new cases on Monday, including a case about wearing beards behind bars that resulted from a handwritten petition Full Story | Top |
| North Korea deports Australian missionary Monday, Mar 03, 2014 05:52 AM PST  BEIJING (AP) — North Korea on Monday deported an Australian missionary detained for spreading Christianity in the country, saying he apologized for his anti-state religious acts and requested forgiveness. Full Story | Top |
| Obama warns of 'fallout' for Israel if peace effort fails Sunday, Mar 02, 2014 09:37 PM PST  WASHINGTON (Reuters) - President Barack Obama, issuing a veiled warning to Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu on the eve of talks, said in an interview published on Sunday it would be harder for Washington to defend Israel against efforts to isolate it internationally if U.S.-led Middle East peace talks fail. Obama, speaking to Bloomberg View, also made clear that he would press Netanyahu to allow him the time needed to test Iran's willingness to curb its nuclear ambitions, despite the Israeli leader's deep skepticism of the West's diplomatic engagement with Tehran. ... Full Story | Top |
| Advocacy group targets House GOP on immigration Monday, Mar 03, 2014 12:51 PM PST  WASHINGTON (AP) — An advocacy group affiliated with Facebook CEO Mark Zuckerberg launched a nationwide ad on Monday that implores House Republicans to act this election year on legislation overhauling the nation's immigration system. Full Story | Top |
| Wives, neighbors hold war of words in armed Crimea standoff Monday, Mar 03, 2014 04:34 AM PST  By Alissa de Carbonnel PEREVALNOYE, Ukraine (Reuters) - If there is a frontline in Russia's so far bloodless military operation in Ukraine, it is here at a run-down base near a village on a highway through the mountains of Crimea, where Ukrainian troops are holed up, refusing to surrender to hundreds of Russians who have them surrounded. A cluster of men from a nearby village carried Russian flags and periodically chanted "Russia! Russia!". Walking away, Ludmila Ivkina mumbled: "They can shout, 'Russia' all they want, but we can't talk about Ukraine when standing on our own land." Another of the women, 22-year-old student Anya Dudnichko, had knotted a ribbon of Ukrainian yellow and blue in her hair. The Ukrainian military contingent in Crimea was far too small to provide armed resistance to Russian forces. Full Story | Top |
| Winter's last gasp? Another storm hits much of US Monday, Mar 03, 2014 08:07 AM PST  WASHINGTON (AP) — Winter kept its icy hold on much of the country Monday, with snow falling and temperatures dropping as schools and offices closed and people from the South and Mid-Atlantic to Northeast reluctantly waited out another storm indoors. Full Story | Top |
| Obama says Russia on 'wrong side of history' on Ukraine Monday, Mar 03, 2014 04:18 PM PST  Ukraine accused Russia on Monday of giving its forces in Crimea an ultimatum to surrender, as US President Barack Obama said Moscow was on the "wrong side of history" in Europe's worst standoff since the Cold War. Both Washington and the European Union said they were looking at a range of sanctions against Russia for its threat to use force against an ex-Soviet neighbour for the first time since a brief 2008 conflict with Georgia. Russia's Black Sea Fleet however denied it had issued an ultimatum to Ukranian forces and the country's parliament speaker said there was no need yet for Moscow to use its "right" to launch military action in Ukraine. Full Story | Top |
|
No comments:
Post a Comment