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| Dems, Obama, head into 2014 distant, determined Thursday, Nov 28, 2013 10:08 AM PST  WASHINGTON (AP) — A month after emerging from a government shutdown at the top of their game, many Democrats in Congress newly worried about the party's re-election prospects are for the first time distancing themselves from President Barack Obama after the disastrous rollout of his health care overhaul. Full Story | Top |
| A Conservative Millionaire's Quest to Raise California's Minimum Wage to $12 an Hour Thursday, Nov 28, 2013 12:22 PM PST  The Conservative Argument for Raising the Minimum Wage Full Story | Top |
| Japan 'prime target' in China air zone: state-run media Thursday, Nov 28, 2013 06:35 PM PST  Chinese state-run media Friday identified Japan as Beijing's "prime target" in its newly declared air defence zone, calling for "timely countermeasures without hesitation" if Tokyo defies it. However, other countries which have sent military aircraft into the air defence identification zone (ADIZ), including the United States and South Korea, should be largely ignored, the Global Times said. Full Story | Top |
| Pizza Hut offers to rehire manager who refused to open on holiday Thursday, Nov 28, 2013 03:31 PM PST  franchise in Indiana is mulling over a rehire offer from the worldwide pizza chain after he was fired for refusing to open the restaurant on Thanksgiving Day. Tony Rohr, 28, said he was told to write a letter of resignation after deciding to give his employees at the Elkhart, Indiana, store the holiday off. He told South Bend, Indiana, station WSBT-TV that he instead wrote a letter explaining why the store, part of Yum Brands Inc, should be closed, and then he was fired. Pizza Hut's corporate office said in a statement it "strongly recommended that the local franchisee reinstate the store manager, and they have agreed." Although the choice to open on a holiday is made at the local level, most U.S. franchise locations are closed on Thanksgiving, it said. Full Story | Top |
| Justin Bieber in Australia graffiti row Wednesday, Nov 27, 2013 11:11 PM PST  Teen heartthrob Justin Bieber was Thursday told to clean up his mess after the pop star was accused of spraying graffiti on an Australian hotel wall. Furious Gold Coast mayor Tom Tate said the Canadian had been disrespectful and "really, really silly", and sent a graffiti removal kit to the exclusive QT Hotel at Surfers Paradise so he could repair the damage. Bieber's handiwork includes a Pacman ghost and other fluorescent cartoon characters, reportedly painted in the early hours of Wednesday after the star's sell-out Brisbane show. Pictures of the graffiti were posted online, including on Instagram, with reports saying Bieber and his entourage left the cans of spray paint behind for staff to clean up. Full Story | Top |
| Health law business insurance site delayed 1 year Thursday, Nov 28, 2013 12:36 AM PST  The Obama administration is delaying yet another aspect of the health care law, putting off until next November the launch of an online portal to the health insurance marketplace for small businesses. ... Full Story | Top |
| China sends warplanes into air defense zone Thursday, Nov 28, 2013 07:03 PM PST  BEIJING (AP) — China said it sent warplanes into its newly declared maritime air defense zone days after the U.S., South Korea and Japan all sent flights through the airspace in defiance of rules Beijing says it has imposed in the East China Sea. Full Story | Top |
| On illegal immigration, more cities are rolling out a welcome mat Thursday, Nov 28, 2013 08:00 AM PST The passage by conservative state lawmakers of Arizona's controversial immigration law SB 1070 in 2010 inspired copy-cat measures in several other states that made them similarly hostile to illegal immigrants. But city leaders in this desert town, in an example of a growing national trend more hospitable to immigrants, are pushing back against Arizona's "papers, please" law in renewed repudiation of the measure and in a nod to immigrant integration. Tucson, in liberal-leaning Pima County, is a longtime foe of the tough immigration law designed to push out of state those in the country illegally. For instance, minors may not be questioned away from an attorney or guardian, and people who report a crime can do so without fear of having their immigration status checked. Full Story | Top |
| MERS virus found in camels in Qatar, linked to human spread Thursday, Nov 28, 2013 05:44 AM PST  By Amena Bakr and Kate Kelland DOHA/LONDON (Reuters) - Scientists have found cases of Middle East Respiratory Syndrome (MERS) in camels in Qatar, health officials said on Thursday, fuelling speculation that camels might be the animal reservoir that allowed the virus to infect and kill humans. The SARS-like coronavirus, which emerged in the Middle East last year and has killed almost 40 percent of the around 170 people so far infected, was found in three camels in a herd in a barn also linked to two human cases of MERS infection. "The three camels were investigated among a herd of 14 camels, and the samples were collected as part of the epidemiological investigation," Qatar's Supreme Council of Health said in a statement. It added that the two confirmed human cases linked to the barn had since recovered. Full Story | Top |
| Cardiologists strongly back Obamacare, worry over rocky start Wednesday, Nov 27, 2013 10:07 PM PST  By Ransdell Pierson and Bill Berkrot DALLAS (Reuters) - American cardiologists appear staunch in their support for President Barack Obama's healthcare reform, although some fear that its rocky launch could derail efforts to improve preventive care for needy patients. The broad support for the Affordable Care Act, popularly known as Obamacare, emerged in interviews last week in Dallas with more than 20 cardiologists at the annual scientific sessions of the American Heart Association. The group has set an aggressive goal of reducing heart disease and deaths from heart disease and strokes in the United States by 20 percent by 2020. Heart specialists say the key to achieving that goal is a greater focus on preventive care and access to medical services for more Americans. Full Story | Top |
| UN women's rights resolution passed despite backlash Thursday, Nov 28, 2013 01:23 AM PST  United Nations (United States) (AFP) - A UN General Assembly committee has agreed a landmark first resolution on women's rights defenders such as Malala Yousafzai, despite a hard fought campaign by an alliance including the Vatican to weaken the measure. A Norwegian-led coalition, which has prepared the resolution for months, had to delete language that condemned "all forms of violence against women" to get the text passed by consensus late Wednesday. African nations, the Vatican, Iran, Russia, China and conservative Muslim states had sought to weaken the resolution passed by the assembly's human rights committee, diplomats and activists said. The campaign for women's rights defenders has been given a huge boost in recent months by the likes of Malala, the Pakistani teenager shot in the head by the Taliban for her battle for girls' education, and Denis Mukwege, the Democratic Republic of Congo doctor briefly forced into exile for his work helping rape victims. Full Story | Top |
| Church of England proposes 'blessings' for gay marriage Thursday, Nov 28, 2013 08:57 AM PST  By Belinda Goldsmith LONDON (Reuters) - Church of England clergy would be able to "bless" same-sex relationships under long-awaited proposals unveiled on Thursday as the church adopts a more open - but disputed - approach to homosexuality. Although gay couples would still not be able to legally marry in a church, the proposed change would officially sanction clergy to let gay and lesbian couples mark and celebrate same-sex marriages and civil partnerships in a church service. Acknowledging the issue was divisive, group chairman Joseph Pilling said the church needed to reflect rapid changes in society as senior clergy express fears of a looming crisis, with falling attendance rates and failure to attract young people. This year, parliament introduced new laws to allow gay marriages from 2014 after legalizing civil partnerships in 2005 and the church dropped its ban on gay clergy in civil partnerships becoming bishops. Full Story | Top |
| Union: Worker warned crane was on unstable ground Thursday, Nov 28, 2013 03:51 PM PST  SAO PAULO (AP) — A safety engineer at the World Cup stadium where a giant crane collapse killed two workers allegedly warned his supervisor of possible problems with the operation, only to have his concerns brushed aside, a labor union leader charged Thursday, as sniping over the accident heated up. Full Story | Top |
| Vienna zoo names baby panda 'Happy Leopard' Thursday, Nov 28, 2013 11:09 AM PST  Vienna's new baby panda will be named Fu Bao, or Happy Leopard in Mandarin, the city's Schoenbrunn Zoo announced on Thursday, three months after he was born. Schoenbrun is the only zoo in Europe where pandas -- notoriously picky partners -- have reproduced naturally, without artificial insemination. Mother Yang Yang and father Long Hui had a first cub in 2007, later named Fu Long, or Happy Dragon in Chinese. His brother Fu Hu -- Happy Tiger -- followed exactly three years later on August 23, 2010. Full Story | Top |
| Afghanistan's Karzai stands alone in high-stakes game with U.S. Thursday, Nov 28, 2013 12:13 AM PST  By Maria Golovnina and John Chalmers KABUL (Reuters) - President Hamid Karzai's stubborn refusal to sign a pact that would keep thousands of U.S. troops in Afghanistan after 2014 is a high-risk gamble that Washington will give in to his demands, one that has left him isolated as the clock runs down on his presidency. Diplomats said he may have over-played his hand, raising the risk of a complete U.S. withdrawal from the insurgency-plagued country where Western troops have fought Taliban militants for the past 12 years. There was much dismay in Kabul this week after Karzai over-rode the near-unanimous decision of an assembly of nearly 3,000 Afghan tribal elders to back the agreement and introduced new conditions. Even Qayum Karzai, who is running in next April's election to succeed his younger brother - while being careful not to criticize the president - told Reuters this week that it was in Afghanistan's "vital interest" to get the pact signed. Full Story | Top |
| New setback for Obamacare as website delays mount Thursday, Nov 28, 2013 02:51 AM PST  The US government announced Wednesday small businesses will have to wait until next year to buy health coverage through an online marketplace, yet another setback for Barack Obama's signature health care reform. In an online posting, Health and Human Services said the online "marketplaces" created as part of the reform -- to help small businesses compare plans, take advantage of tax breaks, and find the best rates -- will not be available until November 2014, "for coverage taking effect on or after January 1, 2015." The health care reform package, dubbed "Obamacare," a major campaign promise from Obama that was made law in March 2010, requires companies with more than 50 employees to offer health insurance for their employees. But it is yet another setback for the Obama administration, which has made a number of concessions in recent weeks after a rocky rollout of several of the law's most sweeping changes. Full Story | Top |
| Obamas spend quiet Thanksgiving at White House Thursday, Nov 28, 2013 10:30 AM PST  WASHINGTON (AP) — President Barack Obama celebrated a quiet Thanksgiving at the White House Thursday and called several members of armed forces to thank them for their service to the country. Full Story | Top |
| Seeing double: Kim Jong Un lookalike turns heads in Hong Kong Wednesday, Nov 27, 2013 08:59 PM PST  By Venus Wu HONG KONG (Reuters) - A haircut and some makeup was all it took for a Hong Kong musician to transform himself into one of the world's most notorious dictators, North Korean leader Kim Jong Un. After all, I'm a musician, so it's about the performance," said Howard, who declined to give his surname in order to keep his music and impersonation careers separate. He turned heads and drew giggles this week when he paraded down the streets of a popular shopping district in Hong Kong. He really looks like him," said Hong Kong resident Ada Ho. Full Story | Top |
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