| The 'bloody-nose option'? Trump eyes action on North Korea in 2018 Posted: 22 Dec 2017 02:00 AM PST  A year of erratic U.S. rhetoric and steadily escalating diplomatic and economic pressure has failed to convince North Korea to give up its nuclear and ballistic missile programs, leaving the frustrated Trump administration to reconsider its options going into 2018 as the world wonders whether it's on the edge of war. "We're not committed to a peaceful resolution — we're committed to a resolution," President Trump's national security adviser, Lt. Gen. H.R. McMaster, told BBC News this week. "We want the resolution to be peaceful, but as the president said, all options are on the table. And we have to be prepared, if necessary, to compel the denuclearization of North Korea without the cooperation of that regime," McMaster said.
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| Democrats Are Attacking The GOP For Its Hypocrisy On Deficits. That Might Be A Mistake. Posted: 23 Dec 2017 05:01 AM PST  WASHINGTON ― Republicans ran against the rising national debt in the 2010 midterm elections, and it worked.
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| Las Vegas woman charged with gunning down 3 roommates Posted: 23 Dec 2017 02:46 PM PST  LAS VEGAS (AP) — A Las Vegas woman is facing multiple murder charges Saturday in the shooting deaths of her three roommates, who lived in what authorities described as a "problem house."
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| Climate Change Could Trigger More Volcanic Eruptions, Study Finds Posted: 22 Dec 2017 01:42 PM PST  WASHINGTON — Climate change fueled by human activity could boost the frequency and severity of volcanic eruptions, a recent scientific study has found.
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| Baby Hospitalized After Being Attacked by Raccoon in Her Home, Family Says Posted: 22 Dec 2017 01:26 PM PST  Little Journi Black was asleep on her parent's bed in their Philadelphia apartment when a raccoon apparently dragged her onto the floor and attacked her Wednesday, her uncle Kenneth McDuffie said.
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| Myanmar to grant families access to two Reuters journalists after remand period expires: media Posted: 23 Dec 2017 05:24 AM PST ![Myanmar to grant families access to two Reuters journalists after remand period expires: media]( "Myanmar to grant families access to two Reuters journalists after remand period expires: media") Two Reuters journalists detained in Myanmar will be allowed to meet their families once their first 14-day period of remand expires, according to local media reports. Reporters Wa Lone and Kyaw Soe Oo have been in detention for 11 days in an undisclosed location and have had no access to their families, lawyers or colleagues. The authorities are investigating whether they violated the country's colonial-era Official Secrets Act, which has a maximum prison sentence of 14 years.
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| The unsung heroes of 2017 Posted: 22 Dec 2017 03:52 AM PST  Rescue workers and volunteers help residents make their way out of a flooded Houston neighborhood following Hurricane Harvey on Aug. 29. The catastrophic flooding in Houston in the wake of Hurricane Harvey was the backdrop for plenty of dramatic boat rescues in August. Both groups used Facebook to organize and coordinate their street-by-street searches.
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| Senate Paid Out $1.45 Million In Discrimination Settlements Since 1997, Data Shows Posted: 21 Dec 2017 07:24 PM PST  The Senate paid nearly $1.45 million in taxpayer-funded discrimination settlements over the last two decades, according to data released on Thursday obtained by several news outlets.
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| The Christmas Cats Of Instagram Are Bringing The Holiday Cheer Posted: 22 Dec 2017 02:19 AM PST  Cute cats are wishing everyone a meow-y Christmas.
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| Polish fund to restore Europe's largest Jewish cemetery Posted: 22 Dec 2017 09:40 AM PST ![Polish fund to restore Europe's largest Jewish cemetery]( "Polish fund to restore Europe's largest Jewish cemetery") Poland on Friday launched a multi-million euro investment fund to pay for the restoration of Europe's largest Jewish cemetery located in Warsaw and largely neglected since the Holocaust. Culture Minister Piotr Glinski said that profits generated from the fund valued at 24 million euros ($28 million) would ensure maintenance of the site that bears witness to Warsaw's lost Jewish community. It is is the final resting place for about 250,000 people, mostly Warsaw elites, according to its director Przemyslaw Szpilman.
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| Arab alliance: Yemen one million cholera cases report exaggerated Posted: 22 Dec 2017 10:02 AM PST ![Arab alliance: Yemen one million cholera cases report exaggerated]( "Arab alliance: Yemen one million cholera cases report exaggerated") The Saudi-led coalition fighting in Yemen said on Friday an announcement by the International Committee of the Red Cross that cholera cases in the country had reached one million suspected cases was exaggerated. "It is nearly impossible to accurately determine whether the suspected cases are cholera or simple diarrhea," a statement by the spokesperson for the coalition said. Yemen, one of the Arab world's poorest countries, is embroiled in a proxy war between the Houthi armed movement, aligned with Iran, and a U.S.-backed military coalition headed by Saudi Arabia.
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| Parents Give Teachers Gift Suggesting Son Drives Them To Drink Posted: 22 Dec 2017 12:06 PM PST  Instead of whining about their son's teachers, Ohio parents Mary and Paul Sommers decided to wine them for Christmas instead.
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| 5 ways Donald Trump has failed to 'drain the swamp' Posted: 22 Dec 2017 02:00 AM PST  One year into his first term, however, Trump's pledge to root out Washington corruption has not exactly yielded the quick and easy results his slogan promised. Perhaps as a result, a new poll finds a sharp jump over the past 12 months in the number (44 percent) of Americans who think that most or all of the officials in the current administration are corrupt. A man holds up a "Drain the Swamp in Washington DC" sign as Republican presidential nominee Donald Trump attends a campaign event at the airport in Kinston, N.C., Oct. 26, 2016.
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| Rights groups call on Egypt to free Al-Jazeera journalist Posted: 22 Dec 2017 08:13 AM PST ![Rights groups call on Egypt to free Al-Jazeera journalist]( "Rights groups call on Egypt to free Al-Jazeera journalist") CAIRO (AP) — Rights groups and a press freedom organization renewed calls on Egyptian authorities Friday to release an Al-Jazeera journalist whose detention passed the one-year mark. Egypt accuses the Qatar-based news network of bias toward Islamist groups including its own outlawed Muslim Brotherhood group.
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| Divers Find Sunken WWI Submarine, 100 Years After It Disappeared Posted: 22 Dec 2017 09:51 AM PST  One of Australia's oldest naval mysteries has been solved.
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| Police Are Still Searching for a Motive in the Melbourne Car Attack Posted: 21 Dec 2017 06:15 PM PST  It is the second time this year that Melbourne has been traumatized by a car attack
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| John Schnatter Is Out as Papa John's CEO. Here's What We Know About His Money Posted: 22 Dec 2017 11:07 AM PST  Papa John's founder John Schnatter will step down as chief executive on January 1. This comes after his controversial comments about the NFL protestors.
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| Amtrak engineer remarked on train speed 6 seconds before crash: NTSB Posted: 22 Dec 2017 02:52 PM PST ![Amtrak engineer remarked on train speed 6 seconds before crash: NTSB]( "Amtrak engineer remarked on train speed 6 seconds before crash: NTSB") (Reuters) - Six seconds before an Amtrak train derailed off a bridge and onto a highway near Seattle, the engineer remarked that the train was speeding, U.S. investigators said on Friday. The engineer then applied the brakes but apparently not the emergency brake, the National Transportation Safety Board (NTSB) said in a statement after retrieving and reviewing data from the data recorder and inward- and outward-facing cameras. Monday's crash south of Seattle killed three people and sent about 100 others to hospitals.
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| L.A. Goes Bonkers Over Breathtaking 'UFO' Lighting Up The Sky Posted: 22 Dec 2017 07:20 PM PST  unexpected #spacexlaunch sighting A post shared by stephanie clary (@sclary) on Dec 22, 2017 at 5:43pm PST Angelenos thought the end was finally here when they looked up Friday evening to see something that appeared to be an iridescent alien ship exploding across the sky.
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| 29 die, 29 injured in South Korean building fire Posted: 21 Dec 2017 06:43 PM PST  SEOUL, South Korea (AP) — South Korea's government on Friday began investigating a fire that tore through an eight-floor building and killed 29 people in the central city of Jecheon in the country's deadliest blaze in nearly a decade.
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| The Last Known Dancing Bears Of Nepal Have Been Rescued Posted: 23 Dec 2017 08:29 AM PST  The last two known bears forced to dance for spectators in Nepal have been rescued.
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| Mosul's morgue men endured worst of Islamic State butchery Posted: 23 Dec 2017 11:00 AM PST  MOSUL, Iraq (AP) — The young man ended up on the morgue's examining table in two parts.
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| 5 Best Handgun Makers on the Planet (Sig, Glock and Ruger Made the Cut) Posted: 22 Dec 2017 06:25 PM PST  Here are the five best handgun manufacturers. Gaston Glock's initial attempt to build a handgun for the Austrian military has exploded into an international empire, all the more amazing considering that it was built solely on handguns. From the original Glock 17, the company now offers twenty-six handguns on the U.S. market in calibers from .380 Auto to .45 G.A.P.
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| The World’s Largest Lottery Has Just Drawn Its Winners Posted: 22 Dec 2017 03:33 PM PST  The lucky winners of Spain's Christmas lottery celebrated on Friday as they eagerly awaited receiving their share of the 2.4 billion euro, or $2.8 billion, prize.
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| In new harassment case, edgy media firm Vice says it has fired three Posted: 23 Dec 2017 12:59 PM PST  Youth-oriented news company Vice Media acknowledged Saturday that it had allowed a "detrimental 'boy's club' culture" to flourish and had failed to protect women employees from harassment. A statement from Vice said three employees had been dismissed after "multiple instances of unacceptable behavior" emerged. The New York Times said Saturday that in an in-depth examination of the company's culture, it had uncovered four settlements against Vice employees for harassment or defamation.
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| California manhunt under way after random shootings target 10 drivers Posted: 21 Dec 2017 06:59 PM PST ![California manhunt under way after random shootings target 10 drivers]( "California manhunt under way after random shootings target 10 drivers") Police in California's Central Valley have launched a manhunt for at least one suspect after a series of 10 random shootings on vehicles left one woman wounded this holiday season, officials said on Thursday. Fresno County Sheriff Margaret Mims has warned the shooting attacks, which have occurred in her jurisdiction and neighboring Madera County, could turn deadly. "If this keeps going, it's going to be a matter of time before we have a murder investigation," Mims said at a news conference.
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| Trump tweets 'thank you' to head of group accused of illegal political activity, racial bias Posted: 22 Dec 2017 09:20 AM PST  Trump's commendation of Charlie Kirk comes on the heels of the New Yorker report which suggests that the nonprofit Turning Points may have violated campaign finance laws with its involvement in political activity during the 2016 presidential election and has been accused of creating a racially biased work environment.
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| Major powers seek to hold Syria peace congress in late January Posted: 22 Dec 2017 08:17 AM PST  Major powerbrokers agreed Friday to hold a peace congress for Syria in Russia's Black Sea resort of Sochi in late January after previous attempts to hold the conference collapsed. Sochi will host the "Congress of National Dialogue" on Syria on January 29 and 30, said a joint statement released after two days of talks spearheaded by Russia and Iran, both key backers of Syrian President Bashar al-Assad's regime, and rebel-aligned Turkey.
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| Coptic diocese says hundreds attack church in Egypt Posted: 23 Dec 2017 10:20 AM PST ![Coptic diocese says hundreds attack church in Egypt]( "Coptic diocese says hundreds attack church in Egypt") CAIRO (AP) — Hundreds of Muslim demonstrators attacked an unlicensed church south of Cairo wounding three people, an Egyptian Coptic Christian diocese said on Saturday, in the latest assault on members of the country's Christian minority.
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| Afghan raisin houses get a facelift to boost productivity Posted: 22 Dec 2017 09:21 AM PST  Afghan farmer Abdul Jalil Gulzar sits by a pile of raisins in the squat mud brick shed where generations of his family have dried their grape harvest.
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| How Does Santa Claus Deliver All the Presents on Christmas Eve? Watch Our Santa Tracker to Find Out Posted: 22 Dec 2017 06:00 AM PST  We calculated the best route for Santa to take through the U.S. See when he'll arrive at your house
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| U.S. drops charges that U.N. economist underpaid Bangladeshi worker Posted: 22 Dec 2017 09:42 AM PST ![U.S. drops charges that U.N. economist underpaid Bangladeshi worker]( "U.S. drops charges that U.N. economist underpaid Bangladeshi worker") U.S. prosecutors have dropped charges accusing a United Nations economist in New York of committing visa fraud by bringing into the country a domestic worker from Bangladesh and then failing to pay her a lawful wage, his lawyers announced on Friday. Hamidur Rashid, a Bangladeshi national and economist at the United Nations' Department of Economic and Social Affairs, was charged with visa fraud and fraud in foreign labor contracting in June.
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| Philippines tropical storm toll climbs to 44: officials Posted: 22 Dec 2017 09:34 PM PST  The death toll from a tropical storm that struck the southern Philippines has risen to 44 as mudslides wiped out a mountain village and ravaged another town, officials said Saturday. Nineteen deaths were reported near the town of Tubod on Friday on Mindanao, the archipelago nation's second-largest island, where Tropical Storm Tembin unleashed flash floods and mudslides that erased a remote village from the map, police said. The village is no longer there," Tubod police officer Gerry Parami told AFP by telephone.
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| Congress passes short-term spending bill to avert government shutdown Posted: 21 Dec 2017 08:11 PM PST  Congress is poised to adjourn on Friday. Congress has averted a shutdown of the federal government, narrowly passing a temporary spending bill that will now go to Donald Trump to sign but that will only delay the reckoning for a month and will kick contentious issues such as immigration and healthcare into the new year.
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| White farmer gets land back under Zimbabwe's new leader Posted: 22 Dec 2017 07:18 AM PST  A white Zimbabwean farmer evicted by the government of Robert Mugabe has returned to a hero's welcome as the first to get his land back under the new president, in a sign of reform on an issue that had hastened the country's international isolation. With a military escort, Robert Smart made his way into Lesbury farm about 124 miles east of the capital, Harare, on Thursday to cheers and song by dozens of workers and community members. Such scenes were once unthinkable in a country where land ownership is an emotional issue with political and racial overtones. "We have come to reclaim our farm," sang black women and men, rushing into the compound. Two decades ago, their arrival would have meant that Smart and his family would have to leave. Ruling Zanu-PF party supporters, led by veterans of the 1970s war against white minority rule, evicted many of Zimbabwe's white farmers under an often violent land reform program led by Mugabe. Farmers, Darryn, left and Robert Smart, right, are welcomed back to their farm Credit: Farai Mutsaka/AP Whites make up less than one per cent of the southern African country's population, but they owned huge tracts of land while blacks remained in largely unproductive areas. The evictions were meant to address colonial land ownership imbalances skewed against blacks, Mugabe said. Some in the international community responded with outrage and sanctions. Of the roughly 4,500 white farmers before the land reforms began in 2000, only a few hundred are left. But Mugabe is gone, resigning last month after the military and ruling party turned against him amid fears that his wife was positioning herself to take power. New President Emmerson Mnangagwa, a longtime Mugabe ally but stung by his firing as vice president, has promised to undo some land reforms as he seeks to revive the once-prosperous economy. The family who were evicted by gun-wielding police and a mob associated with the ruling party returned to a hero's welcome Credit: Farai Mutsaka/ AP Mr Smart is the first to have his farm returned. On Thursday, some war veterans and local traditional leaders joined farm workers and villagers in song to welcome his family home. "Oh, Darryn," one woman cried, dashing to embrace Mr Smart's son. In a flash, dozens followed her. Some ululated, and others waved triumphant fists in the air. "I am ecstatic. Words cannot describe the feeling," Darryn told The Associated Press. Smart's return, facilitated by Mnangagwa's government, could mark a new turn in the politics of land ownership. During his inauguration last month, Mnangagwa described the land reform as "inevitable," calling land management key to economic recovery. Months before an election scheduled for August 2018 at the latest, the new president is desperate to bring back foreign investors and resolve a severe currency shortage, mass unemployment and dramatic price increases. Zimbabwe is mainly agricultural, with 80 percent of the population depending on it for their livelihoods, according to government figures. Earlier this month, deputy finance minister Terrence Mukupe traveled to neighboring Zambia to engage former white Zimbabwean farmers who have settled there.
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| Mysterious SpaceX launch confounds LA residents Posted: 22 Dec 2017 08:41 PM PST  Elon Musk's SpaceX satellite launch created an unsettling display in the sky over California.
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