| Mad dash for health care sign-ups on deadline day Posted: 31 Mar 2014 01:00 PM PDT  WASHINGTON (AP) — A flood of last-minute applicants rushed to sign up for health insurance on Monday, deadline day for President Barack Obama's health care law, with more than 100,000 people at a time using the fragile system despite a new spate of intermittent ills.
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| AP source: US talking with Israel on spy release Posted: 31 Mar 2014 12:13 PM PDT  JERUSALEM (AP) — The United States is talking with Israel about the possibility of releasing convicted spy Jonathan Pollard from prison early, a person familiar with Mideast peace negotiations said Monday. That would come in exchange for Israeli concessions that would allow faltering peace talks with the Palestinians to continue beyond an end-of-April deadline.
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| Congress to pass bill to stop cut to Medicare docs Posted: 31 Mar 2014 12:12 PM PDT  WASHINGTON (AP) — Congress is poised to give doctors who treat Medicare patients an eleventh-hour reprieve from a cut in their government fees.
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| Complete coverage: Obamacare deadline Posted: 31 Mar 2014 12:12 PM PDT  Latest on enrollments and snafus, with in-depth reports on the politics of making it work.
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| Health care website stumbles on last day Posted: 31 Mar 2014 10:38 AM PDT  A new technical problem is preventing last-minute users from creating HealthCare.gov accounts.
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| Kerry returns to Middle East for flailing peace talks Posted: 31 Mar 2014 10:38 AM PDT  U.S. Secretary of State John Kerry broke from his travel schedule for the second time in a week and rushed back to the Middle East on Monday to try to salvage Israeli-Palestinian peace talks. A major stumbling block is Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu's demand that Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas explicitly recognize Israel as a Jewish state. Sources close to the negotiations said that an Israeli spy serving a life sentence in the United States and groups of Palestinian prisoners could be freed under an emerging deal to salvage the talks. The U.S.-brokered negotiations faced a crisis at the weekend when Israel, saying it was seeking a Palestinian commitment to continue negotiations beyond an end-April deadline, failed to press ahead with a promised release of Palestinian prisoners.
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| Senate report: Torture didn't lead to bin Laden Posted: 31 Mar 2014 09:36 AM PDT  WASHINGTON (AP) — A Senate investigation concludes waterboarding and other harsh interrogation methods provided no key evidence in the hunt for Osama bin Laden, according to congressional aides and outside experts familiar with a still-secret, 6,200-page report. The finding could deepen the worst rift in years between lawmakers and the CIA.
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| Germany returns looted Guardi painting to Poland Posted: 31 Mar 2014 09:22 AM PDT  BERLIN (AP) — An 18th-century painting looted by the Nazis for Adolf Hitler's 'Fuehrer Museum' was handed back to Poland on Monday, a move Germany hopes will revive thorny talks over a vast trove of historical documents Berlin that wants to recover from Poland.
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| NSA tool increased RSA security vulnerability, researchers say Posted: 31 Mar 2014 09:22 AM PDT  By Joseph Menn SAN FRANCISCO (Reuters) - Security industry pioneer RSA adopted not just one but two encryption tools developed by the U.S. National Security Agency, greatly increasing the spy agency's ability to eavesdrop on some Internet communications, according to a team of academic researchers. Reuters reported in December that the NSA had paid RSA $10 million to make a now-discredited cryptography system the default in software used by a wide range of Internet and computer security programs. The system, called Dual Elliptic Curve, was a random number generator, but it had a deliberate flaw - or "back door" - that allowed the NSA to crack the encryption. A group of professors from Johns Hopkins, the University of Wisconsin, the University of Illinois and elsewhere now say they have discovered that a second NSA tool exacerbated the RSA software's vulnerability.
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| Weight loss surgery helps reverse type 2 diabetes, study shows Posted: 31 Mar 2014 07:01 AM PDT  By Bill Berkrot and Ransdell Pierson WASHINGTON (Reuters) - Bariatric weight loss surgery on obese patients with type 2 diabetes helped many to get their blood sugar to healthy levels and to no longer require any diabetes medicines, including insulin, three years after the procedure, according to data presented at a major medical meeting on Monday. The study called Stampede, which involved 150 obese patients who had poorly controlled type 2 diabetes for at least eight years, was conducted by Cleveland Clinic researchers. It compared two types of weight loss surgery against weight loss attained by diet and exercise along with nutrition counseling and, for some, additional diabetes medicines that can help promote weight loss, such as Victoza from Novo Nordisk.
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| Engaged Johnny Depp shows off 'chick's ring' Posted: 31 Mar 2014 06:17 AM PDT  BEIJING (AP) — Johnny Depp showed off a diamond engagement ring that he called a "chick's ring" on Monday — indirectly confirming rumors of his engagement to actress Amber Heard.
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| Engaged Johnny Depp shows off 'chick ring' Posted: 31 Mar 2014 06:17 AM PDT BEIJING (AP) — Johnny Depp has shown off a diamond engagement ring that he calls a "chick's ring" — indirectly confirming rumors of his engagement to actress Amber Heard. |
| Russian PM Medvedev makes surprise visit to Crimea Posted: 31 Mar 2014 06:17 AM PDT  SIMFEROPOL, Crimea (AP) — On a surprise visit Monday to Crimea, Russia's prime minister promised to quickly pour funds into the newly annexed peninsula so residents see positive changes after the Russian takeover.
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| World court: Japanese whaling not scientific Posted: 31 Mar 2014 03:25 AM PDT  THE HAGUE, Netherlands (AP) — The International Court of Justice says that Japan's Antarctic whaling program is not for scientific purposes and has ordered a temporary stay on the program.
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| UN panel: Warming worsens food, hunger problems Posted: 31 Mar 2014 01:05 AM PDT YOKOHAMA, Japan (AP) — A United Nations scientific panel says global warming makes feeding the world harder and more expensive. |
| Australian PM vows search for jetliner will go on Posted: 31 Mar 2014 01:05 AM PDT  PERTH, Australia (AP) — The weekslong search for Malaysia Airlines Flight 370 is "an extraordinarily difficult exercise" but it will go on as long as possible, Australia's prime minister said Monday.
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| Senate torture report examines hunt for bin Laden Posted: 31 Mar 2014 01:05 AM PDT WASHINGTON (AP) — A hotly disputed Senate torture report concludes that waterboarding and other harsh interrogation methods provided no key evidence in the hunt for Osama bin Laden, according to congressional aides and outside experts familiar with the investigation. |
| Low-cost Dominican surgeries spark warnings by US Posted: 30 Mar 2014 10:57 PM PDT  SANTO DOMINGO, Dominican Republic (AP) — Beverly Brignoni was a young New Yorker seeking a less expensive way to enhance her appearance and she did what many other people are now doing: travel to the Dominican Republic for cosmetic surgery.
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| SKorea fires shells at NKorean waters after drills Posted: 30 Mar 2014 09:54 PM PDT  South Korea has fired artillery shells in response to North Korean shells from a live-fire drill that fell in waters south of the rivals' disputed western sea boundary.
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| Two Koreas trade fire across maritime border Posted: 30 Mar 2014 09:54 PM PDT North and South Korea traded fire across their disputed maritime border on Monday, with the South's military saying it had responded to shells landing in its waters from a North live-fire drill. "Some of the shells fired by North Korea dropped in our area and our side responded with fire," a spokesman for the South Korean Joint Chiefs of Staff told AFP. |
| Australia PM: No time limit on Malaysia jet search Posted: 30 Mar 2014 09:07 PM PDT  Prime Minister Tony Abbott said there was no time limit on the hunt for Malaysia Airlines Flight MH370.
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| Smith, Denorfia lift Padres to 3-1 win over LA Posted: 30 Mar 2014 09:07 PM PDT  SAN DIEGO (AP) — Seth Smith hit a tying homer leading off the eighth and Chris Denorfia singled home two runs to give the San Diego Padres a 3-1 victory against the rival Los Angeles Dodgers in baseball's North American opener Sunday night.
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| Mudslide death toll rises; search dogs take break Posted: 30 Mar 2014 08:04 PM PDT  DARRINGTON, Wash. (AP) — Many of the dogs essential in the search for victims of the deadly mudslide that buried a mountainside community will take a two-day break, rescue crews said Sunday, as the official death toll rose and more bodies were recovered.
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| Mudslide death toll rises, search dogs take break Posted: 30 Mar 2014 07:32 PM PDT DARRINGTON, Wash. (AP) — Many of the dogs that have been essential in the search for victims of the deadly mudslide that buried the mountainside community of Oso will take a two-day break after long hours in the cold and rain, rescue crews said Sunday. |
| Harrison lifts Wildcats to 75-72 win over Michigan Posted: 30 Mar 2014 04:54 PM PDT  INDIANAPOLIS (AP) — Aaron Harrison made a 3-pointer from NBA range with 2.3 seconds left Sunday to lift Kentucky to a 75-72 win over Michigan and a trip to the Final Four.
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