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• 2 Cuban dissidents up for election in unprecedented vote
• Torrential rain floods Houston before heading toward New Orleans
• Officers shoot and kill man with knife in St. Louis suburb, police say
• New Hampshire clash of Republican presidential contenders
• TV: Russia's Putin says ready to work with United States
• President Ghani: IS claims responsibility for deadly Afghan bombing
• Suicide bomber kills 33 in bloody attack outside Afghan bank
• Gas-line blast at California shooting range injures 11
• Los Angeles school district, teachers in tentative labor deal
• U.S. urges Greece to reach debt deal
• Gas-line blast closes California highway, 3 critically injured
• Campaign begins in Arizona to make recreational marijuana legal
• Texas House approves bill that limits city bans on fracking
• Man gets 100 years for killing Montana teacher in drug-fueled frenzy
• Chicago schools chief to take temporary leave amid probe

2 Cuban dissidents up for election in unprecedented vote Posted: 18 Apr 2015 01:07 PM PDT At least two dissidents made it past a first round of voting and are standing as candidates in municipal elections that will be watched on and off the island Sunday as an unprecedented test of Cuba's single-party system.

Torrential rain floods Houston before heading toward New Orleans Posted: 18 Apr 2015 10:36 AM PDT Torrential rain triggered flooding on the streets of Houston and sent spectators fleeing from a circus south of the Texas city, officials said on Saturday, as the storm system headed east toward Louisiana and neighboring states. The heavy rainfall followed a front that built up along the Gulf Coast, causing moisture to accumulate along it, said Mark Paquette, a meteorologist with AccuWeather.com. Up to five inches of rain fell in some parts of Houston on Friday and into early Saturday. Water accumulated in streets with poor drainage and caused flooding, Paquette said.

Officers shoot and kill man with knife in St. Louis suburb, police say Posted: 18 Apr 2015 09:14 AM PDT A 23-year-old man who barricaded himself in his mother's house in a St. Louis suburb and spoke of a "black revolution" was shot and killed by police when he rushed at them with a knife, authorities said on Saturday.

New Hampshire clash of Republican presidential contenders Posted: 18 Apr 2015 08:28 AM PDT The Republican Party's most ambitious have stormed into New Hampshire for an early state showdown that highlighted the diversity, political challenges and sheer size of the GOP's 2016 presidential class.

TV: Russia's Putin says ready to work with United States Posted: 18 Apr 2015 05:45 AM PDT Russia has key interests in common with the United States and needs to work with it on a common agenda, Russian President Vladimir Putin said on Saturday in a television interview. In his comments to the state-run Rossiya channel, Putin appeared to soften his anti-American rhetoric after being highly critical. Relations between Moscow and Washington and other Western powers have soured over the conflict in Russia's neighbor Ukraine, sinking to an all-time low. We have a common agenda." Putin has in the past fiercely attacked the United States and the West in general, blaming them for the Ukraine crisis, which Russia says was the result of a Western-backed "coup" against Ukraine's former leader Viktor Yanukovich.

President Ghani: IS claims responsibility for deadly Afghan bombing Posted: 18 Apr 2015 05:29 AM PDT The Islamic State (IS) group claimed to have carried out a deadly suicide attack in eastern Afghanistan Saturday that killed at least 33 people and injured more than 100, Afghan President Ashraf Ghani said, in what, if verified, would be the first major attack claimed by the jihadist group in the country. The Taliban did not claim responsibility for the attack, Daesh (IS) claimed responsibility for the attack," President Ghani said on a visit to northeastern Badakhshan province. "Thirty-three dead bodies and more than 100 wounded were brought to the hospital," Dr Najeebullah Kamawal, head of the provincial hospital, told AFP. Ahmad Zia Abdulzai, a provincial government spokesman, confirmed the attack -- the deadliest since November.

Suicide bomber kills 33 in bloody attack outside Afghan bank Posted: 18 Apr 2015 03:21 AM PDT A suicide bomber killed at least 33 people and wounded 100 others in an attack Saturday outside a bank in the eastern Afghan city of Jalalabad, according to officials. "Thirty-three dead bodies and more than 100 wounded were brought to the hospital," Dr Najeebullah Kamawal, head of the provincial hospital, told AFP. Ahmad Zia Abdulzai, provincial government spokesman, confirmed the attack -- the deadliest since November -- but put the death toll slightly lower at 30. Afghan President Ashraf Ghani strongly condemned the attack, which saw children among those killed, his office said in a statement.

Gas-line blast at California shooting range injures 11 Posted: 18 Apr 2015 01:42 AM PDT FRESNO, Calif. (AP) — A natural gas pipeline explosion at a California sheriff's gun range shot flames well over 100 feet into the air, left 11 people injured and brought traffic on a busy highway to a halt, authorities and witnesses said.

Los Angeles school district, teachers in tentative labor deal Posted: 18 Apr 2015 01:26 AM PDT (Reuters) - The Los Angeles Unified School District (LAUSD) and the city's teachers union reached a tentative agreement on Friday night, the union said, averting a possible strike. The three-year agreement includes a 10 percent pay rise spread over two years, investment in class size and counseling, as well as improvements to the evaluation system for teachers, United Teachers Los Angeles (UTLA) said on its website. Representatives for the school district could not be immediately reached early on Saturday, but school board member Steve Zimmer told the Los Angeles Times: "This is an important step in restoring trust and partnership between LAUSD and UTLA." "Our message to our teachers is simple: We believe in you. The agreement must be ratified by union membership and the district's Board of Education, the union said.

U.S. urges Greece to reach debt deal Posted: 17 Apr 2015 09:55 PM PDT Treasury Secretary Jacob Lew warns default would create "hardship" for Greece.

Gas-line blast closes California highway, 3 critically injured Posted: 17 Apr 2015 08:31 PM PDT FRESNO, Calif. (AP) — A large explosion closed both directions of a major highway in Central California and injured at least three people, authorities said Friday.

Campaign begins in Arizona to make recreational marijuana legal Posted: 17 Apr 2015 08:00 PM PDT By David Schwartz PHOENIX (Reuters) - Advocates for legalizing marijuana launched a petition campaign in Phoenix on Friday seeking a ballot measure that could make Arizona the fifth U.S. state to allow possession, cultivation and consumption of small amounts of pot for recreational use. Supporters have until July of next year to obtain the signatures of 150,642 registered voters in the politically conservative state in order to get their initiative placed on the November 2016 ballot, election officials said. Following the leads of five other western states and the District of Columbia, the Arizona measure would legalize possession, cultivation and private personal consumption of marijuana by adults for the sake of just getting high. Arizona is already one of 23 U.S. states, plus the District of Columbia, that allow marijuana for medicinal purposes.

Texas House approves bill that limits city bans on fracking Posted: 17 Apr 2015 07:28 PM PDT By Marice Richter DALLAS (Reuters) - A bill that would stop Texas cities from enacting their own bans on hydraulic fracturing in the nation's top crude oil and natural gas producing state was approved on Friday in the state House of Representatives. The bill bars cities from overly regulating the industry, targeting a ban on fracking, a method of extracting oil and gas that uses high pressure, adopted by voters in Denton, Texas, a college town about 30 miles (50 km) north of Dallas. Representatives voted 122-18 to advance the bill. The Texas Senate has yet to vote on a similar bill.

Man gets 100 years for killing Montana teacher in drug-fueled frenzy Posted: 17 Apr 2015 07:11 PM PDT A man who admitted killing a Montana teacher during a cocaine frenzy was sentenced to 100 years in prison by a state judge on Friday in a case that authorities said underscored a crime wave that accompanied a regional oil boom. Michael Spell, 25, of Parachute, Colorado, pleaded guilty in October to deliberate homicide in the strangling death of math instructor Sherry Arnold, legal documents showed. The agreement came after several court hearings that sought to determine Spell's competence, with defense attorneys claiming he was unfit to stand trial because of mental deficiencies. Arnold, 43, vanished in January 2012 while on a predawn run in her rural hometown of Sidney, where at the time authorities were noting a sharp increase in population and crime tied to an oil boom spanning northeastern Montana and northwestern North Dakota.

Chicago schools chief to take temporary leave amid probe Posted: 17 Apr 2015 04:14 PM PDT CHICAGO (AP) — Chicago Public Schools CEO Barbara Byrd-Bennett will take a paid leave of absence amid a federal investigation over a roughly $20 million no-bid contract the district awarded to a training academy where she once worked as a consultant, officials announced Friday.

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