| What Congress Has Planned for 2016 Posted: 01 Jan 2016 11:01 AM PST  Looking for your congressman in the new year? Try the campaign trail.After a productive and tumultuous 2015, lawmakers begin 2016 with roughly 30 work weeks on the schedule, a lighter load meant to accommodate the presidential conventions in July and reelection races.Lawmakers still have a full agenda for President Obama's final year in office. ...
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| Why 2015 Was a Year of Political Firsts Posted: 01 Jan 2016 08:55 AM PST  In 2015, America saw the normalization of U.S.-Cuba relations, a brand-new House Speaker, a whopping 17 people declare their candidacy for the Republican presidential nomination, and a Bush and a Clinton once again enter the race for the White House. "That's why we defend free speech, and advocate for political prisoners, and condemn the persecution of women, or religious minorities, or people who are lesbian, gay, bisexual or transgender," President Obama said during his sixth State of the Union address in January 2015. Obama that night became the first US Head of State to mention "lesbian," "bisexual" and "transgender" in such a high profile speech, CNN reported.
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| Obama to meet attorney general to curb U.S. gun violence Posted: 01 Jan 2016 08:09 AM PST  President Barack Obama said on Friday he would meet with U.S. Attorney General Loretta Lynch on Monday to discuss ways of reducing gun violence in the United States amid reports he intends to take executive action on the issue. Obama, in his weekly recorded address, said he has received "too many letters from parents, and teachers, and kids, to sit around and do nothing." He has repeatedly urged Congress to tighten gun laws, with his calls growing louder following the 2012 massacre at an elementary school in Newtown, Connecticut, and again this fall after mass shootings in Colorado Springs, Colorado, and San Bernardino, California. "A few months ago, I directed my team at the White House to look into any new actions I can take to help reduce gun violence," Obama said in the address.
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| Five New Year's revelers wounded in New Orleans shooting Posted: 01 Jan 2016 07:22 AM PST At least one gunman emerged from a vehicle that drove up to a home in New Orleans' Central City district late on Thursday and opened fire on a crowd outside, the Times-Picayune newspaper reported. Five men, ages 15 to 22, were hit, the newspaper said. |
| Firefighters tackle Dubai blaze after all-night effort, investigate cause Posted: 01 Jan 2016 06:34 AM PST  Firefighters on Friday appeared to have mostly extinguished a blaze that suddenly engulfed one of Dubai's most prominent skyscrapers on New Year's Eve, witnesses said. Plumes of white smoke still emanated from the charred, 63-storey Address Downtown Dubai hotel and residential block at daybreak, but civil defense crews had mostly extinguished the flames which erupted around 2130 (1730 GMT). An investigation is ongoing," the spokesperson wrote in an email.
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| Southern states brace for flooding as overflowing Midwest rivers recede Posted: 01 Jan 2016 03:57 AM PST  (Reuters) - Overflowing rivers were receding in Missouri and Illinois on Friday after flooding swamped communities and forced towns to evacuate, with forecasters warning that rain-swollen waterways flowing downstream could menace Southern states. At least 28 people have died in the U.S. Midwest since the weekend in rare winter floods, mostly when driving into flooded areas after storms dropped up to 12 inches (30 cm) of rain, officials said. Flooding in the Midwest usually comes in the spring as snowmelt swells rivers.
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| Obama's challenge in 2016 campaign year: stay relevant Posted: 01 Jan 2016 03:43 AM PST  By Jeff Mason HONOLULU (Reuters) - Advancing gun control, closing the U.S. military prison in Cuba and reforming criminal justice laws are likely to top President Barack Obama's State of the Union address agenda next month as he starts his last year with a key goal: remaining relevant. Obama, who returns from a two-week vacation in Hawaii this weekend, will deliver his last State of the Union speech to both houses of Congress on Jan. 12, kicking of his final year in office just as the campaign to succeed him moves into a higher profile phase. Current and former White House advisers noted that Obama avoided any slide into "lame duck" status in 2015 with big policy moves including the Iran nuclear deal and an international agreement to fight climate change.
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| Police: Militants from Syria and Iraq were said to be planning attack in Germany Posted: 01 Jan 2016 03:25 AM PST  Germany received a tip hours before midnight that militants from Iraq and Syria were planning attacks in Munich but police have been unable to find the suspects and are not even sure if they are in the country, the Munich police chief said on Friday. Hubertus Andrae told a news conference that German officials had received a "very concrete" tip that suicide attacks were planned at train stations in the southern city at midnight.
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| Germany hunts suspects linked to New Year 'IS terror plot' Posted: 01 Jan 2016 01:51 AM PST  German police were on high alert Friday as they hunted for up to seven people suspected of plotting a New Year's Eve suicide attack in Munich in the name of the Islamic State group. Police said an investigation was under way, with 550 officers deployed to hunt down the suspects and secure the city, warning that the threat remained "high". There is, as before, a high threat of terror," a police spokesman told AFP.
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| North Korean leader talks war but doesn't comment on nukes Posted: 31 Dec 2015 11:28 PM PST  SEOUL, South Korea (AP) — North Korean leader Kim Jong Un said in an annual New Year's speech Friday that he was ready for war if provoked by "invasive" outsiders, but stayed away from past threats centering on the country's nuclear weapons and long-range missile ambitions.
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| Federal judge blocks Arkansas restrictions on abortion pill Posted: 31 Dec 2015 08:21 PM PST A federal judge on Thursday granted a two-week restraining order against an Arkansas law restricting use of the so-called abortion pill, one day before the statute was to go into effect. Planned Parenthood of the Heartland, which operates two clinics in Arkansas, had challenged the law and U.S. District Judge Kristine Baker heard arguments on Wednesday before granting on Thursday the group's request for a temporary stay preventing the law's enforcement. Attempts to restrict abortion in Arkansas have intensified in recent years as Republicans took control of both chambers of the legislature and, in January, the governor's office. |
| Islamic State planned suicide attacks in Munich, officials say Posted: 31 Dec 2015 07:17 PM PST  BERLIN (Reuters) - German police took the decision to shut down two main train stations in Munich after receiving "very concrete information" from the intelligence service of a friendly country that the Islamic State militant group had planned to carry out attacks in the southern city on New Year's Eve, Bavaria Interior Minister Joachim Herrmann told a news conference on Friday. Munich police chief Hubertus Andrae said the militant group had planned to use suicide bombers in the attack. (Reporting by Joseph Nasr; Editing by Neil Fullick)
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| New Year's Eve revelers pack NYC's Times Square under tight security Posted: 31 Dec 2015 05:27 PM PST  More than a million people were expected to crowd into New York City's Times Square under heavy security on Thursday to celebrate the arrival of 2016 with the traditional dropping of the New Year's Eve crystal ball. With memories of the deadly attacks in Paris and California still fresh, police took extraordinary measures to ensure security at an event that has come to define the New York experience for many visitors to the largest U.S. city. "This is the center of the world on New Year's Eve," said Rick Milley, 60, who traveled from Boston with his wife, Debbie, 59, to ring in the new year in Times Square.
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| German police warn NYE 'terror attack' planned in Munich Posted: 31 Dec 2015 03:21 PM PST  German police said Thursday that they had "indications that a terror attack" was being planned for New Year's Eve in the southern city of Munich, as they called on the public to avoid large gatherings and two key train stations. "Current indications show that a terror attack is being planned in Munich. Please avoid gatherings of people and the Munich and Pasing train stations," police said in a tweet.
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| Dubai New Year fireworks kick off while nearby tower blazes Posted: 31 Dec 2015 02:34 PM PST  A 63-story luxury hotel was engulfed in flames even as a massive New Year's fireworks display kicked off at the world's tallest skyscraper nearby, while tens of thousands of people whistled and cheered ...
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