Nation & World
World Brief
COLOMBO, Sri Lanka – New Sri Lankan President Maithripala Sirisena was sworn into office Friday and vowed to curtail the powers amassed by his predecessor, who was swept aside in…
Nation Briefs
WASHINGTON – The Pentagon took initial steps Friday to set up a new agency that will direct the troubled effort to search for America’s missing war dead, two years after…
Pipeline plan clears Nebraska hurdle
State high court tosses lawsuit to block Keystone XL project
Archaeologist donates Atari game
Curt Hanson, left, director of University of North Dakota’s Department of Special Collections, holds a sealed bag containing an Atari 2600 gaming system cartridge for the 1980s-era game Centipede in…
Elvis’ 1st record sells for $300K
Priscilla Presley cuts an eight-tiered birthday cake during the 80th birthday celebration for her late ex-husband Elvis Presley at Graceland, Thursday in Memphis, Tenn.Brad Vest/The Commercial Appeal An undisclosed Internet…
December employment gain caps best year for US labor market since 1999
2014 ended on a high note with unemployment continuing to fall and hiring picking up. The U.S. Labor Department reported businesses hired another 225,000 people in December.Alan Diaz/Associated Press file…
French police kill gunmen in twin attacks, free 16 hostages
Associated Press PARIS – With explosions and gunfire, security forces Friday ended three days of terror around Paris, killing the two al-Qaida-linked brothers who staged a murderous rampage at a…
GOP set to challenge Obama’s veto threats
Republicans OK pipeline, limits on Obamacare
U.S. knew about suspects in deadly attack in Paris
A police composite shows Cherif, left, and Said Kouachi, two of the suspects in Wednesday’s attack on a newspaper in Paris.Prefecture de Police de Paris via Associated Press Another U.S.…
Many could lose food stamp benefits
Improving economy will hurt many recipients without jobs
Nation & World Briefs
WASHINGTON – President Barack Obama on Thursday proposed making community college free “for everybody who is willing to work for it.” The president planned to formally announce his plan during…
Obama pushes homeownership steps in once hard-hit Arizona
President Barack Obama, joined by Housing and Urban Development Secretary Julian Castro, Thursday speaks outside a home in a housing development in Phoenix.Carolyn Kaster/Associated Press The housing market in Arizona…
Vermont governor re-elected after failing to win majority
Sen. Mark MacDonald, left, and Rep. Maureen Dakin count ballots during a special election to elect Vermont’s next governor on Thursday in Montpelier, Vt. Incumbent Gov. Peter Shumlin won the…
French police detain 9 in massive hunt for 2 suspects
Women light candles to commemorate the victims killed in an attack at the Paris offices of the weekly newspaper Charlie Hebdo in front of the French Embassy in Berlin Thursday.…
World Briefs
ANJAR, Lebanon – Snow fell in parts of the Middle East on Wednesday as a powerful winter storm swept through the region, killing two Syrian refugees in Lebanon and forcing…
Nation Briefs
EL PASO, Texas – Federal officials say a man suspected of fatally shooting a doctor and himself at an El Paso veterans’ clinic was a former clerk there who had…
Much of U.S. shivering from arctic blast
At least the Northeast isn’t getting clobbered with snow the way it was this time last year. A look at the blast of dangerously cold weather that is dropping temperatures…
FBI director confident North Korea was behind cyberattack
James Clapper, the director of national intelligence, tells a group attending Wednesday’s International Conference on Cyber Security at Fordham University in New York that North Korea will continue its cyberattacks…
FBI: NAACP explosion in Colo. could be domestic terror
No one was hurt in the Tuesday morning explosion, and the FBI said agents are investigating whether the NAACP offices were specifically targeted. The building also houses Mr G’S Hair…
Police hunt for 2 in French shooting that killed 12; 1 surrenders
President Francois Hollande, visiting the scene of France’s deadliest such attack in more than half a century, called the assault on the weekly newspaper Charlie Hebdo “an act of exceptional…
Nation Briefs
WASHINGTON – President Barack Obama pledged to stand with Mexico against “the scourge of violence and the drug cartels” as he met Tuesday with President Enrique Peña Nieto amid concern…
New research suggests drunk birds slur songs
In a study published last week in PLOS ONE, researchers from the Oregon Health and Science University tempted zebra finches with spiked juice – but not because they wanted to…
California breaks ground on high-speed rail project
Gov. Jerry Brown, center, says California can’t afford not to build a high-speed rail project connecting Los Angeles and San Francisco because it will reduce traffic and cut greenhouse gas…
Border patrol drones called ineffective
Audit reports fleet is grounded most of the time