Tag: Weekend News Digest

Jan 16 2010

Weekend News Digest

Weekend News Digest is an Open Thread

From Yahoo News Top Stories

1 Quake survivors flee capital as aid trickles in

by Beatriz Lecumberri, AFP

2 hrs 17 mins ago

PORT-AU-PRINCE (AFP) – Fearful Haitians fled their putrid quake-hit capital in droves on Saturday as a vast international aid drive struggled to relieve tensions threatening to boil over into riots.

President Barack Obama, speaking alongside former presidents George W. Bush and Bill Clinton at the White House, said the United States was doing its utmost to help. Haitian officials however complained that no one was coordinating the effort.

“At this moment, we’re moving forward with one of the largest relief efforts in our history, to save lives and to deliver relief that averts an even larger catastrophe,” Obama said.

“A vanguard of the 10,000 US troops”, umm… take another look in the cookie jar kid.  That’s pretty close to all there is.

Jan 10 2010

Weekend News Digest

Weekend News Digest is an Open Thread

From Yahoo News Top Stories

1 CIA director defends agency against criticism

AFP

Sun Jan 10, 1:33 am ET

WASHINGTON (AFP) – CIA Director Leon Panetta, in an article published Sunday, revealed that a Jordanian doctor who killed seven agency operatives was about to be searched before he blew himself up at a US military base in Afghanistan.

“This was not a question of trusting a potential intelligence asset, even one who had provided information that we could verify independently. It is never that simple, and no one ignored the hazards,” Panetta wrote in The Washington Post.

“The individual was about to be searched by our security officers — a distance away from other intelligence personnel — when he set off his explosives.”

Jan 09 2010

Weekend News Digest

Weekend News Digest is an Open Thread

From Yahoo News Top Stories

1 Portugal MPs approve gay marriage

by Anne Le Coz, AFP

Fri Jan 8, 3:21 pm ET

LISBON (AFP) – Portugal’s parliament Friday approved plans to legalise gay marriage, less than three decades after revoking the country’s ban on homosexuality, but rejected proposals to allow same sex couples to adopt.

The bill passed with limited public controversy in what has traditionally been one of Europe’s most socially conservative countries.

After less than three hours’ debate, Friday’s parliamentary vote went mainly along party lines, with the left-wing majority backing the measure proposed by Prime Minister Jose Socrates and the right-wing opposition voting against.

Dec 27 2009

Weekend News Digest

Weekend News Digest is an Open Thread

This Sunday’s Edition is being brought to you, one more time, by TMC. Hopefully ek hornbeck has survived the Holiday in Stars Hollow and will return to the news to its regular format. It was fun. 😉

The Top News Story

No sign Detroit flight incident in larger plot: U.S.

Photobucket

WASHINGTON (Reuters) – There is no initial evidence that the Nigerian man charged with trying to blow up a U.S. passenger jet was involved in a larger plot, a senior U.S. official said on Sunday.

But al Qaeda involvement is a “subject of investigation” in Friday’s incident, U.S. homeland security chief Janet Napolitano said after U.S. authorities on Saturday charged Umar Farouk Abdulmutallab, 23, with attempting to blow up the plane by setting alight an explosive device attached to his body.

The suspect, who was being treated for burns at a Michigan hospital, was overpowered by passengers and crew on the Northwest Airlines plane from Amsterdam on Christmas Day with almost 300 people on board.

“Well, right now we have no indication that it is part of anything larger. But obviously the investigation continues. And we have instituted more screening and what we call mitigation measures at airports,” U.S. Secretary of Homeland Security Janet Napolitano told CNN’s “State of the Union” program.

Asked whether al Qaeda was involved in the incident, Napolitano told ABC’s “This Week” program, “That is now the subject of investigation, and it would be inappropriate for me to say and inappropriate to speculate. So we will let the FBI and the criminal justice system now do their work.”

Dec 26 2009

Weekend News Digest

Weekend News Digest is an Open Thread

This Saturday’s Edition is being brought to you by TMC, so ek hornbeck can sleep late on his GrandDad’s red leather couch at his family’s Lake House for the Holiday. Buhdy, E.K., NPK, Mishima, OTB & All you DharmaDarlings, Happy Holiday to you and your families.

               

The Top News Story

Asia marks tsunami’s fifth anniversary with prayer

Photobucket

PATONG, Thailand (Reuters) – Thousands of candles lit up Thailand’s Patong beach, thousands of saffron-robed Buddhist monks marched and people held vigils as Asia marked the fifth anniversary of the Indian Ocean tsunami on Saturday.

Hundreds of lanterns floated into the sky at Patong in one of many events across the region in memory of one of history’s worst natural disasters when towering waves crashed ashore with little warning, killing 226,000 people in 13 countries.

“We came here to remember those who died,” said Sainamphueng Kachan, 32, who lost 20 friends in the tsunami and was among the tourists, mourners and tsunami survivors gathered in bustling Patong to light candles dug into holes in the beach.

In Indonesia’s Banda Aceh, about 100 people took part in a prayer ceremony close to a fishing boat that landed on the rooftop of a two-storey house after being swept miles inland.

Indonesia was the worst hit with more than 166,000 dead and missing. Massive reconstruction aid in Banda Aceh has rebuilt a new city on top of the ruins but survivors are only now putting memories of the disaster behind them.

I have a personal interest is the anniversary of this disaster since I spent 5 months there.

Dec 20 2009

Weekend News Digest

Weekend News Digest is an Open Thread

This Sunday’s Edition is being brought to you by TMC, so ek hornbeck can bake cookies.

The Top News Story



East Coast hammered by severe winter storm

Winter Storm,12/20/09

WASHINGTON (Reuters) – A weekend nor’easter buried much of the U.S. East Coast on Saturday and Sunday, disrupting public transport and air travel and hampering holiday shoppers on the last weekend before Christmas.

Up to 22 inches of snow was expected by Saturday night in the Baltimore-Washington area, more than any snowstorm to hit the region since February 2003, as the storm system moved north into New York and New England.

With snow falling at a rate of two inches an hour, most flights were canceled at the three major Washington-area airports before two of them, Reagan and BWI, were closed until Sunday morning. Delays and cancellations also hit Philadelphia’s international airport.

The driving snowstorm did not stop U.S. senators from convening and Democrats secured the pivotal 60th vote of holdout Senator Ben Nelson needed to ensure passage of the healthcare overhaul bill by Christmas.

But the storm could take a big bite out of retail sales on one of the busiest shopping weekend of the year.

Washington Mayor Adrian Fenty declared a snow emergency and asked District of Columbia residents to keep off the streets as the U.S. capital faced what one TV station dubbed “The Shopper Stopper Storm.”

Dec 19 2009

Weekend News Digest

Weekend News Digest is an Open Thread

Now with everything except Time U.S. News.  53 Stories.

From Yahoo News Top Stories

1 Climate deal passed amid condemnation, disappointment

by Richard Ingham, AFP

2 hrs 57 mins ago

COPENHAGEN (AFP) – A UN conference on Saturday rammed through a battle plan against climate change forged by US President Barack Obama and other top leaders, sidelining smaller states which lashed the deal as betrayal.

After toxic exchanges, the summit chair forced through a deal using an unusual procedural tool that effectively dropped all obstacles to the new-born Copenhagen Accord. Related article: Climate scientists underwhelmed

UN chief General Ban Ki-moon admitted the agreement had failed to win global consensus and would disappoint many who demanded stronger action against climate change but voiced relief it had not been strangled at birth.

Another piece of bullshit fail from Obama.

Dec 13 2009

Weekend News Digest

Weekend News Digest is an Open Thread

Now with World and U.S. News.  54 Story Final.

From Yahoo News Top Stories

1 Shocked golf world, sponsors ponder life without Tiger

AFP

Sun Dec 13, 6:17 am ET

ORLANDO, Florida (AFP) – Tiger Woods faced more fallout from his sex scandal Sunday as stunned rivals said they looked forward to his return after an indefinite break in his golfing career and corporate sponsors pondered their future cooperation with the billionaire athlete.

Woods announced Friday he was taking a hiatus from professional golf and admitted he had cheated on wife Elin after reports that 10 women had claimed to have had sexual relationships with the 14-time major champion.

“It’s a shock. It was most definitely a shock to everybody to hear what has been going on,” third-ranked US golfer Steve Stricker said. “Hopefully he gets it straight. Staying away is a great thing to get his family life in order.”

Shocked, shocked I tell you.

Dec 12 2009

Weekend News Digest

Weekend News Digest is an Open Thread

Now with World and U.S. News.  54 Story Final.

From Yahoo News Top Stories

1 Golf world reels as Woods takes ‘indefinite break’

by Greg Heakes, AFP

49 mins ago

LOS ANGELES (AFP) – After a slew of sex scandals forced celebrity golfer Tiger Woods to announce an indefinite break from the game, the sport’s big-wigs were left pondering Saturday the loss of their biggest breadwinner.

Woods stunned the golf world Friday by announcing a hiatus in professional play and admitting, for the first time, to being unfaithful to his wife.

The admission prompted a slew of statements of support from colleagues, but more tepid backing from some of his sponsors, which include Nike, Gillette, Accenture, AT&T and Swiss watchmaker TAG Heuer.

Dec 06 2009

Weekend News Digest

Weekend News Digest is an Open Thread

Now with World and U.S. News.  53 Story Final.

From Yahoo News Top Stories

1 US to launch new bid to hunt down Bin Laden

by Dan De Luce, AFP

33 mins ago

WASHINGTON (AFP) – The United States will launch a new effort to track down Osama bin Laden who is believed to be hiding in the mountains along the Afghan-Pakistan border, a senior US official said on Sunday.

Intelligence reports suggest the Al-Qaeda chief “is somewhere inside north Waziristan, sometimes on the Pakistani side of the border, sometimes on the Afghan side of the border,” said national security adviser James Jones.

Asked if President Barack Obama’s administration planned a fresh attempt to go after Al-Qaeda’s leader, Jones said: “I think so.”

Dec 05 2009

Weekend News Digest

Weekend News Digest is an Open Thread

Early Edition.  Now with World and U.S. News.  47 Story Final.

From Yahoo News Top Stories

1 Philippines imposes martial law in massacre region

by Cecil Morella, AFP

Sat Dec 5, 10:16 am ET

SHARIFF AGUAK, Philippines (AFP) – The Philippines on Saturday announced the imposition of martial law in a southern province to quell a rebellion by a powerful clan accused of being behind the massacre of 57 people.

President Gloria Arroyo placed Maguindanao province under military control late on Friday in an effort to contain heavily-armed militias belonging to the provincial governor and other members of his Muslim clan, authorities said.

“There’s a rebellion in the area,” Justice Secretary Agnes Devanadera said. “It was practically an overthrow of government.”

Nov 29 2009

Weekend News Digest

Weekend News Digest is an Open Thread

Now with World and U.S. News.  57 Story Final.

From Yahoo News Top Stories

1 Rumsfeld decision let Bin Laden escape: Senate report

AFP

Sun Nov 29, 11:27 am ET

WASHINGTON (AFP) – Osama bin Laden was “within the grasp” of US forces in late 2001 but escaped because then-defense secretary Donald Rumsfeld rejected calls for reinforcements, a hard-hitting US Senate report says.

The report, set for release Monday, is intended to help learn the lessons of the past as President Barack Obama prepares to announce a major escalation of the conflict, now in its ninth year, with up to 35,000 more US troops.

It points the finger directly at Rumsfeld for turning down requests for reinforcements as Bin Laden was trapped in December 2001 in caves and tunnels in a mountainous area of eastern Afghanistan known as Tora Bora.

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