http://www.post-gazette.com/nationworld/ National and world news en-us Copyright 2012, post-gazette.com. Sat, 4 Feb 2012 17:39:54 -0500 15 http://www.post-gazette.com/includes/2007design/images/150x30pg_now_logo.gif http://www.post-gazette.com/ 144 39 http://www.post-gazette.com/pg/12035/1208181-28-0.stm?cmpid=nationworld.xml The monthly unemployment report contained undeniably good news Friday, but with bad statistics dappled in like dandelions in a lawn. The Bureau of Labor Statistics reported that unemployment was down to 8.3 percent for January from 8.5 percent in December, the lowest it has been since February 2009. Sat, 4 Feb 2012 16:07:00 -0500 http://www.post-gazette.com/pg/12035/1208238-176-0.stm?cmpid=nationworld.xml LAS VEGAS -- Voters in Nevada have their chance to weigh in on the Republican presidential contest today with caucus votes. Sat, 4 Feb 2012 13:29:00 -0500 http://www.post-gazette.com/pg/12035/1208184-84.stm?cmpid=nationworld.xml WASHINGTON -- Veterans who want to work as police officers and firefighters could get some help from the White House if Congress signs on to $5 billion in funding to spur the hiring of emergency responders. President Barack Obama on Friday offered a glimpse of some of the spending priorities he intends to lay out in his Feb. 13 budget address. Sat, 4 Feb 2012 11:44:00 -0500 http://www.post-gazette.com/pg/12035/1208131-82-0.stm?cmpid=nationworld.xml CAIRO -- Bedouin gunmen stormed a minivan in Egypt's Sinai Peninsula Friday, kidnapping two U.S. tourists and an Egyptian tour guide for several hours before releasing them to police, Egyptian security officials said. Bedouin tribesmen took the hostages in the hopes of pressuring the government into releasing two of their relatives, who had been arrested on suspicion of dealing drugs. Sat, 4 Feb 2012 00:21:00 -0500 http://www.post-gazette.com/pg/12035/1208179-84-0.stm?cmpid=nationworld.xml LOS ANGELES -- A second teacher at an inner-city elementary school where a teacher is accused of committing lewd acts on 23 children was arrested Friday on suspicion of fondling two girls in his classroom. Los Angeles County Sheriff's Capt. Mike Parker said Martin B. Sat, 4 Feb 2012 00:19:00 -0500 http://www.post-gazette.com/pg/12035/1208119-82-0.stm?cmpid=nationworld.xml MAHMUD RAQI, Afghanistan -- The Afghan soldier who killed four French troops last month bribed an Afghan army recruiter to forge his enlistment papers, deserted to Pakistan and then bribed his way back into the army the month before the shootings, McClatchy Newspapers has learned. Sat, 4 Feb 2012 00:00:00 -0500 http://www.post-gazette.com/pg/12035/1208127-82-0.stm?cmpid=nationworld.xml TEHRAN, Iran -- A fiery anti-Israel speech by Iranian leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei, delivered shortly after a successful Iranian satellite launch, added to growing global tensions Friday, as Israel warned that it might mount a pre-emptive strike against the Islamic republic's nuclear facilities despite U.S. objections. Sat, 4 Feb 2012 00:00:00 -0500 http://www.post-gazette.com/pg/12035/1208130-82.stm?cmpid=nationworld.xml BEIRUT -- In a barrage of mortar shells, Syrian forces killed 200 people and wounded hundreds in Homs in an offensive that appears to be the bloodiest episode in the nearly 11-month-old uprising, activists said today. The assault in Homs, which has been one of the main flashpoints of opposition during the uprising, comes as the U.N. Sat, 4 Feb 2012 00:00:00 -0500 http://www.post-gazette.com/pg/12035/1208173-84-0.stm?cmpid=nationworld.xml The nation's pre-eminent breast cancer advocacy group, the Susan G. Komen for the Cure foundation, apologized Friday for its decision to cut most of its financing to Planned Parenthood for breast cancer screening and said it would again make Planned Parenthood eligible for those grants. Sat, 4 Feb 2012 00:00:00 -0500 http://www.post-gazette.com/pg/12035/1208182-84-0.stm?cmpid=nationworld.xml WASHINGTON -- If President Barack Obama wins re-election in November, Friday's jobs report may be remembered as the turning point when he shifted from slight underdog to favorite. "Where are the jobs?" has been the question at the heart of the Republican case against Mr. Obama. Sat, 4 Feb 2012 00:00:00 -0500 http://www.post-gazette.com/pg/12035/1208187-84-0.stm?cmpid=nationworld.xml WASHINGTON -- The international hackers group known as Anonymous turned the tables on the FBI by listening in on a conference call last month between the bureau, Scotland Yard and other police agencies about their joint investigation of the group and its allies. Sat, 4 Feb 2012 00:00:00 -0500 http://www.post-gazette.com/pg/12035/1208218-84-0.stm?cmpid=nationworld.xml Six months before the space shuttle Challenger exploded over Florida on Jan. 28, 1986, Roger Boisjoly wrote a portentous memo. He warned that if the weather was too cold, seals connecting sections of the shuttle's huge rocket boosters could fail. Sat, 4 Feb 2012 00:00:00 -0500 http://www.post-gazette.com/pg/12035/1208219-84-0.stm?cmpid=nationworld.xml SPICEWOOD BEACH, Tex. -- The water that once nourished this central Texas community never traveled far: it came from a fenced-in well at the edge of Lake Travis, down a winding street next to the golf course. These days, the water that flows from kitchen and bathroom faucets takes an extraordinary journey that can be measured not in feet but in miles. Sat, 4 Feb 2012 00:00:00 -0500 http://www.post-gazette.com/pg/12035/1208220-84-0.stm?cmpid=nationworld.xml DIXFIELD, Me. Sat, 4 Feb 2012 00:00:00 -0500 http://www.post-gazette.com/pg/12035/1208221-84-0.stm?cmpid=nationworld.xml WASHINGTON -- The burst of job growth in January gives President Obama a fresh -- but tricky -- opportunity to revise the grim economic narrative of his presidency while offering Mitt Romney a choice: embrace a new optimism or campaign against a sinking economy even as it shows signs of turning around. Sat, 4 Feb 2012 00:00:00 -0500 http://www.post-gazette.com/pg/12035/1208222-82.stm?cmpid=nationworld.xml Syrian government forces used a barrage of mortar shells and heavy machine gun fire in an assault that began Friday night in the central city of Homs, killing at least 200 people and wounding hundreds more, opposition activists reported on Saturday. Sat, 4 Feb 2012 00:00:00 -0500 http://www.post-gazette.com/pg/12035/1208223-82-0.stm?cmpid=nationworld.xml BEIRUT, Lebanon -- The bloody uprising that has coursed through Syria has begun to upend daily life in Damascus, the stronghold of President Bashar al-Assad's government, reordering the lives of residents who complain of hardships as simple as getting to work every day and finding bread. Sat, 4 Feb 2012 00:00:00 -0500 http://www.post-gazette.com/pg/12035/1208224-82-0.stm?cmpid=nationworld.xml ATHENS -- Lucas Papademos faced his most difficult test as Greece's interim prime minister on Friday when his three-month-old government reached an impasse over proposed demands by the country's foreign lenders to reduce private-sector wages drastically in exchange for the aid the country needs to prevent default. Sat, 4 Feb 2012 00:00:00 -0500 http://www.post-gazette.com/pg/12035/1208225-82-0.stm?cmpid=nationworld.xml GENEINA, Sudan -- The United Nations said on Friday that the famine that has killed tens of thousands of people in Somalia this past year has ended, thanks to a bumper harvest and a surge in emergency food deliveries. Sat, 4 Feb 2012 00:00:00 -0500 http://www.post-gazette.com/pg/12035/1208226-82-0.stm?cmpid=nationworld.xml The diplomatic struggle over the Arab League's peace proposal for Syria has nearly obscured an important detail of the plan: President Bashar al-Assad would be replaced in a transition by a loyal disciple. Sat, 4 Feb 2012 00:00:00 -0500 http://www.post-gazette.com/pg/12035/1208227-82-0.stm?cmpid=nationworld.xml KABUL, Afghanistan -- The following children froze to death in Kabul over the past three weeks after their families had fled war zones in Afghanistan for refugee camps here: Sat, 4 Feb 2012 00:00:00 -0500 http://www.post-gazette.com/pg/12035/1208228-82-0.stm?cmpid=nationworld.xml DUBAI, United Arab Emirates -- American and European officials said Friday that a mission by international nuclear inspectors to Tehran this week had failed to address their key concerns, indicating that Iran's leaders believe they can resist pressure to open up the nation's nuclear program. Sat, 4 Feb 2012 00:00:00 -0500 http://www.post-gazette.com/pg/12035/1208229-82-0.stm?cmpid=nationworld.xml WASHINGTON -- President Obama received a message last year, purporting to be from the elusive Taliban leader Mullah Muhammad Omar, in which he expressed an interest in opening talks that could end the war in Afghanistan, according to several current and former administration officials. Sat, 4 Feb 2012 00:00:00 -0500 http://www.post-gazette.com/pg/12035/1208230-82-0.stm?cmpid=nationworld.xml MOSCOW -- The flow of natural gas has fallen off sharply in the main pipelines supplying Europe from Russia, but this time cold weather -- not politics -- is to blame. Sat, 4 Feb 2012 00:00:00 -0500 http://www.post-gazette.com/pg/12035/1208231-82.stm?cmpid=nationworld.xml More than 10 people were killed and a United Nations employee was shot and wounded when clashes broke out at a peace meeting in South Sudan, United Nations officials said Friday. The local authorities called a meeting in Unity State on Wednesday in response to escalating violence between ethnic militias that had killed hundreds if not thousands of people in the past few months. A shootout erupted nearby and a United Nations team helping mediate in the crisis was "caught in the cross-fire," according to a Un Sat, 4 Feb 2012 00:00:00 -0500 http://www.post-gazette.com/pg/12034/1207773-84-0.stm?cmpid=nationworld.xml For an event so politically fraught, it flashed by in what seemed like a New York minute. Donald Trump endorsed Mitt Romney for president Thursday in a brief joint appearance at Mr. Trump's Las Vegas hotel, an occasion more notable for its odd brevity and lack of theater than anything either man said. Fri, 3 Feb 2012 00:00:00 -0500 http://www.post-gazette.com/pg/12034/1207787-84-0.stm?cmpid=nationworld.xml In a sign of just how unpopular Congress has become, rank-and-file senators hijacked debate over a narrowly tailored ethics bill and won broad approval Thursday for a more sweeping reform package imposing new conflict-of-interest rules and mandating more transparency on K Street. Fri, 3 Feb 2012 00:00:00 -0500 http://www.post-gazette.com/pg/12034/1207788-84-0.stm?cmpid=nationworld.xml House Republicans accused Attorney General Eric Holder of hiding information at a hearing Thursday over the botched Operation Fast and Furious gun-trafficking investigation, while he dismissed calls for his resignation and said he's not to blame for the scandal. Fri, 3 Feb 2012 00:00:00 -0500 http://www.post-gazette.com/pg/12034/1207789-84-0.stm?cmpid=nationworld.xml Congressional Republicans criticized the Federal Reserve on Thursday for working to reduce unemployment and revive the housing market rather than maintaining a single-minded focus on inflation. Fri, 3 Feb 2012 00:00:00 -0500 http://www.post-gazette.com/pg/12034/1207793-114-0.stm?cmpid=nationworld.xml The renowned breast cancer charity Susan G. Komen for the Cure faced an escalating backlash Thursday over its decision to cut breast screening grants to Planned Parenthood. Some of Komen's local affiliates are openly upset, including all seven in California, and at least one top official has quit, reportedly in protest. Fri, 3 Feb 2012 00:00:00 -0500 http://www.post-gazette.com/pg/12034/1207826-84-0.stm?cmpid=nationworld.xml President Barack Obama, who rarely speaks of his faith, defended some of his administration's policies Thursday by saying they reflect his religious convictions. Fri, 3 Feb 2012 00:00:00 -0500 http://www.post-gazette.com/pg/12034/1207846-82-0.stm?cmpid=nationworld.xml A senior Israeli official said Thursday that the missile testing site near Tehran that was destroyed in a huge explosion three months ago was developing missiles with a range of some 6,000 miles aimed at the United States. The assertion went far beyond what rocket experts have established about Iran's missile capabilities, and U.S. officials questioned its accuracy. Fri, 3 Feb 2012 00:00:00 -0500 http://www.post-gazette.com/pg/12034/1207880-84-0.stm?cmpid=nationworld.xml WASHINGTON -- Republicans and Democrats in Congress on Thursday traded barbs again over the yearlong probe into Operation Fast and Furious, as Attorney General Eric H. Holder Jr. testified for the sixth time about the disputed investigation into a gun trafficking network based out of Arizona. Fri, 3 Feb 2012 00:00:00 -0500 http://www.post-gazette.com/pg/12034/1207881-84-0.stm?cmpid=nationworld.xml In Pueblo, Colo., major work on an interstate highway and several projects to fix the city's aging infrastructure may be delayed. Fri, 3 Feb 2012 00:00:00 -0500 http://www.post-gazette.com/pg/12034/1207882-84-0.stm?cmpid=nationworld.xml The mayor of Providence, R.I., on Thursday laid out a series of steps he said were crucial to shoring up the city's finances. He warned that it would otherwise run out of money in June. Fri, 3 Feb 2012 00:00:00 -0500 http://www.post-gazette.com/pg/12034/1207883-84-0.stm?cmpid=nationworld.xml PAHRUMP, Nev. -- On rare occasions, when a brave -- or foolish -- local official here proposes banning firearms from government buildings or meetings, he is met with howls of protests by sidearm-wearing residents who pack public hearings. Shocked tourists on the way to Death Valley periodically call the local sheriff's office to report someone wearing a pistol in plain view. That is their right, they are told. Fri, 3 Feb 2012 00:00:00 -0500 http://www.post-gazette.com/pg/12034/1207885-82-0.stm?cmpid=nationworld.xml UNITED NATIONS -- Security Council ambassadors reached a wobbly consensus on Thursday backing an Arab League plan for political change in Syria, after they dropped a specific reference to President Bashar al-Assad's ceding of power. Fri, 3 Feb 2012 00:00:00 -0500 http://www.post-gazette.com/pg/12034/1207886-82-0.stm?cmpid=nationworld.xml CAIRO -- The police in several Egyptian cities on Thursday night battled with thousands of die-hard soccer fans angry at the military-led government's failure to prevent dozens of deaths at a soccer riot in Port Said the previous night. Fri, 3 Feb 2012 00:00:00 -0500 http://www.post-gazette.com/pg/12034/1207887-82.stm?cmpid=nationworld.xml HONG KONG -- Rescuers pulled more than 200 survivors from the ocean on Thursday after their packed ferry sank off Papua New Guinea, rescue officials said, and the search for about 100 others extended into Friday. Fri, 3 Feb 2012 00:00:00 -0500 http://www.post-gazette.com/pg/12034/1207888-82.stm?cmpid=nationworld.xml An Istanbul court on Thursday charged the former head of the armed forces with leading a terrorist group and masterminding coup plots to overthrow the Islamic-inspired government. Ilker Basbug, a retired general, is among dozens who face charges as part of an inquiry into what is said to be a plot by secular conspirators to stir chaos and prepare the ground for a coup. Critics of the government say the claims against many suspects, including General Basbug, are politically motivated and meant in part to con Fri, 3 Feb 2012 00:00:00 -0500 http://www.post-gazette.com/pg/12034/1207889-82.stm?cmpid=nationworld.xml Britain sent Foreign Secretary William Hague to Mogadishu and appointed an ambassador to Somalia for the first time in two decades on Thursday, signaling London's intention to help make a push to address the country's long-running conflict. Mr. Hague's visit comes ahead of a major conference in London aimed at finding ways to contain the threat posed by the Shabab and by pirates menacing international shipping. The ambassador, Matt Baugh, will be based in the Kenyan capital, Nairobi, until "the security sit Fri, 3 Feb 2012 00:00:00 -0500 http://www.post-gazette.com/pg/12034/1207890-82-0.stm?cmpid=nationworld.xml BRUSSELS -- Reacting to consternation among NATO allies, Defense Secretary Leon E. Panetta sought to clarify on Thursday night that American troops would not step back entirely from combat in Afghanistan next year but would allow Afghan security forces a "lead" role. Fri, 3 Feb 2012 00:00:00 -0500 http://www.post-gazette.com/pg/12034/1207891-82-0.stm?cmpid=nationworld.xml The Senate Banking Committee unanimously approved a new regimen of anti-Iran sanctions on Thursday that would for the first time threaten to punish the global financial telecommunications network that nearly all banks rely on to conduct their daily business. Fri, 3 Feb 2012 00:00:00 -0500 http://www.post-gazette.com/pg/12033/1207844-84.stm?cmpid=nationworld.xml The U.S. Senate today rejected a permanent end to earmarks, but leadership consented to a one-year extension of a temporary ban already in place. Thu, 2 Feb 2012 23:38:00 -0500 http://www.post-gazette.com/pg/12033/1207566-84-0.stm?cmpid=nationworld.xml PORTLAND, Maine -- A treasure hunter said Wednesday that he has located the wreck of a British merchant ship that was torpedoed by a German U-boat off Cape Cod during World War II while carrying what he claims was a load of platinum bars now worth more than $3 billion. If the claim proves true, it could be one of the richest sunken treasures ever discovered. Thu, 2 Feb 2012 11:58:00 -0500 http://www.post-gazette.com/pg/12033/1207565-84.stm?cmpid=nationworld.xml INDIANAPOLIS, Ind. -- Gov. Mitch Daniels made Indiana the nation's 23rd right-to-work state Wednesday by signing a bill exempting non-union employees from paying dues when working alongside their unionized colleagues. Thu, 2 Feb 2012 00:00:00 -0500 http://www.post-gazette.com/pg/12033/1207571-84-0.stm?cmpid=nationworld.xml DALLAS -- The parent of American Airlines wants to eliminate about 13,000 jobs -- 15 percent of its workforce -- as the nation's third-biggest airline remakes itself under bankruptcy protection. The company proposes to end its traditional pension plans, a move strongly opposed by the airline's unions and the U.S. pension-insurance agency, and to stop paying for retiree health benefits. Thu, 2 Feb 2012 00:00:00 -0500 http://www.post-gazette.com/pg/12033/1207572-84-0.stm?cmpid=nationworld.xml WASHINGTON -- Distancing himself from Republicans on housing issues, President Barack Obama pitched a $5 billion-to-$10 billion plan to help a key segment of struggling homeowners -- those still making monthly payments, but on underwater mortgages. Thu, 2 Feb 2012 00:00:00 -0500 http://www.post-gazette.com/pg/12033/1207574-82-0.stm?cmpid=nationworld.xml KABUL, Afghanistan -- More Taliban insurgents are being killed or captured than ever before, yet when the captives are interrogated by the U.S. military, they remain convinced that they are winning the war. Thu, 2 Feb 2012 00:00:00 -0500 http://www.post-gazette.com/pg/12033/1207610-84-0.stm?cmpid=nationworld.xml Newly disclosed details of the millions of dollars flowing into political groups are highlighting not just the scale of donations from corporations and unions but also the secrecy surrounding super-PACs seeking to influence the presidential race. Thu, 2 Feb 2012 00:00:00 -0500 http://www.post-gazette.com/pg/12033/1207611-176-0.stm?cmpid=nationworld.xml EAGAN, Minn. -- The Republican presidential contest shifted Wednesday to the West and Midwest, as an exultant Mitt Romney dueled with the man he hopes to meet in November, President Barack Obama, but found himself sidetracked when an infelicitous remark was seized upon by his opponents. Thu, 2 Feb 2012 00:00:00 -0500 http://www.post-gazette.com/pg/12033/1207625-82.stm?cmpid=nationworld.xml WASHINGTON -- The U.S. military plans to change the focus of its Afghanistan mission from combat to training local forces by the end of 2013, Defense Secretary Leon Panetta said Wednesday, apparently accelerating the timeline for Afghan forces to take over security responsibilities from NATO troops. Thu, 2 Feb 2012 00:00:00 -0500 http://www.post-gazette.com/pg/12033/1207626-82-0.stm?cmpid=nationworld.xml CAIRO -- An Egyptian soccer match between two longtime rivals turned bloody when hooligans from the winning team stormed the field, attacking the opposing players and fans in clashes that killed at least 73 people, according to Egyptian television. Violence broke out in the town of Port Said after that city's team won a rare victory over the visiting Ahly, a powerhouse club from Cairo. Thu, 2 Feb 2012 00:00:00 -0500 http://www.post-gazette.com/pg/12033/1207627-82.stm?cmpid=nationworld.xml LONDON -- Four Islamic militants, all British citizens, admitted involvement Wednesday in a conspiracy inspired by al-Qaida to place a bomb in the toilets of the London Stock Exchange, with the hope that the multistory building would catch fire. Five other men involved in a wider terrorist conspiracy pleaded guilty to lesser charges. Thu, 2 Feb 2012 00:00:00 -0500 http://www.post-gazette.com/pg/12033/1207628-82.stm?cmpid=nationworld.xml STOCKHOLM, Sweden -- Nobel Peace Prize officials were facing a formal inquiry over accusations that they have drifted away from the prize's original selection criteria by choosing such winners as President Barack Obama, as the nomination deadline for the 2012 awards closed Wednesday. Thu, 2 Feb 2012 00:00:00 -0500 http://www.post-gazette.com/pg/12033/1207629-82-0.stm?cmpid=nationworld.xml LONDON -- Julian Assange, the founder of WikiLeaks, went before Britain's Supreme Court on Wednesday in the latest chapter of a long-running battle to avoid extradition to Sweden to answer accusations of sexual misconduct. Seven Supreme Court judges have allocated two days to hearing an appeal against rulings by lower courts approving Mr. Assange's extradition. Thu, 2 Feb 2012 00:00:00 -0500 http://www.post-gazette.com/pg/12033/1207633-84.stm?cmpid=nationworld.xml Facebook has filed papers for what is expected to be the largest initial public offering ever to come out of Silicon Valley and one of the largest in U.S. history. Thu, 2 Feb 2012 00:00:00 -0500 http://www.post-gazette.com/pg/12033/1207668-84.stm?cmpid=nationworld.xml SEATTLE -- Washington appeared almost certain to become the seventh state to allow same-sex marriage after the state Senate voted late Wednesday for a measure that would allow gay and lesbian couples to marry beginning this summer. Thu, 2 Feb 2012 00:00:00 -0500 http://www.post-gazette.com/pg/12033/1207669-84-0.stm?cmpid=nationworld.xml Signaling a sharp change of course in the country's largest international cultural exchange program, the State Department has banned a leading sponsor company from bringing foreign students to the United States for summer jobs and will add new restrictions to protect students from labor abuse, officials said Wednesday. Thu, 2 Feb 2012 00:00:00 -0500 http://www.post-gazette.com/pg/12033/1207670-84-0.stm?cmpid=nationworld.xml LAS VEGAS -- When Mitt Romney won the Republican presidential caucuses in Nevada four year ago, this was a different state, and the Republican Party was a different party. Thu, 2 Feb 2012 00:00:00 -0500 http://www.post-gazette.com/pg/12033/1207671-84-0.stm?cmpid=nationworld.xml Correction Appended Thu, 2 Feb 2012 00:00:00 -0500 http://www.post-gazette.com/pg/12033/1207673-82.stm?cmpid=nationworld.xml Two Christian missionaries from Texas were killed at their home near Monterrey, relatives and the United States Embassy said Wednesday. The missionary couple, John and Wanda Casias, had been living in Mexico since 1979, preaching and founding a Baptist church in the town of Santiago, where they lived. Relatives said that Mrs. Casias's body was found hanging in the kitchen of their home, and that Mr. Casias's body was found later behind a guesthouse on their property. The motive for the slaying was not known Thu, 2 Feb 2012 00:00:00 -0500 http://www.post-gazette.com/pg/12032/1207238-82.stm?cmpid=nationworld.xml KOCINOVAC, Bosnia-Herzegovina -- They were bitter enemies on opposite sides of the front line during the horrors of the 1992-95 Bosnian War. Now, one side is bailing out the other in an act of once-unimaginable generosity. In 2010, soldiers older than 35 years were forced to retire, as Bosnia tried to rejuvenate its army. Wed, 1 Feb 2012 00:00:00 -0500 http://www.post-gazette.com/pg/12032/1207241-82-0.stm?cmpid=nationworld.xml WASHINGTON -- Secretary of State Hillary Rodham Clinton led a high-wattage diplomatic push Tuesday to persuade the U.N. Security Council to endorse an Arab plan for Syrian President Bashar Assad to step down, but she couldn't break the steadfast objections of Russia and China. Wed, 1 Feb 2012 00:00:00 -0500 http://www.post-gazette.com/pg/12032/1207242-82-0.stm?cmpid=nationworld.xml TOKYO -- A U.N. fact-finding mission Tuesday tentatively supported new stress tests devised to determine whether Japan's nuclear plants can withstand another emergency, throwing its weight behind a government push to restart reactors idled in the wake of the disaster at the Fukushima Daiichi plant after an earthquake and tsunami in March. Wed, 1 Feb 2012 00:00:00 -0500 http://www.post-gazette.com/pg/12032/1207249-84-0.stm?cmpid=nationworld.xml WASHINGTON -- The government will run a $1.1 trillion deficit in the fiscal year that ends in September, a slight dip from last year but still very high by any measure, according to a budget report released Tuesday. Wed, 1 Feb 2012 00:00:00 -0500 http://www.post-gazette.com/pg/12032/1207250-84.stm?cmpid=nationworld.xml WASHINGTON -- Federal investigators have concluded that supervisors at Dover Air Force Base retaliated against four civilian whistleblowers after they reported missing body parts and other failures at the mortuary that handles America's war dead. Wed, 1 Feb 2012 00:00:00 -0500 http://www.post-gazette.com/pg/12032/1207251-84-0.stm?cmpid=nationworld.xml WASHINGTON -- When the 2010 census asked people to classify themselves by race, more than 21.7 million -- at least 1 in 14 -- went beyond the standard labels and wrote in such descriptives as "Arab," "Haitian," "Mexican" and "multiracial." Wed, 1 Feb 2012 00:00:00 -0500 http://www.post-gazette.com/pg/12032/1207261-84.stm?cmpid=nationworld.xml LOS ANGELES -- Authorities say the elementary school teacher told the children that it was a game. Once inside his third-grade classroom, they say, he blindfolded them, gagged them and set cockroaches crawling on their faces. And then, Mark Berndt photographed them, creating hundreds of images that would eventually lead to his arrest, police say. Wed, 1 Feb 2012 00:00:00 -0500 http://www.post-gazette.com/pg/12032/1207262-84-0.stm?cmpid=nationworld.xml WASHINGTON -- A temporary ban on Congressional earmarks could become an enduring law of the land under a bill amendment sponsored by Sens. Pat Toomey, R-Pa., and Claire McCaskill, D-Mo. The Toomey-McCaskill amendment wouldn't entirely outlaw earmarks but would effectively require a super-majority to approve them. Wed, 1 Feb 2012 00:00:00 -0500 http://www.post-gazette.com/pg/12032/1207300-84-0.stm?cmpid=nationworld.xml WASHINGTON -- Conservative super PACs and other outside groups are helping Republicans close a yawning fundraising gap with President Barack Obama, giving the eventual GOP presidential nominee a better chance at winning the money race by November, according to new disclosures Tuesday. Wed, 1 Feb 2012 00:00:00 -0500 http://www.post-gazette.com/pg/12032/1207317-84-0.stm?cmpid=nationworld.xml With his resounding victory over Newt Gingrich in Florida on Tuesday, Mitt Romney showed a worried Republican base a side of himself that it has both longed for and feared that he lacked: the agile political street fighter, willing to mock, scold and ultimately eviscerate his opponent. Wed, 1 Feb 2012 00:00:00 -0500 http://www.post-gazette.com/pg/12032/1207318-84-0.stm?cmpid=nationworld.xml ORLANDO, Fla. -- Newt Gingrich has been predicting that the battle for the Republican presidential nomination will last "until June or July, unless Romney drops out sooner," but the magnitude of his loss to Mitt Romney in Florida's primary on Tuesday could force him to recalibrate. Wed, 1 Feb 2012 00:00:00 -0500 http://www.post-gazette.com/pg/12032/1207319-84-0.stm?cmpid=nationworld.xml CENTER POINT, Ala. -- The sound of a tornado ripping off Sheila Wright's roof shook her out of a deep sleep early on Jan. 23. She and her three children had gone to bed without knowing that a storm was about to bear down on their neighborhood near Birmingham. Wed, 1 Feb 2012 00:00:00 -0500 http://www.post-gazette.com/pg/12032/1207320-84-0.stm?cmpid=nationworld.xml Officials at Dover Air Force Base in Delaware, the entry point for the nation's war dead, retaliated against four employees after they raised concerns about the mishandling of service members' remains, according to an independent agency that investigates whistle-blower complaints in the federal government. Wed, 1 Feb 2012 00:00:00 -0500 http://www.post-gazette.com/pg/12032/1207323-82-0.stm?cmpid=nationworld.xml BEIJING -- China's government, grappling with the kidnapping of a construction crew in Sudan, is facing heightened pressure over the safety of the country's citizens abroad after a group of cement plant employees in Egypt was briefly abducted by Bedouin tribesmen on Tuesday. Wed, 1 Feb 2012 00:00:00 -0500 http://www.post-gazette.com/pg/12032/1207324-82-0.stm?cmpid=nationworld.xml WASHINGTON -- Some senior Iranian leaders are now more willing to carry out attacks inside the United States in response to perceived American threats against their country, the Obama administration's top intelligence official said on Tuesday, pointing to last fall's suspected assassination plot against the Saudi ambassador to Washington. Wed, 1 Feb 2012 00:00:00 -0500 http://www.post-gazette.com/pg/12032/1207325-82-0.stm?cmpid=nationworld.xml TOKYO -- A United Nations fact-finding mission on Tuesday tentatively supported new stress tests devised to determine whether Japan's nuclear plants can withstand another emergency, throwing its weight behind a government push to restart reactors idled in the wake of the disaster at the Fukushima Daiichi plant after an earthquake and tsunami in March. Wed, 1 Feb 2012 00:00:00 -0500 http://www.post-gazette.com/pg/12032/1207326-82.stm?cmpid=nationworld.xml PARIS -- France's Constitutional Council said Tuesday that it would rule on the constitutionality of criminalizing the denial of a genocide of Armenians during World War I, after receiving appeals signed by dozens of lawmakers from across the political spectrum. Wed, 1 Feb 2012 00:00:00 -0500 http://www.post-gazette.com/pg/12032/1207327-82-0.stm?cmpid=nationworld.xml UNITED NATIONS -- The battle over Syria moved to the United Nations on Tuesday with Western powers and much of the Arab world confronting Russia and its allies in the Security Council over their refusal to condemn the Syrian government for its violent suppression of popular protests. Wed, 1 Feb 2012 00:00:00 -0500 http://www.post-gazette.com/pg/12032/1207328-82-0.stm?cmpid=nationworld.xml KABUL, Afghanistan -- The anticipated withdrawal of most international forces is still two years away, but already Afghans who have depended on the decade-old foreign presence for their livelihoods are feeling tremors as the first troops leave and spending and aid money dries up. Many fear that the rumblings could be a harbinger of far worse things to come. Wed, 1 Feb 2012 00:00:00 -0500 http://www.post-gazette.com/pg/12032/1207329-82-0.stm?cmpid=nationworld.xml LONDON -- He is a 29-year-old air force pilot assigned to a six-week mission flying an air-sea rescue helicopter, and his commanders have insisted that his is a "normal operational deployment" and have asked local people and the news media to pay him no special attention. Wed, 1 Feb 2012 00:00:00 -0500 http://www.post-gazette.com/pg/12032/1207330-82-0.stm?cmpid=nationworld.xml Iran said Tuesday that a team of United Nations nuclear inspectors visiting since the weekend had concluded "constructive and positive" talks with Iranian officials, with further discussions planned at an unspecified date. Wed, 1 Feb 2012 00:00:00 -0500 http://www.post-gazette.com/pg/12032/1207331-82-0.stm?cmpid=nationworld.xml SODETO, Spain -- Just a few weeks ago, the 70 households in this isolated farming village were struggling under the double whammy of Spain's economic downturn and the ravages of a severe drought. Wed, 1 Feb 2012 00:00:00 -0500 http://www.post-gazette.com/pg/12032/1207332-82-0.stm?cmpid=nationworld.xml As antigovernment forces in Syria's violent uprising have increased the pressure on President Bashar al-Assad to step down, Iran, his main Middle East supporter, also finds itself under siege, undermining a once-powerful partnership and longtime American foe. Wed, 1 Feb 2012 00:00:00 -0500