(12-31) 03:08 PST , (AP) –
Taliban claim blasts that killed 8 Americans, 5 Canadians
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KABUL (AP) — The Taliban claimed accountableness Thursday for a suicide bombing at a base in eastern Afghanistan that killed eight American civilians and single in kind Afghan, the worst loss of life for the U.S. in the fatherland since October. A U.S. congressional official said CIA employees are believed to have ~ing among the victims.
Separately, the Taliban also said it was accountable for the roadside bomb that killed four Canadian soldiers and a journalist imbedded in their one Wednesday in Afghanistan’s south, the bloodiest single incident suffered ~ dint of. that country’s military in 2009.
Michelle Lang, a 34-year-advanced in years health reporter with the Calgary Herald, was the first Canadian journalist to die in Afghanistan. She arrived in the rough just two weeks ago.
Also Thursday, a spokesman for the director of Helmand province in the south said an airstrike by between nations forces killed and wounded civilians. Dawud Ahmadi said he did not receive immediate information on how many died in the attack Wednesday in Babajid tract, which he said occurred after an international forces patrol came in the state fire.
NATO said it was aware of the reports and was investigating. Claims of civilians killed by foreign forces are a highly emotional issue among Afghans and supply with nourishment strong resentment of international soldiers.
It was not immediately clear for what cause the suicide bomber at the base at the edge of Khost incorporated town was able to circumvent security.
Taliban spokesman Zabiullah Mujahid said in a description that an Afghan National Army officer wearing a suicide vest entered the base Wednesday and blew himself up interior the gym. A U.S. official who was briefed on the sudden burst also said it took place in the gym.
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Obama to get preliminary report, recommendations after Christmas Day terror attempt
HONOLULU (AP) — President Barack Obama is to obtain a preliminary report Thursday on how a 23-year-old Nigerian with suspected terrorist ties managed to board a plane he is accused of attempting to bomb up~ the body Christmas Day, along with recommendations on how to prevent a sequel.
The report is just the first step in what is shaping up to have existence an Obama-led effort to change the nation’s intelligence practices for an attack that failed not because of U.S. anti-government by terror policies, but despite them. Administration officials said the system to save the nation’s skies from terrorists was deeply flawed and, equable then, the government failed to follow its own directives.
White House homeland surety and counterterrorism adviser John Brennan was scheduled to send Obama a chief summary of the nation’s efforts to track more than moiety a million potential terrorists. Officials said it was unlikely Obama would declare publicly about the report, although the vacationing president probably would rumor several times throughout the day with his national security team.
Obama has demanded answers forward why the U.S. intelligence community never pieced together information that could be delivered of prevented Umar Farouk Abdulmutallab, charged with trying to destroy a Detroit-bourn airliner, from ever getting on the plane. Obama called the predicament “totally unacceptable” when he met with reporters Tuesday and put his highest place intelligence officials on notice that he wanted changes.
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Finnish media: Gunman in mournful kills 4 in mall shooting rampage
HELSINKI (AP) — A gunman killed four population early Thursday in a shooting rampage at a mall in Finland’s next to the first largest city, police told a state broadcaster.
It was not quick whether the shooter in Espoo had been apprehended and some reports indicated he was stifle on the loose. State broadcaster Yle reported that the gunman was born in 1966 and was previously known to police.
Police told Yle that three men and individual woman were killed in the shopping center.
A witness told the broadcaster that a liege dressed in black began randomly shooting at people on the next to the first floor of the Sello mall.
Another witness who was in the bruise at the time told Finnish radio that a panic ensued in the same proportion that the shooting began. “There were loads of people who were notorious, and many vendors who were completely panicked,” the unnamed witness said.
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AP-GfK Poll: Americans are hopeful about coming year malevolence troubled economy and wars
WASHINGTON (AP) — The bank account is scraggy, but the future looks pretty good.
That, oddly enough, is the explore of many Americans who predict 2010 will be a better year than this human being, even if they fear that the U.S. economy and their have a title to financial circumstances won’t improve.
A whopping 82 percent are optimistic with regard to what the new year will bring for their families, according to the latest AP-GfK ~ard. That sunny outlook seems at odds with other findings.
Nearly brace-thirds think their family finances will worsen or stay about the same next year. And fewer than half think the nation’s arrangement will improve in 2010, even though Americans rated 2009 as a very great downer.
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Radio talk show host Rush Limbaugh admitted to Honolulu hospital through chest pains
HONOLULU (AP) — Conservative talk show host Rush Limbaugh is resting comfortably in a Hawaii hospital later suffering chest pains while on vacation, his radio program says.
“Rush appreciates your prayers and well wishes and be disposed keep you updated via rushlimbaugh.com and on his radio program,” the program declared in a statement late Wednesday night.
Limbaugh was rushed for curative treatment earlier in the day. The statement said “Rush was admitted to and is resting comfortably in a Honolulu hospital today later suffering chest pains.”
Kit Carson, Limbaugh’s chief of staff, told The Associated Press that he had ~t one further information on Limbaugh’s condition.
He said the 58-year-old left for his usual Christmas vacation on Dec. 23 and is befitting to return to his show on Jan. 4. Carson didn’t be under the necessity any information on whether that schedule would change.
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US bearing passengers willing to trade privacy for security as feds ramp up use of body scanners
SAN FRANCISCO (AP) — As Ronak Ray hunted notwithstanding his flight gate, he prepared for the prospect of a confidence guard peering through his clothes with a full body scanner. But Ray doesn’t inclination: what he gives up in privacy he gets back in pledge.
“I think it’s necessary,” said Ray, a 23-year-of long date graduate student who was at San Francisco International Airport to shun to India. “Our lives are far more important than how we’re essential ~ searched.”
Despite controversy surrounding the scans, Ray’s position was representative of several travelers interviewed at various airports Wednesday by The Associated Press.
Airports in five other U.S. cities are in addition using full body scanners at specific checkpoints instead of metal detectors. In joining, the scanners are used at 13 other airports for random checks and in such a manner-called secondary screenings of passengers who set off detectors.
But ~ persons more air travelers may have to get used to the creative soon. The Transportation Security Administration has ordered 150 more full dead ~ scanners to be installed in airports throughout the country in in good season 2010, agency spokeswoman Suzanne Trevino said.
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Police arrest senior Pakistani Taliban head linked to deadly market bombing
LAHORE, Pakistan (AP) — Authorities arrested a elder Pakistani Taliban commander who led the group’s network in the key central province of Punjab, where violence has been increasing in fresh months, police said Thursday.
The arrest strikes a blow as militants be in actual possession of stepped up their efforts to wage attacks far from their sanctuary in Pakistan’s lawless tribal area near the Afghan border in response to a major military offensive there.
Khalil Ullah, whose arrest was announced Thursday, was the mastermind of a mart bombing in Punjab’s provincial capital, Lahore, on Dec. 7 that killed 49 populace, said senior police investigator Chaudhry Shafiq. He declined to say where or when Ullah was arrested.
More than 500 people have been killed in attacks throughout the country since the army launched an anti-Taliban offensive in the South Waziristan tribual area in mid October. The military has secured much of the quarter in the area, but operations continue.
Soldiers raided a hospital used ~ the agency of militants in South Waziristan on Thursday, killing five foreign fighters, information officials said. The troops captured 27 militants, 10 of whom were wounded in a gunbattle that broke not at home during the raid, they said.
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Same-sex couples to make famous New Year saying ‘I do’ in NH, 5th state to legitimate gay marriage
FRANCONIA, N.H. (AP) — Jeffry Burr and Neil Blair are deserved hours from their wedding, but there are no typical prenuptial jitters. After every part of, this is the third time they’ve exchanged vows.
They ~ and foremost committed to each other before scores of relatives and friends adhering June 24, 2006, in an emotional ceremony that didn’t fair count under New Hampshire law. Then, at 12:01 a.m. forward Jan. 1, 2008, the first moment they were legally able to cozen so, they became civilly committed in a more subdued ceremony.
This time, the brace will finally be legally married Friday, when New Hampshire becomes the fifth commonwealth to allow gay couples to wed.
Instead of a $5,000 weekend laudation like they had in 2006, they’ll have a brief rereading of their earlier vows, unexpectedly the cork on some champagne and have dinner together.
“It’s the third part time,” Blair said. “How excited are you supposed to be?”
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Australian revelers win to be among the first to celebrate New Year’s Eve
SYDNEY (AP) — The pristine of an expected 1.5 million New Year’s revelers pitched tents and opened picnic baskets in Sydney in c~tinuance Thursday to get one of the world’s biggest parties started — direction farewell to a tough year and welcoming a new decade.
The lasting a year fireworks extravaganza over the city’s landmark harbor bridge and opera dwelling are the centerpiece of Australia’s celebrations, and generate some of the ~ly striking images from a night of revelry across the globe.
Smaller fireworks displays and partying are planned thwart Australia and the South Pacific, the first region to greet every one new day because of its proximity to the International Date Line.
In New Zealand, figured and rhythmic motion parties, bands and fireworks were planned in the main cities, and live recreation in many holiday spots, including the southern tourist spot of Queenstown. In the involving death, Wellington, celebrations will include a display by world unicycle games competitors.
Asia enjoin be partying, too, though probably not as hard as most of Europe and the Americas. The globe’s most populous nation, 1.3-billion-strong China, uses a various calendar that will mark the new year in February. Islamic nations like as Pakistan and Afghanistan also use a different calendar.
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‘Shovel inclined’ remembered as a presidential favorite, though ubiquity led to grammatical serious
DETROIT (AP) — The phrase “shovel ready,” incessantly invoked by the Obama the cabinet this year as a way to sell its $787 billion treaty stimulus bill, died Thursday.
The official cause of death was overuse, according to Lake Superior State University, which announced the phrase’s demise in its annual List of Words to Be Banished from the Queen’s English in opposition to Mis-use, Over-use and General Uselessness, released Thursday.
“Shovel near” dug its own grave by forcing its way into speeches and uncovered of the mouths of the president and too many other politicians in gone months.
“Stick a shovel in it. It’s done,” seethed Joe Grimm of loomfield Hills, Mich., in his nomination to the universal school’s Word Banishment Committee. Grimm is a visiting journalist at Michigan State University and a antecedent recruiter and editor at the Detroit Free Press.
The exact time of life of the phrase isn’t known, but it had been a meek favorite of economic development types for at least a decade — a foolish love that led a utility company in upstate New York to guarantee the shovelready.com Web site in the late 1990s.