http://www.post-gazette.com/nationworld/ National and world news en-us Copyright 2012, post-gazette.com. Tue, 7 Feb 2012 04:39:37 -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/12038/1208569-82.stm?cmpid=nationworld.xml ATHENS, Greece -- Greece's government said Monday that it will cut 15,000 state jobs this year, part of new austerity measures it must adopt to secure new debt agreements and rescue funds from international lenders. Tue, 7 Feb 2012 00:00:00 -0500 http://www.post-gazette.com/pg/12038/1208570-82-0.stm?cmpid=nationworld.xml WASHINGTON -- The White House moved Monday to tighten sanctions against Iran because of the country's suspect nuclear program, freezing all property of the Central Bank of Iran, other Iranian financial institutions and the Iranian government in the United States. Tue, 7 Feb 2012 00:00:00 -0500 http://www.post-gazette.com/pg/12038/1208571-82-0.stm?cmpid=nationworld.xml RAMALLAH, West Bank -- After months of wavering, Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas took a decisive step Monday toward reconciliation with the Islamic militant group Hamas, a move that Israel promptly warned would close the door to any future peace talks. Tue, 7 Feb 2012 00:00:00 -0500 http://www.post-gazette.com/pg/12038/1208573-82.stm?cmpid=nationworld.xml BEIRUT -- The U.S. closed its embassy in Syria and withdrew its staff Monday in the face of escalating mayhem that U.S. officials blamed on the Syrian government's unbridled repression of an 11-month-old uprising. The move marked another dramatic moment in a week full of them, as the confrontation in Syria turned even more violent and unpredictable. Tue, 7 Feb 2012 00:00:00 -0500 http://www.post-gazette.com/pg/12038/1208574-82-0.stm?cmpid=nationworld.xml OSLO, Norway -- The right-wing extremist who has admitted killing 77 people in Norway's worst peacetime massacre told a court Monday that he deserves a medal of honor for the bloodshed and demanded to be set free. Anders Behring Breivik smirked as he was led into the Oslo district court, handcuffed and dressed in a dark suit, for his last detention hearing before the trial starts in April. Tue, 7 Feb 2012 00:00:00 -0500 http://www.post-gazette.com/pg/12038/1208599-176-0.stm?cmpid=nationworld.xml WASHINGTON -- Perhaps the most attention-getting Super Bowl ad -- other than that dog blackmailing his owner with tortilla chips to keep quiet over a felinicide, of course -- was Clint Eastwood's paean to a resurgent auto industry in Detroit. Tue, 7 Feb 2012 00:00:00 -0500 http://www.post-gazette.com/pg/12038/1208601-84-0.stm?cmpid=nationworld.xml WASHINGTON -- More than a third of the advertising tied to the presidential race has been funded by nonprofit groups that will never have to reveal their donors, suggesting that a significant portion of the 2012 elections will be wrapped in a vast cloak of secrecy. Tue, 7 Feb 2012 00:00:00 -0500 http://www.post-gazette.com/pg/12038/1208614-84-0.stm?cmpid=nationworld.xml Two American brothers of a Mexican casino magnate who fled drug and fraud charges in the United States and has been seeking a pardon enabling him to return have emerged as major fundraisers and donors for President Barack Obama's re-election campaign. Tue, 7 Feb 2012 00:00:00 -0500 http://www.post-gazette.com/pg/12038/1208618-84-0.stm?cmpid=nationworld.xml WASHINGTON -- President Barack Obama will use the backdrop of a White House science fair today to highlight a nationwide shortage of math and science teachers and unveil a plan to invest $100 million to help train 100,000 new educators over the next decade. Tue, 7 Feb 2012 00:00:00 -0500 http://www.post-gazette.com/pg/12038/1208634-84-0.stm?cmpid=nationworld.xml NAVAL AIR STATION WHIDBEY ISLAND, Wash. -- The pilot sat strapped to a chair, held in place as if he were in the backseat of a helicopter. Beside him, on a mock wall, was a window. The window was closed. Tue, 7 Feb 2012 00:00:00 -0500 http://www.post-gazette.com/pg/12038/1208635-84-0.stm?cmpid=nationworld.xml Two American brothers of a Mexican casino magnate who fled drug and fraud charges in the United States and has been seeking a pardon enabling him to return have emerged as major fund-raisers and donors for President Obama's re-election campaign. Tue, 7 Feb 2012 00:00:00 -0500 http://www.post-gazette.com/pg/12038/1208636-84-0.stm?cmpid=nationworld.xml GRAND JUNCTION, Colo. -- Elizabeth Young, a mother and artist in Las Vegas, likes Mitt Romney's successful record of "turning around companies that have been doing so poorly." Chad Backus, a physical therapist from Winnemucca, Nev., appreciates his "business experience, his leadership experience." And Arwen Spor, a mother of three in Spring Creek, Nev., lived in the Salt Lake City area during the 2002 Olympics, and trusts Mr. Romney because of his role in reviving the struggling games. Tue, 7 Feb 2012 00:00:00 -0500 http://www.post-gazette.com/pg/12038/1208637-84-0.stm?cmpid=nationworld.xml WASHINGTON -- President Obama is signaling to wealthy Democratic donors that he wants them to start contributing to an outside group supporting his re-election, reversing a long-held position as he confronts a deep financial disadvantage on a vital front in the campaign. Tue, 7 Feb 2012 00:00:00 -0500 http://www.post-gazette.com/pg/12038/1208639-82-0.stm?cmpid=nationworld.xml ROME -- Leaders of the Roman Catholic Church began a four-day symposium on Monday about the prevention of sexual abuse of minors by the clergy, an unprecedented assembly described by the Vatican as a response to a painful issue that has wracked the church and estranged many faithful. Tue, 7 Feb 2012 00:00:00 -0500 http://www.post-gazette.com/pg/12038/1208640-82.stm?cmpid=nationworld.xml An immigration appeals judge ordered the government on Monday to release on bail a militant Islamic preacher who is considered a leader of Al Qaeda in Europe, despite government arguments that he is a threat to Britain's security. The preacher, Abu Qatada, 51, whose real name is Omar Othman, has spent more than six years in British jails since his arrest after the Sept. 11 attacks in the United States, and had been described by a Spanish terrorism judge as "Osama bin Laden's right-hand man in Europe." Mr. O Tue, 7 Feb 2012 00:00:00 -0500 http://www.post-gazette.com/pg/12038/1208641-82.stm?cmpid=nationworld.xml Queen Elizabeth II broke with her custom of performing no public duties on the anniversary of the death of her father, King George VI, in 1952, leaving her Sandringham estate in rural Norfolk on Monday to make brief appearances at a neighboring town hall and a village nursery school. The day marked the 60th anniversary of her accession to the throne, an accomplishment matched by only one other British monarch in more than 1,000 years. Her great-great grandmother, Queen Victoria, celebrated her Diamond Jubil Tue, 7 Feb 2012 00:00:00 -0500 http://www.post-gazette.com/pg/12038/1208642-82-0.stm?cmpid=nationworld.xml WASHINGTON -- Authoritarian rulers from Caracas to Moscow and beyond have long viewed pro-democracy groups financed by the United States with deep suspicion, regularly denouncing them as meddlers or spies and sometimes harassing their workers. Tue, 7 Feb 2012 00:00:00 -0500 http://www.post-gazette.com/pg/12038/1208643-82-0.stm?cmpid=nationworld.xml PARIS -- The leaders of Germany and France, meeting here on Monday, pledged not to allow Russia and China to block international action to stop the bloodshed in Syria, and promised to help the Syrian people. Tue, 7 Feb 2012 00:00:00 -0500 http://www.post-gazette.com/pg/12038/1208644-82-0.stm?cmpid=nationworld.xml MEXICO CITY -- The historic choice of a woman as its presidential candidate may turn out to be a shrewd move for the party of Mexico's incumbent president, political analysts said Monday, allowing it to capitalize on the growing power of women in politics and offering a fresh approach for a party that has been mired in a bloody drug war. Tue, 7 Feb 2012 00:00:00 -0500 http://www.post-gazette.com/pg/12038/1208645-82-0.stm?cmpid=nationworld.xml TEHRAN -- One measure of the profound anxiety now coursing through Iranian society can be seen on Manouchehri Street, a winding lane at the heart of this city where furtive crowds of men gather every day like drug dealers to buy and sell American dollars. Tue, 7 Feb 2012 00:00:00 -0500 http://www.post-gazette.com/pg/12038/1208646-82-0.stm?cmpid=nationworld.xml ST. MORITZ, Switzerland -- In an earlier era in Europe, it was not unusual for the sudden and unexpected departure of a monarch to touch off a prolonged period of claims and counterclaims until one of the pretenders finally prevailed. Tue, 7 Feb 2012 00:00:00 -0500 http://www.post-gazette.com/pg/12038/1208647-82.stm?cmpid=nationworld.xml Some sanctions against Myanmar were waived by the United States on Monday, allowing the Myanmar government to work with the World Bank and other international financial organizations to bolster its economy. The decision is the latest in a series of cautious reciprocal steps intended to reward sweeping political and economic changes in the country, also known as Burma. The restrictions on international financial organizations stem from American laws against human trafficking, which the United States State De Tue, 7 Feb 2012 00:00:00 -0500 http://www.post-gazette.com/pg/12038/1208648-82-0.stm?cmpid=nationworld.xml WASHINGTON -- A senior American military commander is expected to travel to Pakistan this month in what Obama administration officials say is the first step toward thawing a strategic relationship that has been in effect frozen for more than two months. Tue, 7 Feb 2012 00:00:00 -0500 http://www.post-gazette.com/pg/12038/1208649-82-0.stm?cmpid=nationworld.xml WASHINGTON -- The White House moved to enforce tightened sanctions against Iran on Monday because of the country's suspect nuclear program, freezing all property of the Central Bank of Iran, other Iranian financial institutions and the Iranian government in the United States. Tue, 7 Feb 2012 00:00:00 -0500 http://www.post-gazette.com/pg/12038/1208650-82-0.stm?cmpid=nationworld.xml LAHORE, Pakistan -- Long unchallenged, Pakistan's top spy agency faces a flurry of court actions that subject its darkest operations to unusual scrutiny, amid growing calls for new restrictions on its largely untrammeled powers. Tue, 7 Feb 2012 00:00:00 -0500 http://www.post-gazette.com/pg/12037/1208420-82-0.stm?cmpid=nationworld.xml The United States proposed an international coalition to support Syria's opposition Sunday after Russia and China blocked a U.N. attempt to end nearly 11 months of bloodshed, raising fears that violence will escalate. Rebel soldiers said force was now the only way to oust President Bashar Assad, while the regime vowed to press its military crackdown. Mon, 6 Feb 2012 10:23:00 -0500 http://www.post-gazette.com/pg/12037/1208415-82-0.stm?cmpid=nationworld.xml For the first time in nearly two decades of escalating tensions over Iran's nuclear program, world leaders are genuinely concerned that an Israeli military attack on the Islamic Republic could be imminent -- an action that many fear might trigger a wider war, terrorism and global economic havoc. Mon, 6 Feb 2012 10:15:00 -0500 http://www.post-gazette.com/pg/12037/1208406-84-0.stm?cmpid=nationworld.xml After a blockbuster few months, the race for the Republican presidential nomination may be about to hit the snooze button. The closely watched early states are done, and the competition has whittled down to a hardy four candidates. The next landmark day is a month off -- March 6, otherwise known as Super Tuesday. Mon, 6 Feb 2012 00:00:00 -0500 http://www.post-gazette.com/pg/12037/1208410-84-0.stm?cmpid=nationworld.xml The long, bizarre case of a Utah wife missing for two years took a horrific turn Sunday when a powerful house explosion killed the woman's husband and his two young sons, moments after the boys arrived for a visit that was supposed to be supervised by a social worker. Authorities say the husband, Josh Powell, blew the house up on purpose. Mon, 6 Feb 2012 00:00:00 -0500 http://www.post-gazette.com/pg/12037/1208413-82.stm?cmpid=nationworld.xml A suicide bomber detonated his vehicle Sunday at a police parking lot in central Kandahar, killing at least seven people, including five police officers and a child, in the fourth attempted suicide bombing in this southern city in less than a month. Mon, 6 Feb 2012 00:00:00 -0500 http://www.post-gazette.com/pg/12037/1208414-82.stm?cmpid=nationworld.xml Egyptian investigators filed criminal charges Sunday against at least 40 international civil society workers, reportedly including the son of a U.S. Cabinet secretary, in a case that could cost the ruling generals more than $1 billion in U.S. aid. Mon, 6 Feb 2012 00:00:00 -0500 http://www.post-gazette.com/pg/12037/1208416-82-0.stm?cmpid=nationworld.xml Subzero cold combined with snowstorms continued to claim lives across Europe, bringing the death toll to more than 280 by Sunday. Most of the victims were in Ukraine, where 30 more people died over the weekend. Mon, 6 Feb 2012 00:00:00 -0500 http://www.post-gazette.com/pg/12037/1208431-114-0.stm?cmpid=nationworld.xml PPG Industries has been selling house paint high in lead content in the African nation of Cameroon for years, and although it says it stopped production of that paint late last year, it has rejected a request that it recall or accurately label its lead paints now selling in stores there. Mon, 6 Feb 2012 00:00:00 -0500 http://www.post-gazette.com/pg/12037/1208463-84-0.stm?cmpid=nationworld.xml WASHINGTON -- Members of Congress may no longer be able to direct federal money to projects back home because of a moratorium on legislative earmarks, but that has not stopped them from trying. Mon, 6 Feb 2012 00:00:00 -0500 http://www.post-gazette.com/pg/12037/1208464-84-0.stm?cmpid=nationworld.xml WASHINGTON -- For Brad Woodhouse, the spokesman for the Democratic National Committee, it was when he came across a Twitter post about a CNN interview in which Mitt Romney seemed to shrug off concern for the very poor. Mon, 6 Feb 2012 00:00:00 -0500 http://www.post-gazette.com/pg/12037/1208465-84-0.stm?cmpid=nationworld.xml LAS VEGAS -- The morning after losing to Mitt Romney by 25 points in the Nevada caucuses, Newt Gingrich did not sound very conciliatory. Mon, 6 Feb 2012 00:00:00 -0500 http://www.post-gazette.com/pg/12037/1208466-84.stm?cmpid=nationworld.xml The husband and the two young sons of a missing Utah woman died on Sunday at the husband's home in Washington State in what appeared to be an intentional explosion, the authorities said. Mon, 6 Feb 2012 00:00:00 -0500 http://www.post-gazette.com/pg/12037/1208468-82.stm?cmpid=nationworld.xml President Obama said Sunday that he did not believe Israel was preparing to attack Iran to disrupt its nuclear program and that diplomacy remained the "preferred solution" to resolving the standoff over what Western leaders believe is Tehran's pursuit of nuclear weapons. Mon, 6 Feb 2012 00:00:00 -0500 http://www.post-gazette.com/pg/12037/1208469-82-0.stm?cmpid=nationworld.xml BEIRUT, Lebanon -- The collapse of diplomatic efforts to mediate Syria's uprising reverberated across the country Sunday, emboldening a government that pressed on with a crackdown in the capital's suburbs and the north and prompting rebel leaders to vow that only force would drive President Bashar al-Assad from power. Mon, 6 Feb 2012 00:00:00 -0500 http://www.post-gazette.com/pg/12037/1208470-82-0.stm?cmpid=nationworld.xml WASHINGTON -- British and Pakistani journalists said Sunday that the C.I.A.'s drone strikes on suspected militants in Pakistan have repeatedly targeted rescuers who responded to the scene of a strike, as well as mourners at subsequent funerals. Mon, 6 Feb 2012 00:00:00 -0500 http://www.post-gazette.com/pg/12037/1208471-82-0.stm?cmpid=nationworld.xml ATHENS -- Pushed against the wall by its foreign lenders, the Greek government agreed on Sunday to drastic new spending cuts but failed to complete an arrangement that would unlock the financing the country needs to prevent default. It agreed instead to resume talks on Monday. Mon, 6 Feb 2012 00:00:00 -0500 http://www.post-gazette.com/pg/12037/1208472-82-0.stm?cmpid=nationworld.xml ABBEVILLE, France -- This small city in northern France has few immigrants and little crime. But in the last local elections here, the candidate of the far-right National Front eliminated the standard-bearer of President Nicolas Sarkozy's party in the first round of voting and then won 30.2 percent of the vote in the runoff, losing to a Socialist. Mon, 6 Feb 2012 00:00:00 -0500 http://www.post-gazette.com/pg/12037/1208473-82-0.stm?cmpid=nationworld.xml CAIRO -- Egypt's military-led government said Sunday that it would put 19 Americans and two dozen others on trial in a politically charged criminal investigation into the foreign financing of nonprofit groups that has shaken the 30-year alliance between the United States and Egypt. Mon, 6 Feb 2012 00:00:00 -0500 http://www.post-gazette.com/pg/12037/1208474-82-0.stm?cmpid=nationworld.xml JERUSALEM -- Israelis like to say that when it comes to military and security operations, those who know don't talk, and those who talk don't know. But the intense and increasingly public debate about whether to attack Iran's nuclear facilities is challenging that piece of conventional wisdom. Mon, 6 Feb 2012 00:00:00 -0500 http://www.post-gazette.com/pg/12037/1208475-82-0.stm?cmpid=nationworld.xml GAZA -- Initial Palestinian reports late Sunday indicated that the leaders of the rival Palestinian movements Fatah and Hamas might have found a way to break a long political deadlock by forming an interim unity government that would be led, at least at first, by Mahmoud Abbas, the president of the Palestinian Authority based in the West Bank. Mon, 6 Feb 2012 00:00:00 -0500 http://www.post-gazette.com/pg/12037/1208476-82-0.stm?cmpid=nationworld.xml   Mon, 6 Feb 2012 00:00:00 -0500 http://www.post-gazette.com/pg/12037/1208477-82-0.stm?cmpid=nationworld.xml BAMAKO, Mali -- In life, he delighted in fomenting insurgencies in the African nations to the south. And in death, Col. Muammar el-Qaddafi is doing it all over again. Mon, 6 Feb 2012 00:00:00 -0500 http://www.post-gazette.com/pg/12037/1208478-82-0.stm?cmpid=nationworld.xml WASHINGTON -- On his second yearlong deployment to Afghanistan, Lt. Col. Daniel L. Davis traveled 9,000 miles, patrolled with American troops in eight provinces and returned in October of last year with a fervent conviction that the war was going disastrously and that senior military leaders had not leveled with the American public. Mon, 6 Feb 2012 00:00:00 -0500 http://www.post-gazette.com/pg/12037/1208479-82-0.stm?cmpid=nationworld.xml KANDAHAR, Afghanistan -- A suicide bomber detonated his vehicle at a police parking lot in central Kandahar on Sunday, killing at least seven people, including five police officers and a child, in the fourth attempted or successful suicide bombing there in less than a month. Mon, 6 Feb 2012 00:00:00 -0500 http://www.post-gazette.com/pg/12036/1208318-176-0.stm?cmpid=nationworld.xml Republican presidential front-runner Mitt Romney cruised to victory in the Nevada caucuses Saturday night, notching a second consecutive triumph against a field of rivals suddenly struggling to keep pace. Sun, 5 Feb 2012 13:05:00 -0500 http://www.post-gazette.com/pg/12036/1208276-82.stm?cmpid=nationworld.xml TEHRAN, Iran -- Iran began ground military exercises Saturday and defiantly warned that it could cut off oil exports to "hostile" European nations as tensions rise over suggestions that military strikes are an increasing possibility if sanctions fail to rein in the Islamic Republic's nuclear program. Sun, 5 Feb 2012 00:01:00 -0500 http://www.post-gazette.com/pg/12036/1208277-82-0.stm?cmpid=nationworld.xml MOSCOW -- Tens of thousands of Russians embraced the numbing cold and marched to a frozen river bank near the Kremlin on Saturday, demonstrating their determination to keep up the pressure on Vladimir Putin for fair elections and honest government. Sun, 5 Feb 2012 00:00:00 -0500 http://www.post-gazette.com/pg/12036/1208279-82-0.stm?cmpid=nationworld.xml MUNICH, Germany -- Defense Secretary Leon Panetta and Secretary of State Hillary Rodham Clinton sought to reassure Europe on Saturday that, despite budget cuts in Washington and the coming withdrawal from the continent of about 6,000 to 7,000 U.S. troops, the United States was not abandoning its allies. Sun, 5 Feb 2012 00:00:00 -0500 http://www.post-gazette.com/pg/12036/1208301-84.stm?cmpid=nationworld.xml The nation's leading breast cancer advocacy group has gone into full damage-control mode. Sun, 5 Feb 2012 00:00:00 -0500 http://www.post-gazette.com/pg/12036/1208302-84-0.stm?cmpid=nationworld.xml WASHINGTON -- President Barack Obama is asking Americans to press Congress to pass his new homeowner-relief plan that includes a tax on financial companies that Republicans have already rejected. Mr. Obama said in his weekly radio and Internet address Saturday that the housing crisis has been "the biggest drag on our recovery from the recession." Sun, 5 Feb 2012 00:00:00 -0500 http://www.post-gazette.com/pg/12036/1208354-84-0.stm?cmpid=nationworld.xml LAS VEGAS -- Mitt Romney handily won the Nevada caucuses on Saturday, solidifying his status as the front-runner and increasing his momentum as he seeks to use the month of February to ease doubts within the Republican Party about his candidacy and begin confronting President Obama. Sun, 5 Feb 2012 00:00:00 -0500 http://www.post-gazette.com/pg/12036/1208355-84-0.stm?cmpid=nationworld.xml EAST ST. LOUIS, Ill. -- When the Army Corps of Engineers declared last year that the levees here were "unacceptable," it kicked up a storm of protest from officials and residents of the broad Mississippi River flood plain known as the American Bottom. Sun, 5 Feb 2012 00:00:00 -0500 http://www.post-gazette.com/pg/12036/1208356-84-0.stm?cmpid=nationworld.xml LAS VEGAS -- Sheldon Adelson, the billionaire casino executive keeping Newt Gingrich's presidential hopes alive, has relayed assurances to Mitt Romney that he will provide even more generous support to his candidacy if he becomes the Republican nominee, several associates said in interviews here. Sun, 5 Feb 2012 00:00:00 -0500 http://www.post-gazette.com/pg/12036/1208357-84-0.stm?cmpid=nationworld.xml PUEBLO, Colo. -- On a summer night not long ago, Maureen White sat alone in her living room staring at a DVD she had avoided watching for years. Sun, 5 Feb 2012 00:00:00 -0500 http://www.post-gazette.com/pg/12036/1208361-82-0.stm?cmpid=nationworld.xml UNITED NATIONS -- A United Nations Security Council effort to end the violence in Syria collapsed in acrimony with a double veto by Russia and China on Saturday, hours after the Syrian military attacked the city of Homs in what opposition leaders described as the deadliest government assault in the nearly 11-month uprising. Sun, 5 Feb 2012 00:00:00 -0500 http://www.post-gazette.com/pg/12036/1208362-82-0.stm?cmpid=nationworld.xml MOSCOW -- Antigovernment protesters managed to gather a third huge crowd in the center of Moscow on Saturday, undeterred by the arctic cold or by the near certainty that Vladimir V. Putin will win a six-year presidential term next month. Sun, 5 Feb 2012 00:00:00 -0500 http://www.post-gazette.com/pg/12036/1208363-82.stm?cmpid=nationworld.xml Saboteurs on Sunday blew up a pipeline in Egypt that supplied gas to Israel, the 12th such attack in a year, security officials said. Sun, 5 Feb 2012 00:00:00 -0500 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/12035/1208182-84-0.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/12035/1208218-84-0.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