Bomb strikes Moroccan cafe, killing mostly foreigners
A powerful bomb blast in a crowded Moroccan cafe killed at least 14 people, wounded dozens of others, and shattered the relative calm in a corner of the Arab world overwhelmed by uprisings and deadly government crackdowns.
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LONDON — As last-minute preparations drew to a close, London braced Friday for a royal wedding that promises to be one of the largest and most widely watched events here in recent memory.
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TUSCALOOSA, Ala. — A day after enduring a terrifying bombardment of storms that killed hundreds across the South and spawned tornadoes that razed neighborhoods and even entire towns, people from Texas to Virginia to Georgia searched through rubble for survivors Thursday and tried to reclaim their own lives.
US envoy says rights in China ‘backslide’
BEIJING — The chief U.S. representative to human rights discussions with China offered a cheerless portrait of those talks after their conclusion Thursday, saying the United States was worried by “a serious backsliding” of freedoms in China and at loggerheads with Beijing officials over many aspects of the issue.
Carter criticizes US for withholding N. Korea aid
SEOUL, South Korea — Former President Jimmy Carter, after a 48-hour visit to North Korea, sharply criticized the United States and South Korea on Thursday for their refusal to send humanitarian assistance to the impoverished North, saying their deliberate withholding of food aid amounted to “a human rights violation.”
More than 270 killed in tornado outbreak
Wednesday, April 27, 2011, now marks the date of the second-deadliest tornado outbreak in U.S. history, with over 270 confirmed deaths. Two days ago, more than 165 tornadoes were reported across the southeastern U.S. stretching from Alabama to Virginia. The strongest storms impacted Alabama — the death toll in that state alone may soon top 200. This devastating act of nature ranks only second to the “Super Outbreak” of April 3, 1974, in which 310 people lost their lives from 148 tornadoes stretching from Michigan to Alabama.
Florida Republican congressman Allen West gaining star power
FORT LAUDERDALE, Fla. — Often, the most interesting thing about a person is the characteristic that lies beneath, that hidden thing that bobs up along the waves of time.
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Egyptians are looking forward with extraordinary confidence and enthusiasm to their first free and fair elections this fall after the defining revolution of the Arab spring, according to the first major poll since the ouster of former President Hosni Mubarak. But they remain deeply divided over the role of Islam in their public life.
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When an arbitrator ruled this month that Detroit could reduce the pensions being earned by its police sergeants and lieutenants, it put the struggling city at the forefront of a growing national debate over whether the pensions of current public workers can or should be reduced.
Syria intensifies military attacks against rebels
BEIRUT, Lebanon — The Syrian Army stormed the restive city of Dara’a with tanks and soldiers and helped detain dozens in towns across the country Monday in an escalation of the crackdown on Syria’s five-week-old uprising, according to residents and human rights activists. They said at least 25 people had been killed in Dara’a, with reports of bodies strewn in the streets.
Prison break by Taliban leaders sets hundreds free
KANDAHAR, Afghanistan — Taliban leaders carried out an audacious plot Monday to free nearly 500 fighters from southern Afghanistan’s largest prison, leading them through a tunnel dug over more than five months and equipped with electricity and air pipes, which suggested that the insurgents remain formidable and wily opponents despite recent setbacks.
Haley Barbour, Mississippi governor, won’t run for president
WASHINGTON — Gov. Haley Barbour of Mississippi had hired a campaign manager, lined up influential Republican activists in early-voting states and secured commitments from donors across the country, but he surprised them all Monday by announcing that he was abandoning his effort to join the Republican presidential race.
NATO strikes Gadhafi office compound, Italy joins the fight
TRIPOLI, Libya — NATO warplanes struck Moammar Gadhafi’s compound here early on Monday and also bombed a state television complex in an escalation of the air campaign to aid the rebellion against his four decades in power.
April showers will linger this week
The last week of April will have spotty showers as the main weather concern. Through Thursday night we may experience raindrops at almost any time, day or night. A slow-moving low pressure system located in the northern Midwest is responsible for the wet and cloudy weather today. By Wednesday this system will be “pushed” slightly north as another storm system forms in the southern Midwest. But as Thursday rolls around, the new storm will swing a cold front through New England, bringing heavy rain and thunderstorms. The weather through this week will be quite warmer than last week, with highs reaching 70°F (21°C) and lows staying in the 50s°F (10–15°C). The warm weather will take shape when a warm front edges its way northward into Canada today. A flow of Gulf moisture will also become apparent with the warm front’s passage.
Yemen’s opposition accepts deal for transfer of power
Yemen’s opposition coalition on Monday accepted a proposal for a transfer of power, bringing the country closer to a resolution of months of political turmoil and countless demonstrations calling for President Ali Abdullah Saleh to step down.
Protesters for and against Palestinian state clash in Israel
JERUSALEM — A day after dozens of prominent Israeli artists and intellectuals declared their support for a Palestinian state, they took their cause to the streets of Tel Aviv on Thursday and quickly found themselves confronted by rightist opponents calling them “traitors” and, according to some reports, “Jewish Nazis.”
Shorts (right)
WASHINGTON — Allen West made history when Florida voters sent him to Congress last year, becoming one of only two black Republicans from the South to serve in the House since Reconstruction.
Libyan rebels advance in West, US to deploy drones
CAIRO — The government of Moammar Gadhafi suffered setbacks on multiple fronts Thursday as rebels in the western mountains seized a Tunisian border crossing, fighters in the besieged city of Misrata said they were gaining ground and President Barack Obama authorized the use of armed drones for close-in fighting against the Gadhafi forces.
Survey finds more Americans gloomy about economy, future
Americans are more pessimistic about the nation’s economic outlook and overall direction than they have been at any time since President Barack Obama’s first two months in office, when the country was still officially ensnared in the Great Recession, according to the latest New York Times/CBS News poll.
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WASHINGTON — Unable to stanch the flow of corporate money to Republican causes, Democrats tried a new tack Thursday by bringing a lawsuit against the Federal Election Commission to force the disclosure of tens of millions of dollars in secret donations.