National & International News
The day’s top national and international news
Algeria hostage situation
29 minutes ago
   

Militants: Algerian Chopper Kills 35 Hostages in Standoff

Militants: Algerian Chopper Kills 35 Hostages in Standoff
Islamist militants said that an Algerian helicopter has killed 15 of them and 35 of their hostages in a strafing attack on the natural gas plant where they have kidnapped dozens of foreigners, including Americans, The Associated Press reported. Earlier Thursday, 20 hostages escaped, an Algerian official said Thursday, and Americans were among them. Meanwhile, the armed standoff between the militants and the Algerian army continued into its second day — with dozens of hostages still reportedly being held — as Algerian officials engaged in talks with the U.S. and France over whether they could help fend off the militants. On Wednesday a group called Katibat Moulathamine, or the Masked Brigade, said they had captured 41 foreigners in retaliation for France's military intervention against al-Qaida-linked rebels in neighboring Mali, in one of the largest kidnappers ever attempted by a militant group in North Africa. In the initial assault, a Briton and an Algerian were reportedly killed. According to Algerian state radio, 30 local workers managed to escape from the In Amenas gas plant Thursday, and hundreds of Algerian workers had already been released the day before. Read »
NBCNews.com
2 hours ago
   

Obama Op-Ed Calls for Americans to Take on Gun Lobby

President Barack Obama, recognizing the uphill battle he faces in urging Congress to pass an assault weapons ban, appealed to the public with an op-ed calling for Americans to take their own case for gun restrictions to their lawmakers. "The truth is, there's only one voice powerful enough to make this happen: yours. If you think we've suffered too much pain to allow this to continue, put down the paper, turn off the computer, and get your Members of Congress on record," Obama urged readers in an op-ed in the Connecticut Post. The article came just after the president unveiled his own proposals for strengthening gun laws in the wake of last month's tragic elementary school massacre in Newtown, Conn. — proposals that were deemed some of the toughest in decades and already faced fierce opposition from gun rights advocates and some in Congress. In his op-ed, Obama said that he believed the Second Amendment guarantees the right to bear arms and would defend that right — but he also said that those rights come linked to responsibilities. "Along with our freedom to live our lives as we will comes an obligation to allow others to do the same," he wrote. Get More at NBC News

Lance Armstrong
46 minutes ago
   

Lance Armstrong Stripped of Olympic Medal

Lance Armstrong Stripped of Olympic Medal
The IOC has stripped Lance Armstrong of his bronze medal from the 2000 Sydney Olympics because of his involvement in doping, a spokesman said Thursday. Two officials told The Associated Press that the IOC sent a letter to Armstrong on Wednesday night asking him to return the medal. The move came after the International Olympic Committee was notified by cycling's governing body that Armstrong had not appealed the decision to disqualify him, the IOC spokesman said. The IOC executive board discussed revoking the medal last month, but delayed a decision until cycling body UCI formally notified Armstrong he had been stripped of his seven Tour de France titles and all results since 1998. He then had 21 days to appeal. Now that the deadline has expired, the IOC decided to take the medal away. The move was confirmed on the same day that Armstrong's admission of using performance-enhancing drugs — after years of denials — is to be broadcast in an interview with Oprah Winfrey. Read »
Boeing
44 minutes ago
 

International Regulators Temporarily Ground 787s

International Regulators Temporarily Ground 787s
The European Aviation Safety Agency and the U.S. Federal Aviation Administration have ordered the grounding and safety review of Boeing's 787 Dreamliner in the wake of a string of emergencies related to the supersized jet. The directive follows a similar order from Japan's two biggest airlines, which grounded their full fleets of Boeing 787s after one was forced to make an emergency landing early Wednesday morning due to battery problems and fuel leaks. Air India also followed suit, and has grounded its fleet of six Boeing 787 aircraft. The FAA said in a statement Wednesday evening that it will issue an "emergency airworthiness directive to address a potential battery fire risk" and that all Boeing 787 aircraft will have to demonstrate that their batteries are safe before they can return to the sky. United Airlines is the only American airline operator that uses Boeing 787s and has six of them in service. It was unclear how long the Dreamliners would remain grounded. Read »
Manti Te'o
14 minutes ago
   

Story of Te'o Girlfriend Death a Hoax

Story of Te'o Girlfriend Death a Hoax
Notre Dame football star Manti Te'o became the target of an elaborate hoax that duped him into believing a woman he had developed a relationship with online had died of leukemia, university officials said Wednesday. Notre Dame athletic director Jack Swarbrick said his faith in Te'o had not been shaken "one iota." Questions about Te'o's girlfriend, Lennay Kekua, came into questions after a Deadspin.com report said there was no record whatsoever of her existence. Notre Dame responded Wednesday evening, saying in a statement that a woman using a fictitious name "apparently ingratiated herself with Manti and then conspired with others to lead him to believe she had tragically died of leukemia." The university said that "the proper authorities" are investigating a "very cruel deception to entertain its perpetrators." Te'o led the Fighting Irish to the BCS title game a week after coach Brian Kelly told reporters that his grandmother and a friend of his had died. Te'o had said that his girlfriend had told him to go on and play, even if she had died. Read »
NBCNews.com
4 hours ago
   

U.S. to Syria Neighbors: Be Ready to Act on WMDs

The Obama administration has arranged for thousands of chemical protective suits, chemical gear and detection equipment to be sent to Jordan and Turkey as a precaution, should Syria's chemical weapons sites become vulnerable to theft and misuse, according to the Center for Public Integrity. Washington has also started discussions with Iraq and Russia, and their decision to use allied forces from Syria's periphery as the most likely "first-responders" to a weapons of mass destruction emergency is seen as a means to avoid putting U.S. troops in the region. Washington is also concerned that Assad might order the chemicals used against his own citizens, a fear that was spiked last year when chemicals at a base were seen being loaded into artillery shells and bombs. According to U.S. officials, the prospect of lethal nerve agents at any Syrian sites becoming unprotected is one of many developments that have been war-gamed at the Pentagon over the past year. Get More at NBC News

Rafael Robb
3 hours ago
   

Professor to Be Freed 5 Years After Conviction for Wife's Murder

Professor to Be Freed 5 Years After Conviction for Wife's Murder
Ellen Gregory Robb was murdered by her husband — beaten to death as she wrapped Christmas gifts in December of 2006. Dr. Rafael Robb, once a highly-regarded professor at the University of Pennsylvania, did it to avoid a costly divorce. Now, after spending just five years in prison, Robb, 61, is about to be paroled. The victim's family is making a public plea in an interview with NBC 10 Philadelphia's Deanna Durante, saying the Pennsylvania Parole board is making a huge mistake by setting Dr. Robb free. "The judge said this is the most horrific crime ever in Montgomery County. Now he's being set free," the victim's brother Gary Gregory told NBC 10 Philadelphia. The attorney who represented Dr. Robb said he has served his time and now it's time for release, and the parole board sent Dr. Robb a written notice saying he is being freed because he's taken responsibility for his crime and has shown good behavior. That's not good enough for Gregory. "This isn't a shoplifting case. He took someone's life. That's wrong," he said. Dr. Robb is set to be released Jan. 28. Read »
Thursday, Jan 17, 2013 at 12:32 AM
   
 

If there's even one thing we can do to reduce this violence, if there's even one life that can be saved, then we've got an obligation to try it.  

— President Barack Obama appealing for public support as he unveiled sweeping new policies aimed at limiting gun violence.
NBCNews.com
4 minutes ago
   

Unemployment Applications Fall to 5-Year Low

The number of Americans applying for jobless aid hit a five-year low last week, suggesting the job market was healing but also reflecting seasonal volatility. New Labor Department data out Thursday showed that weekly unemployment applications fell 37,000 to a seasonally adjusted 335,000 last week, the lowest level since January 2008, just after the recession began. That data can be uneven even in January, however, with job cuts spiking as companies lay off temporary holiday-era workers. But last week's layoffs weren't as steep as expecting, prompting a big drop in the data, a Labor Department spokesman said. Overall, the level of applications suggests a slow but steady hiring pace, The Associated Press reported. December's hiring remained steady, too, despite the fears of the just-avoided fiscal cliff — a good sign, given imminent budget showdowns, economists said. Get More at NBC News

NBCNews.com
22 minutes ago
   

NRA President Resists Criticism of Obama Daughters Ad

Get More at NBC News

Lance Armstrong
25 minutes ago
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By Debra Pangestu
   

Key Moments of the Lance Armstrong Doping Scandal

A timeline highlighting Lance Armstrong's career rise and the events leading up t... See Full Gallery »

Gun Ban
Thursday, Jan 17, 2013 at 12:00 AM
   

Obama Signs 23 Executive Orders on Gun Safety

Obama Signs 23 Executive Orders on Gun Safety
President Barack Obama announced Wednesday at the White House the most sweeping proposals for curbing gun violence in decades. Accompanied by a number of young children who had written him letters urging new gun control in the wake of last month's tragic shooting at a Connecticut elementary school, Obama signed 23 executive orders and vowed to press Congress to renew an assault weapons ban and high-capacity magazine limit and institute universal background checks. The gun-safety framework is based on policy recommendations from Vice President Joe Biden, who spearheaded a task force on gun violence. One gun control advocate who spoke to NBC's First Read team called Obama's recommendations "the most significant reform of our guns laws since MLK and RFK were assassinated" 45 years ago — but that is largely because it faces a tremendous uphill political battle, according to First Read. The White House faced harsh criticism from the National Rifle Association on Wednesday, as the powerful gun rights group released a video scrutinizing Obama's daughters' security. Read »
Lance Armstrong
43 minutes ago
   

Anti-Doping Experts: Culture Must Change

Anti-Doping Experts: Culture Must Change
The cat-and-mouse chase will never be won unless the focus shifts toward a voluntary system that rewards honest athletes while pressuring the dirty ones to change their ways, anti-doping guru Don Catlin says. Read »
NBCNews.com
28 minutes ago
   

How America Fell For Lance Armstrong

Lance Armstrong's fall from grace will come to a head on Thursday with an on-camera confession to doping in an interview with Oprah Winfrey. But long before this point, Armstrong evaded fans, sponsors and the Tour de France committee about using performance enhancing drugs during his successful cycling career. Questions about whether he was using performance enhancers had been mounting by the year in a series of probes and confessions from former teammates that started in 2000, NBC News reported. Armstrong, however, always responded to the accusations the same way, with unequivocal denials and threats of legal action. “I have never doped,” he told Larry King in 2005, sounding exasperated at having to repeat himself. He even used the doping accusations in a 2009 Nike ad: "The critics say I'm arrogant. A doper. Washed up. A fraud. That I couldn't let it go. They can say whatever they want. I'm not back on my bike for them." The early whiff of scandal did not stop him from winning the Tour de France seven times while garnering $17.5 million in endorsements in 2005. A Gallup poll from the same year found 79 percent of people questioned had a favorable opinion of him. Armstrong eventually surrendered with his August announcement that he would not fight the U.S. Anti-Doping Agency's drug charges, which resulted in a lifetime ban from competition. Get More at NBC News

Aaron Swartz
58 minutes ago
   

"Aaron's Law" Would Tweak Hacking Law for Late Reddit Activist

A Silicon Valley congresswoman took to Reddit this week to propose tweaking a computer fraud law used to prosecute Aaron Swartz, the Internet activist who committed suicide last week and had faced federal hacking charges. Rep. Zoe Lofgren (D-Calif.) not only posted a draft of "Aaron's Law" on her website. She also posted a link on Reddit's blog about her proposal to change the 1984 Computer Fraud and Abuse Act (PDF) by excluding terms of service violations. Her proposal is a narrow one: It would amend the CFAA to exclude terms of service violations, so that it would no longer be a crime to violate a term of service by, for instance, using a fake name on Facebook or downloading more material than is allowed. "His family’s statement about this speaks volumes about the inappropriate efforts undertaken by the U.S. government," Lofgren wrote. Swartz's father on Tuesday blamed the government for his son's death, arguing the feds "hounded" him. Swartz, who help create Reddit and RSS, the technology behind blogs, podcasts and other web-based subscription services, was found dead on Friday in his Brooklyn, N.Y., apartment. He faced decades in prison amid federal charges he illegally gained access to articles from a Massachusetts Institute of Technology computer archive. Read »
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