http://www.post-gazette.com/nationworld/ National and world news en-us Copyright 2012, post-gazette.com. Thu, 16 Feb 2012 08:09:35 -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/12047/1210553-82.stm?cmpid=nationworld.xml BEIRUT -- With Syrian cities under fire and residents saying life is ever more unbearable, President Bashar Assad set a date later this month for a referendum on a new constitution, the state-run SANA news agency said Wednesday, a gesture apparently designed to offer some kind of government-controlled change after almost a year of the most sustained crackdown in the so-called Arab Spring. Thu, 16 Feb 2012 00:01:00 -0500 http://www.post-gazette.com/pg/12047/1210557-82.stm?cmpid=nationworld.xml CAIRO -- Egypt will hold its first presidential elections since Hosni Mubarak's 2011 ouster in May, a month earlier than previously Thu, 16 Feb 2012 00:01:00 -0500 http://www.post-gazette.com/pg/12047/1210581-84.stm?cmpid=nationworld.xml WASHINGTON -- For Americans looking at the U.S. visit of China's likely future leader for a clue about where relations between the two nations might be headed, the signal has been clear: No change in substance, but perhaps a change in style. Thu, 16 Feb 2012 00:01:00 -0500 http://www.post-gazette.com/pg/12047/1210549-82.stm?cmpid=nationworld.xml KABUL, Afghanistan -- NATO acknowledged Wednesday that it killed eight young Afghans in an airstrike in eastern Afghanistan last week Thu, 16 Feb 2012 00:00:00 -0500 http://www.post-gazette.com/pg/12047/1210550-82.stm?cmpid=nationworld.xml LONDON -- For almost two years, Nicki Edwards has been looking for work -- any type of work. Thu, 16 Feb 2012 00:00:00 -0500 http://www.post-gazette.com/pg/12047/1210552-82.stm?cmpid=nationworld.xml ALBANY, N.Y. -- For months, Canadian officials derided funambulism as no fun at all. Thu, 16 Feb 2012 00:00:00 -0500 http://www.post-gazette.com/pg/12047/1210563-84.stm?cmpid=nationworld.xml SAN FRANCISCO -- The address book in smartphones -- where some of the user's most personal data is carried -- is free for app developers to take at will, often without the phone owner's knowledge. Thu, 16 Feb 2012 00:00:00 -0500 http://www.post-gazette.com/pg/12047/1210565-84.stm?cmpid=nationworld.xml LOS ANGELES -- It has become standard-operating procedure when a celebrity dies too young: Investigators immediately go looking through their nightstand and medicine cabinet. Thu, 16 Feb 2012 00:00:00 -0500 http://www.post-gazette.com/pg/12047/1210567-84.stm?cmpid=nationworld.xml WASHINGTON -- Congress is calmly inching toward approving a payroll tax cut and other help for the economy without the bitter rancor that's colored economic debates since President Barack Obama took office three years ago. Thu, 16 Feb 2012 00:00:00 -0500 http://www.post-gazette.com/pg/12047/1210582-82.stm?cmpid=nationworld.xml COMAYAGUA, Honduras -- Honduran officials confirmed Wednesday that 358 people died when a fire tore through an overcrowded prison, making it the world's deadliest prison fire in a century. Thu, 16 Feb 2012 00:00:00 -0500 http://www.post-gazette.com/pg/12047/1210583-82.stm?cmpid=nationworld.xml TEHRAN, Iran -- Iran lashed out Wednesday against Western sanctions with new threats to cut its oil sales to European countries and defiant claims of progress in its nuclear facilities, statements that U.S. officials dismissed as "bluster" and signs of increasing desperation within the country's senior leadership. Thu, 16 Feb 2012 00:00:00 -0500 http://www.post-gazette.com/pg/12047/1210645-84.stm?cmpid=nationworld.xml ANNAPOLIS, Md. -- As a bill legalizing same-sex marriage in Maryland hurtles toward a vote in the legislature this week, a coalition lobbying for its passage has focused much of its efforts on a group of Democrats who could potentially scuttle its success: African-Americans. Thu, 16 Feb 2012 00:00:00 -0500 http://www.post-gazette.com/pg/12047/1210646-84.stm?cmpid=nationworld.xml WASHINGTON -- Members of a House-Senate committee charged with writing a measure to extend a payroll tax reduction said Wednesday that their work was done, just shy of an hour before their deadline to get a bill ready for a Friday vote. Thu, 16 Feb 2012 00:00:00 -0500 http://www.post-gazette.com/pg/12047/1210647-84.stm?cmpid=nationworld.xml Robert Glaser, a cognitive psychologist who helped define the terms of the national debate over student testing, and who pioneered ways of measuring not only how students learn but how teachers teach, died on Feb. 4 in Pittsburgh. He was 91. Thu, 16 Feb 2012 00:00:00 -0500 http://www.post-gazette.com/pg/12047/1210648-84.stm?cmpid=nationworld.xml WASHINGTON -- The race in North Dakota for a Senate seat being vacated by a retiring Democrat, Kent Conrad, was supposed to be a cakewalk for Republicans. When the state's lone House member, Rick Berg, entered the contest, leading Republicans tucked the seat into their pocket and looked to other battles in their quest for a Senate majority next year. Thu, 16 Feb 2012 00:00:00 -0500 http://www.post-gazette.com/pg/12047/1210650-82.stm?cmpid=nationworld.xml COMAYAGUA, Honduras -- The bodies of the inmates, shirtless and blackened by soot, lay on the ground in neat rows, belying the chaos from which they emerged. Thu, 16 Feb 2012 00:00:00 -0500 http://www.post-gazette.com/pg/12047/1210651-82.stm?cmpid=nationworld.xml TOKYO -- In surprisingly frank public testimony on Wednesday, Japan's nuclear safety chief said the country's regulations were fundamentally flawed and laid out a somber picture of a nuclear industry shaped by freewheeling power companies, toothless regulators and a government more interested in promoting nuclear energy than in safeguarding the health of its citizens. Thu, 16 Feb 2012 00:00:00 -0500 http://www.post-gazette.com/pg/12047/1210652-82.stm?cmpid=nationworld.xml KABUL, Afghanistan -- NATO acknowledged on Wednesday that it killed eight young Afghans in an airstrike in eastern Afghanistan last week and vowed to try to help the isolated home village of those who were killed. Thu, 16 Feb 2012 00:00:00 -0500 http://www.post-gazette.com/pg/12046/1210324-338-0.stm?cmpid=nationworld.xml NEW YORK -- Champion Palacegarden Malachy, a charming pekingese, bested six other group winners Tuesday night to emerge as top dog. Wed, 15 Feb 2012 12:21:00 -0500 http://www.post-gazette.com/pg/12046/1210238-82.stm?cmpid=nationworld.xml Xi Jinping, the man destined to be China's next leader, won an extraordinary welcome Tuesday across Washington. Wed, 15 Feb 2012 12:16:00 -0500 http://www.post-gazette.com/pg/12046/1210239-84.stm?cmpid=nationworld.xml One out of eight voting registrations is inaccurate, and about a quarter of those people eligible to cast a ballot are inaccurate. Wed, 15 Feb 2012 00:01:00 -0500 http://www.post-gazette.com/pg/12046/1210240-82.stm?cmpid=nationworld.xml Israel accused Iran of waging a covert campaign of state terror that stretched this week from the Middle East to the heart of Asia. Wed, 15 Feb 2012 00:01:00 -0500 http://www.post-gazette.com/pg/12046/1210242-82.stm?cmpid=nationworld.xml A team of European and U.S. mathematicians and cryptographers have discovered an unexpected weakness in a worldwide encryption system. Wed, 15 Feb 2012 00:01:00 -0500 http://www.post-gazette.com/pg/12046/1210244-82.stm?cmpid=nationworld.xml The United States and Europe are considering unprecedented punishment against Iran that could immediately cripple the country's financial lifeline. Wed, 15 Feb 2012 00:01:00 -0500 http://www.post-gazette.com/pg/12046/1210300-84.stm?cmpid=nationworld.xml This is Rick Santorum's week -- in the polls, that is. Wed, 15 Feb 2012 00:01:00 -0500 http://www.post-gazette.com/pg/12046/1210243-82.stm?cmpid=nationworld.xml Greece was once again left hanging Tuesday after eurozone finance ministers postponed for a second time the approval of a new rescue package. Wed, 15 Feb 2012 00:00:00 -0500 http://www.post-gazette.com/pg/12046/1210245-82.stm?cmpid=nationworld.xml The Syrian government on Tuesday brushed aside a stern castigation from the U.N. Wed, 15 Feb 2012 00:00:00 -0500 http://www.post-gazette.com/pg/12046/1210306-84.stm?cmpid=nationworld.xml OZARK, Mo. -- As she listened to the outlandish story pour out, slightly slurred, from her new husband's mouth, Jessica King dismissed the tale of his family's two-decade run from the law as the product of an overactive imagination and too many drinks. Wed, 15 Feb 2012 00:00:00 -0500 http://www.post-gazette.com/pg/12046/1210307-84.stm?cmpid=nationworld.xml WASHINGTON -- Election years always bring with them tough balancing efforts for presidential candidates trying to stay on the good side of powerful constituencies. But few can come close to the high-wire act that President Obama must perform in the next two days as he seeks to soothe Hollywood, that longtime bastion of fund-raising dollars for Democrats, while not alienating the high-tech industry that has itself surged to the top of the Obama money list. Wed, 15 Feb 2012 00:00:00 -0500 http://www.post-gazette.com/pg/12046/1210308-84.stm?cmpid=nationworld.xml WASHINGTON -- Members of a House-Senate committee charged with writing a measure to extend a payroll tax reduction and provide added unemployment benefits reached a tentative agreement Tuesday evening, with Republicans and Democrats claiming a degree of political victory in a fight with significant election-year implications. Wed, 15 Feb 2012 00:00:00 -0500 http://www.post-gazette.com/pg/12046/1210309-84.stm?cmpid=nationworld.xml The near-unified front led by the nation's Roman Catholic bishops to oppose a mandate for employers to cover birth control has now crumbled amid the compromise plan that the Obama administration offered last week to accommodate religious institutions. Wed, 15 Feb 2012 00:00:00 -0500 http://www.post-gazette.com/pg/12046/1210310-82.stm?cmpid=nationworld.xml CAIRO -- She is a holdover from the Mubarak era, a friend of the former first lady and the driving force behind the indictment of 16 Americans in a criminal investigation that threatens to undermine the decades-old alliance between Egypt and the United States. Wed, 15 Feb 2012 00:00:00 -0500 http://www.post-gazette.com/pg/12046/1210311-82.stm?cmpid=nationworld.xml BANGKOK -- A series of explosions rocked a residential neighborhood here on Tuesday, leading the Thai authorities to a cache of bombs in a rented house and the capture of two men identified in Thai media reports as Iranians. A third suspect was being sought. Wed, 15 Feb 2012 00:00:00 -0500 http://www.post-gazette.com/pg/12046/1210312-82.stm?cmpid=nationworld.xml WASHINGTON -- China's vice president and likely future leader, Xi Jinping, embarked on a get-to-know-you tour of the United States on Tuesday, with a day of meetings from the White House to the Pentagon. But he was met with blunt criticism from his host, Vice President Joseph R. Biden Jr., who declared that the United States and China could cooperate "only if the game is fair." Wed, 15 Feb 2012 00:00:00 -0500 http://www.post-gazette.com/pg/12046/1210313-82.stm?cmpid=nationworld.xml Hackers who identified themselves as members of Anonymous said they observed the first anniversary of the Bahrain uprising by causing the Web site of Combined Systems, a Pennsylvania company, to crash. The hackers said the attack was in retaliation against the company, which is alleged to have sold tear gas canisters and grenades to Arab governments during the Arab Spring uprisings. Last year, Amnesty International said Combined Systems had shipped 46 tons of ammunition, including "chemical irritants and ri Wed, 15 Feb 2012 00:00:00 -0500 http://www.post-gazette.com/pg/12046/1210314-82.stm?cmpid=nationworld.xml WASHINGTON -- China's next leader, Xi Jinping, may never have heard of American Superconductor Corporation before he arrived here Monday, but by the end of his visit United States officials hope to make the small Massachusetts wind-energy company an object lesson in the impact of Chinese trade secret theft on American business. Wed, 15 Feb 2012 00:00:00 -0500 http://www.post-gazette.com/pg/12046/1210315-82.stm?cmpid=nationworld.xml MEXICO CITY -- The federal police said Tuesday that they had arrested a major operative for Mexico's most wanted drug trafficker, part of a string of recent arrests that suggested that the authorities had redoubled efforts to capture him and break up the gang he commands, the nation's most powerful. Wed, 15 Feb 2012 00:00:00 -0500 http://www.post-gazette.com/pg/12046/1210316-82.stm?cmpid=nationworld.xml Iran signaled on Tuesday that it had made further advances in the country's disputed nuclear energy program, announcing that President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad would reveal "key nuclear achievements" on Wednesday. An Iranian news agency said he was likely to proclaim that a new uranium enrichment plant built inside a mountain near the holy city of Qum was "fully operational." Wed, 15 Feb 2012 00:00:00 -0500 http://www.post-gazette.com/pg/12046/1210317-82.stm?cmpid=nationworld.xml ROME -- Italian prosecutors filed an appeal to the country's highest court on Tuesday seeking a new trial for Amanda Knox of Seattle and her onetime boyfriend, Raffaele Sollecito, in the fatal stabbing of a British student in Perugia, Italy. Wed, 15 Feb 2012 00:00:00 -0500 http://www.post-gazette.com/pg/12046/1210318-82.stm?cmpid=nationworld.xml HENOKO, Japan -- At first glance, this tiny fishing village can appear a hotbed of the sort of Okinawan anger that has damaged America's ties with Japan. Near Henoko's docks, demonstrators in tents recently marked the 2,850th day of their vigil against construction of a United States Marine airfield. Wed, 15 Feb 2012 00:00:00 -0500 http://www.post-gazette.com/pg/12046/1210319-82.stm?cmpid=nationworld.xml BEIJING -- In its latest move to reshape what Chinese viewers can watch on television, the government agency that oversees mass media has issued a new set of regulations that seek to restrict comedies, dramas and movies from abroad. Wed, 15 Feb 2012 00:00:00 -0500 http://www.post-gazette.com/pg/12046/1210320-82.stm?cmpid=nationworld.xml JERUSALEM -- The students were spared nothing. There were sessions on Nazi disputes over how to murder the Jews; propaganda art in the Third Reich; encounters with survivors; a history of anti-Semitism; the dilemmas faced by leaders of the Jewish ghetto councils. Wed, 15 Feb 2012 00:00:00 -0500 http://www.post-gazette.com/pg/12046/1210321-82.stm?cmpid=nationworld.xml MOSCOW -- The editor in chief of an influential Russian radio station recently rebuked by Prime Minister Vladimir V. Putin for its biting criticism of the Kremlin stepped down from the station's board of directors on Tuesday after its government-controlled owners announced changes in the board's membership, including the removal of its only two independent members. Wed, 15 Feb 2012 00:00:00 -0500 http://www.post-gazette.com/pg/12045/1210062-84.stm?cmpid=nationworld.xml NEW YORK -- Sydney Ellen, whose registered name is Grand Champion Ri Lee's Diamonds Are Forever, didn't come away from the show ring with any ribbons Monday at the 136th Westminster Kennel Club Dog Show. But the spirited Tibetan terrier, who survived a wild bobcat attack four years ago, will always be top dog in her owners' eyes. Tue, 14 Feb 2012 14:07:00 -0500 http://www.post-gazette.com/pg/12045/1210083-84-0.stm?cmpid=nationworld.xml WASHINGTON -- Education, infrastructure and job creation emerged as top priorities in President Barack Obama's election-year budget that would increase taxes on the wealthy while cutting spending on discretionary programs. Tue, 14 Feb 2012 01:08:00 -0500 http://www.post-gazette.com/pg/12045/1210072-82-0.stm?cmpid=nationworld.xml JAKARTA, Indonesia -- An Indonesian court on Monday indicted Umar Patek on charges including premeditated murder for his reported role in the 2002 terrorist bombings on the resort island of Bali. Tue, 14 Feb 2012 00:13:00 -0500 http://www.post-gazette.com/pg/12045/1210068-82-0.stm?cmpid=nationworld.xml WASHINGTON -- U.S. and Chinese officials have spent three years carefully planning how to introduce the man likely to be the next Chinese leader to an American audience. Tue, 14 Feb 2012 00:09:00 -0500 http://www.post-gazette.com/pg/12045/1210070-82-0.stm?cmpid=nationworld.xml JERUSALEM -- Tensions between Israel and Iran rose sharply Monday when bombers struck at Israeli Embassy personnel in the capitals of India and Georgia. Israel accused the Tehran government of being behind the attacks, which Iran denied. Tue, 14 Feb 2012 00:02:00 -0500 http://www.post-gazette.com/pg/12045/1210082-84.stm?cmpid=nationworld.xml WASHINGTON -- Republicans in and out of Washington savaged President Barack Obama's proposed budget for the 2013 fiscal year as a broken promise on deficit reduction made worse by a series of gimmicks that overstate what budget savings there are. Tue, 14 Feb 2012 00:01:00 -0500 http://www.post-gazette.com/pg/12045/1210023-84.stm?cmpid=nationworld.xml WASHINGTON -- The White House said Monday legislation in the Senate that would give employers broad leeway to restrict coverage for contraception is "dangerous and wrong." Tue, 14 Feb 2012 00:00:00 -0500 http://www.post-gazette.com/pg/12045/1210024-84.stm?cmpid=nationworld.xml TRENTON, N.J. -- The New Jersey state Senate voted Monday to legalize same-sex marriage, a significant shift in support from two years ago, when a similar measure failed. Tue, 14 Feb 2012 00:00:00 -0500 http://www.post-gazette.com/pg/12045/1210025-84.stm?cmpid=nationworld.xml WASHINGTON -- Hesitant to be seen as holding up a payroll tax break for American workers, House Republican leaders will put forward a new proposal to extend the tax cut -- giving up, for now, on the GOP-led requirement that it must be paid for, with talks on a compromise with Democrats having stalled. Tue, 14 Feb 2012 00:00:00 -0500 http://www.post-gazette.com/pg/12045/1210049-84.stm?cmpid=nationworld.xml Responding to a growing outcry over conditions at its overseas factories, Apple said Monday that an outside organization had begun to audit working conditions at the plants where the bulk of iPhones, iPads and other Apple products are built, and that the group would make its finding public. Tue, 14 Feb 2012 00:00:00 -0500 http://www.post-gazette.com/pg/12045/1210050-84.stm?cmpid=nationworld.xml DES MOINES, Iowa -- McDonald's Corp. said Monday that it will require its U.S. pork suppliers to provide plans by May to phase out crates that tightly confine pregnant sows, a move that one animal rights group predicted would have "a seismic impact" on the industry. Tue, 14 Feb 2012 00:00:00 -0500 http://www.post-gazette.com/pg/12045/1210069-82.stm?cmpid=nationworld.xml BRUSSELS -- Moody's Investors Service cut the debt ratings Monday of six European countries -- including Italy, Spain and Portugal -- and became the first big ratings agency to switch Britain's outlook to negative. Tue, 14 Feb 2012 00:00:00 -0500 http://www.post-gazette.com/pg/12045/1210071-82.stm?cmpid=nationworld.xml WASHINGTON -- A U.S. envoy will hold talks with North Korea on its nuclear program in Beijing next week, the first such negotiations since the death of the nation's longtime leader, Kim Jong Il. Tue, 14 Feb 2012 00:00:00 -0500 http://www.post-gazette.com/pg/12045/1210087-84.stm?cmpid=nationworld.xml An $8 billion fund to train workers at community colleges was a major plank of President Barack Obama's proposed budget, and the president of Community College of Allegheny County praised the measure as a job creator. Tue, 14 Feb 2012 00:00:00 -0500 http://www.post-gazette.com/pg/12045/1210096-84.stm?cmpid=nationworld.xml Rick Santorum is hoping to turn the political conversation away from the social and cultural issues that have dominated his quest for the Republican presidential nomination so far and focus instead on the economy as he prepares to compete in the big, recession-plagued battleground state of Michigan. Tue, 14 Feb 2012 00:00:00 -0500 http://www.post-gazette.com/pg/12045/1210097-84.stm?cmpid=nationworld.xml DALLAS -- Four and a half hours into her shift, at 11:34 a.m. on Christmas Day, an emergency dispatcher in the suburbs took another call. Tue, 14 Feb 2012 00:00:00 -0500 http://www.post-gazette.com/pg/12045/1210098-84.stm?cmpid=nationworld.xml WASHINGTON -- Republicans in and out of Washington savaged President Obama's proposed budget for the 2013 fiscal year as a broken promise on deficit reduction made worse by a series of gimmicks that overstate what budget savings there are. Tue, 14 Feb 2012 00:00:00 -0500 http://www.post-gazette.com/pg/12045/1210099-84.stm?cmpid=nationworld.xml DENVER -- Quite a few of the frighteningly fit live around here. On a balmy Saturday, or for that matter a frigid winter weekday before dawn, an army of them emerges to run and bike. And in their intimidating long strides and whirring spokes, they underscore why Colorado is the least obese state in the nation. Tue, 14 Feb 2012 00:00:00 -0500 http://www.post-gazette.com/pg/12045/1210101-82.stm?cmpid=nationworld.xml BEIJING -- The Chinese Communist Party has long felt threatened by overseas Web sites and social media outlets, but the recent detention of a California physicist who says he was beaten by Chinese security agents seeking the password for his Twitter account suggests how far the government will go in its battle against a freewheeling Internet available only beyond its borders. Tue, 14 Feb 2012 00:00:00 -0500 http://www.post-gazette.com/pg/12045/1210102-82.stm?cmpid=nationworld.xml Spain's Supreme Court on Monday threw out a bribery case against Judge Baltasar Garzón because the statute of limitations had expired. Judge Garzón, a judge famous for taking on international human rights cases, was suspended from his duties last week after he was convicted of illegally ordering a wiretapping in a corruption case. The bribery case involved financing by a Spanish bank, Banco Santander, for a course Judge Garzón taught at New York University while on leave from the bench. Tue, 14 Feb 2012 00:00:00 -0500 http://www.post-gazette.com/pg/12045/1210103-82.stm?cmpid=nationworld.xml JERUSALEM -- Tensions between Israel and Iran rose sharply on Monday when bombers struck at Israeli Embassy personnel in the capitals of India and Georgia. Israel accused the Tehran government of being behind the attacks, which Iran denied. Tue, 14 Feb 2012 00:00:00 -0500 http://www.post-gazette.com/pg/12045/1210104-82.stm?cmpid=nationworld.xml LONDON -- Abu Qatada, a militant Islamic preacher held without charge for more than six years as a threat to Britain's national security, was released from prison on Monday night after an immigration judge signed off on strict bail conditions earlier in the day. Tue, 14 Feb 2012 00:00:00 -0500 http://www.post-gazette.com/pg/12045/1210105-82.stm?cmpid=nationworld.xml MORONG, the Philippines -- It is the nuclear plant of regrets, of would haves and could haves, to a generation of Filipino scientists who had dreamed of bringing nuclear power to this energy-starved country. Tue, 14 Feb 2012 00:00:00 -0500 http://www.post-gazette.com/pg/12045/1210106-82.stm?cmpid=nationworld.xml American advocacy groups that want to isolate Iran over its suspect nuclear program singled out China on Monday, using the visit to the United States by China's next leader to criticize the vast Chinese purchases of Iranian petroleum, and to urge him and President Obama to forge a common position opposing Iran's uranium enrichment. Tue, 14 Feb 2012 00:00:00 -0500 http://www.post-gazette.com/pg/12045/1210107-82.stm?cmpid=nationworld.xml ATHENS -- The acrid stench of tear gas permeated central Athens on Monday and the husks of burnt-out buildings still smoldered after a night of rioting following the Greek Parliament's vote to approve austerity measures in exchange for more rescue financing. Tue, 14 Feb 2012 00:00:00 -0500 http://www.post-gazette.com/pg/12045/1210108-82.stm?cmpid=nationworld.xml MALE, Maldives -- The broken glass from an attack by vandals on the National Museum here has been swept away, and the remnants of the Buddhist statues they destroyed -- nearly 30 of them, some dating to the sixth century -- have been locked away. But officials say the loss to this island nation's archaeological legacy can never be recouped. Tue, 14 Feb 2012 00:00:00 -0500 http://www.post-gazette.com/pg/12045/1210109-82.stm?cmpid=nationworld.xml ISLAMABAD, Pakistan -- Pakistan's highest court forcefully challenged the authority of the country's civilian and military leaders on Monday, indicting the prime minister on contempt charges and forcing the main military intelligence agency to produce seven sickly detainees who had been missing for two years. Tue, 14 Feb 2012 00:00:00 -0500 http://www.post-gazette.com/pg/12045/1210110-82.stm?cmpid=nationworld.xml KABUL, Afghanistan -- Seven children and a young adult were killed in a NATO airstrike last week as they grazed their sheep and goats in a snowy area of eastern Afghanistan, according to Afghan government officials who announced the findings of their investigation into the strike on Monday. Tue, 14 Feb 2012 00:00:00 -0500 http://www.post-gazette.com/pg/12045/1210111-82.stm?cmpid=nationworld.xml PARIS -- The front-runner for the French presidency, the Socialist candidate François Hollande, criticized European policy on Greece on Monday, saying that mandatory austerity measures were too severe and would never produce the desired results because "everyone knows" that "there is no rebound in growth in Europe and in Greece." Tue, 14 Feb 2012 00:00:00 -0500 http://www.post-gazette.com/pg/12044/1209940-82-0.stm?cmpid=nationworld.xml The text of the president's remarks as he outlined his budget proposals at Northern Virginia Community College in Annandale, Va.: Mon, 13 Feb 2012 13:43:00 -0500 http://www.post-gazette.com/pg/12044/1209937-100.stm?cmpid=nationworld.xml WASHINGTON -- Education and transportation emerged as top priorities for President Barack Obama, who this morning presented his fourth spending plan, one that would increase taxes on the wealthy while preserving most government programs. Mon, 13 Feb 2012 13:42:00 -0500 http://www.post-gazette.com/pg/12044/1209879-84.stm?cmpid=nationworld.xml WASHINGTON -- With his decision to embrace an independent super-PAC last week, President Barack Obama issued a plea for deep-pocketed Mon, 13 Feb 2012 00:47:00 -0500 http://www.post-gazette.com/pg/12044/1209861-84-0.stm?cmpid=nationworld.xml WASHINGTON -- The new budget that President Barack Obama is sending to Congress aims to achieve $4 trillion in deficit reduction over Mon, 13 Feb 2012 00:44:00 -0500 http://www.post-gazette.com/pg/12044/1209901-388.stm?cmpid=nationworld.xml LOS ANGELES -- Investigators worked Sunday to piece together what killed Whitney Houston as the music industry's biggest names Mon, 13 Feb 2012 00:38:00 -0500 http://www.post-gazette.com/pg/12044/1209860-84-0.stm?cmpid=nationworld.xml CAMARILLO, Calif. -- The average price for regular gasoline at U.S. filling stations rose 11.57 cents to $3.5101 a gallon, according to Lundberg Survey Inc. Mon, 13 Feb 2012 00:18:00 -0500 http://www.post-gazette.com/pg/12044/1209857-82-0.stm?cmpid=nationworld.xml KABUL, Afghanistan -- A provincial judge from a restive eastern province was assassinated on Sunday, Afghan officials said. Mon, 13 Feb 2012 00:16:00 -0500 http://www.post-gazette.com/pg/12044/1209858-84-0.stm?cmpid=nationworld.xml WASHINGTON -- Conservatives said Sunday the flap surrounding President Barack Obama's birth control mandate was far from over, with Senate Republican leader Mitch McConnell saying he will push to overturn the requirement because it was another example of government meddling. Mon, 13 Feb 2012 00:15:00 -0500 http://www.post-gazette.com/pg/12044/1209863-82-0.stm?cmpid=nationworld.xml CARACAS, Venezuela -- Youthful state governor Henrique Capriles won Venezuela's first-ever opposition primary vote by a wide margin on Sunday, emerging as the single candidate who will try to end President Hugo Chavez's 13 years in power. Mon, 13 Feb 2012 00:14:00 -0500 http://www.post-gazette.com/pg/12044/1209862-82-0.stm?cmpid=nationworld.xml CAIRO -- The Arab League called Sunday for the U.N. Mon, 13 Feb 2012 00:13:00 -0500 http://www.post-gazette.com/pg/12044/1209859-82-0.stm?cmpid=nationworld.xml ATHENS, Greece -- Greek lawmakers today approved harsh new austerity measures demanded by bailout creditors to save the debt-crippled Mon, 13 Feb 2012 00:09:00 -0500 http://www.post-gazette.com/pg/12044/1209910-84.stm?cmpid=nationworld.xml WASHINGTON -- With the election-year budget he unveils on Monday, President Obama more than ever confronts the challenge of persuading voters that he has a long-term plan to reduce the deficit, even as he highlights the stimulus spending and tax cuts that increase deficits in the short term. Mon, 13 Feb 2012 00:00:00 -0500 http://www.post-gazette.com/pg/12044/1209911-84.stm?cmpid=nationworld.xml WASHINGTON -- As the United States turns increasingly to Special Operations forces to confront developing threats scattered around the world, the nation's top Special Operations officer, a member of the Navy Seals who oversaw the raid that killed Osama bin Laden, is seeking new authority to move his forces faster and outside of normal Pentagon deployment channels. Mon, 13 Feb 2012 00:00:00 -0500 http://www.post-gazette.com/pg/12044/1209912-84.stm?cmpid=nationworld.xml They have hosted fund-raisers and raised millions of dollars for his campaign. They employed some of his top operatives after his first White House run, helped create the platform for his second bid and have deployed regularly to attack his Republican rivals on the campaign trail. Mon, 13 Feb 2012 00:00:00 -0500 http://www.post-gazette.com/pg/12044/1209913-84.stm?cmpid=nationworld.xml WASHINGTON -- Only days after having to explain a comment about women in the military and emotions in combat, Rick Santorum seemed to struggle a bit on Sunday to explain a remark in his book "It Takes a Family" that accuses "radical feminists" of undermining families and trying to convince women that they could find fulfillment only in the workplace. Mon, 13 Feb 2012 00:00:00 -0500 http://www.post-gazette.com/pg/12044/1209915-82.stm?cmpid=nationworld.xml CARACAS, Venezuela -- The country's political opposition overcame years of division on Sunday as millions of voters turned out in an impressive show of strength to choose a single candidate to take on President Hugo Chávez, in what is shaping up to be a bruising and potentially tight election campaign. Mon, 13 Feb 2012 00:00:00 -0500 http://www.post-gazette.com/pg/12044/1209916-82.stm?cmpid=nationworld.xml ONAGAWA, Japan -- At age 39, Yoshiaki Suda, the new mayor of this town that was destroyed by last March's tsunami, oversees a community where the votes, money and influence lie among its large population of graying residents. But for Onagawa to have a future, he must rebuild it in such a way as to make it attractive to those of his generation and younger. Mon, 13 Feb 2012 00:00:00 -0500 http://www.post-gazette.com/pg/12044/1209917-82.stm?cmpid=nationworld.xml ATHENS -- After violent protests left dozens of buildings aflame in Athens, the Greek Parliament voted early on Monday to approve a package of harsh austerity measures demanded by the country's foreign lenders in exchange for new loans to keep Greece from defaulting on its debt. Mon, 13 Feb 2012 00:00:00 -0500 http://www.post-gazette.com/pg/12044/1209918-82.stm?cmpid=nationworld.xml KUALA LUMPUR, Malaysia -- A Saudi journalist was deported Sunday to his home country, where he was expected to face arrest and possibly death for writing about the Prophet Muhammad. Mon, 13 Feb 2012 00:00:00 -0500 http://www.post-gazette.com/pg/12044/1209919-82.stm?cmpid=nationworld.xml KANDAHAR, Afghanistan -- Two boys equipped with suicide vests were arrested here over the weekend, less than a year after one of them had been pardoned by President Hamid Karzai for the same crime, and presented to reporters on Sunday. Mon, 13 Feb 2012 00:00:00 -0500 http://www.post-gazette.com/pg/12044/1209920-82.stm?cmpid=nationworld.xml FALLUJA, Iraq -- Not so long ago, Syrians worked to send weapons and fighters into Iraq to help Sunnis fighting a sectarian conflict; suddenly, it is the other way around. Mon, 13 Feb 2012 00:00:00 -0500 http://www.post-gazette.com/pg/12044/1209921-82.stm?cmpid=nationworld.xml CAIRO -- The Arab League asked the United Nations Security Council on Sunday to send a peacekeeping mission to Syria, and it called on Arab nations to sever diplomatic relations with Damascus in an effort to pressure the government to end the violence there. Mon, 13 Feb 2012 00:00:00 -0500 http://www.post-gazette.com/pg/12044/1209922-82.stm?cmpid=nationworld.xml KABUL, Afghanistan -- The 6,000 refugees living in the Charahi Qambar camp did not object when American soldiers came by Saturday to deliver 1,100 blankets for the families there. Nor did they mention that the day before, an Afghan aid group, Aschiana, had also made a delivery of blankets, and was planning to come back on Sunday with clothing -- at least the third such donation in a few days, the others coming from businessmen. Mon, 13 Feb 2012 00:00:00 -0500 http://www.post-gazette.com/pg/12044/1209923-82.stm?cmpid=nationworld.xml CARACAS, Venezuela -- President Ollanta Humala of Peru announced Sunday that government forces had captured the leader of one of the two remaining factions of the Shining Path, a onetime guerrilla group that has become a major operator in the cocaine trade. Mon, 13 Feb 2012 00:00:00 -0500 http://www.post-gazette.com/pg/12044/1209924-82.stm?cmpid=nationworld.xml MALE, Maldives -- For much of the world, the Maldives means idyllic and exclusive beach resorts, a kind of G-rated version of Thailand, but for many of the people who live here it has been no paradise. Mon, 13 Feb 2012 00:00:00 -0500 http://www.post-gazette.com/pg/12044/1209925-82.stm?cmpid=nationworld.xml JERUSALEM -- Israel's first general strike in five years ended Sunday with an agreement that improves conditions for nonunionized contract workers used by government agencies. Mon, 13 Feb 2012 00:00:00 -0500