Higher taxes is common theme in debt plans

By Kevin G. Hall • McClatchy Newspapers

WASHINGTON • Just in time to dash holiday cheer, recently unveiled debt-reduction plans underscore the huge fiscal challenges facing the U.S. They also make clear how tough the trade-offs must be to tame budget deficits and the national debt.

The Associated Press: NY judge orders Gawker to pull Palin book pages

NEW YORK (AP) — A federal judge on Saturday ordered Gawker Media to pull leaked pages of Sarah Palin's forthcoming book "America by Heart: Reflections on Family, Faith and Flag" from its blog.

The injunction prohibits Gawker from "continuing to distribute, publish or otherwise transmit pages from the book" pending a hearing on Nov. 30.

The Press Association: Cargo bombs plot 'cost just £2,628'

Al Qaida of the Arabian Peninsula claims its attempts to blow up package bombs on two cargo flights headed to the US cost only 4,200 dollars (£2,628), terrorist monitoring groups said.

In an edition of the Yemen-based group's online Inspire magazine, it details how what it calls Operation Haemorrhage used common items such as Nokia mobile phones and two HP printers stuffed with an organic explosive.

U.S. alerts Asian capitals to possible North Korean uranium enrichment program

By John Pomfret

Washington Post Staff Writer
Sunday, November 21, 2010; 12:17 AM

The Obama administration has dispatched a team of experts to Asian capitals to report that North Korea appears to have started a program to enrich uranium, possibly to manufacture more nuclear weapons, a senior U.S. administration official said Saturday.

CNN News - Obama stands by controversial air security screening methods, Nov 21, 2010

TSA touching a nerves
Lisbon, Portugal (CNN) -- President Barack Obama stood by new controversial screening measures Saturday, calling methods such as pat-downs and body scans necessary to assure airline safety. Speaking at a NATO press conference in Lisbon, Portugal, the president called the balance between protecting travelers' rights and their security a "tough situation."

Ireland's long painful slog must begin with slow, steady steps

In the official sector lane, representatives of Ireland, the ECB, the EU and the IMF are frantically working together to come up with a rescue financing package.

The other lane, that of the private sector, is dominated by increasingly nervous depositors worried about the safety of the money they have in Irish banks.

Direct flights from Haneda, Japan to Honolulu hoping to be compe

HANEDA, Japan (HawaiiNewsNow) - Flight 458 is about to arrive at Honolulu International after a 35 hundred mile journey but it all began much further back.
The maiden flight to Japan from Honolulu put us there at around midnight. The Boeing 767 pulled in to the new multi-billion dollar terminal at Haneda. Hawaiian Airlines took its place within Tokyo's new international hub. It's the only U.S. carrier with direct flights between Honolulu and Haneda.

Abercrombie to miss new governors seminar in Colorado

HONOLULU (HawaiiNewsNow) - Governor-elect Neil Abercrombie will not be heading to Colorado to attend a seminar for new governors.
Abercrombie's mother-in-law is sick, so he decided to stay in the islands.

Abercrombie's chief of staff and his deputy chief of staff will travel to Colorado instead.

Actor Wesley Snipes ordered to jail over tax crime, Nov 20, 2010

Hollywood star Wesley Snipes has been ordered by a US judge to surrender to authorities to start serving a three-year jail term for tax-related crimes.
Florida Judge William Terrell Hodges rejected a request from Snipes' lawyers to review his sentence and grant a new trial.

'Alien' planet detected circling dying star

This artist's impression shows HIP 13044 b, an exoplanet orbiting a star that entered the Milky Way from another galaxy
Astronomers claim to have discovered the first planet originating from outside our galaxy.
The Jupiter-like planet, they say, is part of a solar system which once belonged to a dwarf galaxy.