98°F
weather icon Clear

Nation and World

Border security amendment offered in Senate

WASHINGTON — An agreement to vastly increase fencing, patrols and high-tech monitoring along the U.S.-Mexico border was formally unveiled in the Senate Friday, providing powerful momentum to a far-reaching immigration bill backed by the White House.

Fire threatens Colorado mountain town of 400

A massive wildfire working overtime in hot, windy weather was headed toward a tourist town in Colorado’s southwestern mountains on Friday, and fire managers rate the chances of saving it as slim if the fire continues its course.

Filing: Government doesn’t want challenge to surveillance

Lawyers for a U.S. citizen charged with terrorism in Chicago said Friday in a filing that the government is purposely dodging questions about whether it used expanded secret surveillance programs against their client in a calculated bid to ensure the hotly debated practices can’t be challenged in the Supreme Court.

 
Obama to meet with privacy, civil liberties board

President Barack Obama is holding his first meeting with a privacy and civil liberties board Friday as he seeks to make good on his pledge to have a public discussion about secretive government surveillance programs.

 
Death toll in Indian monsoon flooding nears 600

Rescuers found bodies in the River Ganges and in the muddy, broken earth left by landslides, raising the death toll from monsoon flooding in mountainous northern India to nearly 600 Friday, officials said.

THE LATEST
 
Flooding may force 100,000 from west Canada homes

Calgary’s mayor warned Friday that the worst of the flooding is yet to come after a significant portion of his city’s population spent the night pulling back to higher ground. Officials have estimated that as many as 100,000 could be out of their homes.

 
Brazil leaders to meet as protests, violence grow

Brazil awoke Friday to city centers still smoldering after a night that shocked the nation: 1 million protesters took to the streets in scores of cities, with clusters clashing violently with police during anti-government demonstrations.

House rejects farm bill; GOP wants deeper cuts in food stamps

WASHINGTON — The House rejected a five-year, half-trillion-dollar farm bill Thursday that would have cut $2 billion annually from food stamps and let states impose broad new work requirements on those who receive them.

Senate considers doubling guard on Mexico border

WASHINGTON — A breakthrough at hand, Republicans and Democrats reached for agreement Thursday on a costly, military-style surge to secure the leaky U.S.-Mexican border and clear the way for Senate passage of legislation giving millions of immigrants a chance at citizenship after years in America’s shadows.

Dog rescued from Michael Vick ring euthanized

KANAB, Utah — A pit bull rehabilitated after being used as a top fighter in the dogfighting ring bankrolled by quarterback Michael Vick has died.

All-women jury chosen for George Zimmerman’s trial

SANFORD, Fla. — A jury of six women, five of them white, was picked Thursday to decide the second-degree murder trial of George Zimmerman, a neighborhood watch volunteer who says he fatally shot Trayvon Martin, an unarmed black teenager, in self-defense.

 
Joe Torre’s daughter catches baby falling from second floor

NEW YORK — The daughter of former New York Yankees manager Joe Torre is getting props from her dad for catching a baby who had tumbled off a second-floor fire escape in Brooklyn.

 
Taliban offers to free U.S. soldier in exchange for five Guantanamo Bay prisoners

KABUL, Afghanistan — The Afghan Taliban are ready to free a U.S. soldier held captive since 2009 in exchange for five of their senior operatives imprisoned at Guantanamo Bay, a senior spokesman for the group said Thursday.

Immigration compromise in works

After secretive talks, key senators express optimism they are closing in on a bipartisan agreement to toughen the border security requirements in immigration legislation that also offers a path to citizenship to millions living in the country illegally.

MOST READ