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Despite what looked like recent signs of progress on a deal to avert the so-called "fiscal cliff," House Speaker John Boehner signaled today that Republicans and Democrats remain as far apart as ever in the negotiating process -- and is warning his fellow lawmakers that they might have to work through the Christmas holidays. In a meeting with the House Republican Conference this morning, Boehner told members not to make plans for Christmas, CBS News has learned, and members leaving the meeting said there were no indications from Boehner's remarks that any real progress has been made between the two...

The seizure of five containers by the Maritime Police in the Port of Naples last Friday, Dec. 7 - before they were loaded on an Egyptian freighter – shut down two of Iran’s mainline clandestine arms routes to the Hamas-ruled Gaza from Kosovo and Macedonia via Croatia and Italy, reported exclusively from military and intelligence sources. The Naples police acted on a tip-off from Israel. Iranian arms smuggling rings were then partly rolled up in other parts of Italy together with “another cache of weapons.” Western intelligence sources say this Israeli undercover operation was equal in significance and scope to...

Poor and elderly Americans who rely on aid from the federal government to heat their homes stand to get less help this year if Congress and the White House fail to figure out a way to avoid the combination of tax increases and automatic spending cuts known as the fiscal cliff. If that happens, there'll be an automatic 10 percent reduction in funds from the federal Low Income Home Energy Assistance Program. But the plight of those in the estimated 6.9 million households who rely on the money to keep warm hardly appears to be a priority for lawmakers in...

Early today Clint Tarver, known as “The Hot Dog Guy” here in Lansing had his business attacked and destroyed by out of line and out of control protesters near the Capitol. Everyone who has passed the hot dog cart knows what a kind and caring individual Clint is. He never fails to bestow a smile or friendly greeting. In no way [did] he provoke this attack, nor any of the behavior displayed toward him. Mr. Tarver has been operating his food businesses since 1990 in the Lansing area. He had been hired by Americans for Prosperity to cater their tent...

After the successful May 2011 raid that took down Osama bin Laden, President Obama said that “his [bin Laden’s] demise should be welcomed by all who believe in peace and human dignity.” Pakistan’s treatment of CIA informant Dr. Shakil Afridi tells a different story, however. The country’s spy agency (Inter-Services Intelligence) promptly arrested the doctor for helping Americans identify OBL’s compound. In addition to a fine and his entire bank account being looted, Afridi was sentenced to 33 years in prison for high treason and is now reportedly being tortured: ... According to Afridi, ISI “regards America as its “worst...

Holder: U.S. Should Automatically Register 'Every Eligible Voter' by Tony Lee 12 Dec 2012, 2:30 PM PDT On Tuesday, Attorney General Eric Holder said the United States should automatically register "every eligible voter in America" by coordinating modern technology and existing databases that are available, while insisting in-person voter fraud rarely occurs. In a speech at the John F. Kennedy Presidential Library in Boston, Holder said "modern technology provides ways to address many of the problems that impede the efficient administration of elections." The U.S. Senate Judiciary Committee is scheduled to hold hearings on "the state of the right to...

Gov. Jerry Brown is undergoing treatment for prostate cancer, his office announced this afternoon. The governor's office described the condition as a "localized prostate cancer" and said Brown is continuing to work a full schedule while being treated with a short course of radiation. It released a statement from Eric Small, Brown's oncologist at University of California San Francisco. "Fortunately, this is early stage localized prostate cancer, which is being treated with a short course of conventional radiotherapy," Small said in the statement. "The prognosis is excellent, and there are not expected to be any significant side effects." Brown's office...

JOHANNESBURG — South Africa’s black majority directly owns less than 10% of the Johannesburg stock market, a study showed on Thursday, evidence that Africa’s top economy remains firmly in white hands nearly two decades after the end of apartheid. Despite the ruling African National Congress’ drive for “black economic empowerment”, under which firms are set black ownership and other targets, millions of blacks remain trapped in poverty and excluded from the formal economy. Coming less than two weeks before the start of an ANC leadership election conference, the study will increase pressure on ANC President Jacob Zuma for more “black...

Rebel groups across Syria are defying the United States by pledging their allegiance to a group that Washington will designate today a terrorist organization for its alleged links to al-Qaeda. A total of 29 opposition groups, including fighting "brigades" and civilian committees, have signed a petition calling for mass demonstrations in support of Jabhat al-Nusra, an Islamist group which the White House believes is an offshoot of al-Qaeda in Iraq. The petition is promoting the slogan "No to American intervention, for we are all Jabhat al-Nusra" and urges supporters to "raise the Jabhat al-Nusra flag" as a "thank you". "These...

It is more dangerous to be a white farmer in South Africa than it is to be a policeman in this country awash in crime and violence. The threats posed to South Africa’s ever-dwindling population of white (mostly Afrikaner) landowners has become so grave that a group of activists and farmers marched to the capital of Pretoria over the weekend to demand the state protect them and their property. In the wake of hundreds of attacks and murders, the farmers – represented by two farmers associations, AfriForum and Solidarity -- asked Police Minister Nathi Mthethwa to declare such assaults “crimes...

OAKLAND -- On the night before disgraced Oakland police Officer Frank Vazquez disappeared in November 2000, he called attorney Michael Rains in a rage. In a profanity-laced tirade, Vazquez said he feared his fate as one of the four Oakland cops caught up in the infamous police brutality case known as the Riders. "They're not going to give us a fair trial," Rains remembers Vazquez screaming into the phone. "I'm not going to rot in prison." Twelve years later, Vazquez is still on the run, an enduring symbol of Oakland's decadelong failure to fix a Police Department ripped apart by...

LUSIKISIKI, SOUTH AFRICA—The news arrived in this remote African village at night, like a digital bolt from the star-filled sky — landing with the “ping” of a text message. It woke Nomkhitha Sompeta from her sleep, sent her scrambling in the dark for her phone, and left her staring into its luminous screen. “Biza has passed away,” the message read. Her brother was dead. More than 700 kilometres away, 36-year-old Mzukisi Sompeta — “Biza” to his friends — had been shot to death with 33 other striking miners in a standoff with police at a place called Marikana, in a...

"Can we deny that Cape Town is still the most racist city in South Africa?" asks Kenneth Lukuko, in an essay contained in the SA reconciliation barometer survey (pdf) published on Thursday. "Perhaps we can't." During Nelson Mandela's presidency, he notes, "it was the only city in which he was met with a placard that referred to him with the K-word [the taboo term "kaffir"]. And it has taken Cape Town longer than anywhere else in the country to name a major public space or amenity after Mandela, although it is the city associated most closely with his incarceration, as...

Two-thirds of people who have voted in the polling associated with selecting Time magazine’s person of the year say they do not want Sandra Fluke chosen as its Person of the Year.Time magazine doesn’t provide the raw voting totals but the results, so far, show 66.52 percent of those voting say “No way” to the pro-abortion birth control activist as its Person of the Year while just 33.48 percent of voters say she deserves the title.The pro-life movement was up in arms when Fluke’s name was included among the list of those Time said had been nominated as potential Person...

How will the labor movement rebound from two years of defeats in what had been home turf for unionism? Politico previews their strategy to organize efforts to defeat Republicans in key gubernatorial elections in 2013 and 2014: Labor unions, stung by an unexpected setback in Michigan, where Republican Gov. Rick Snyder signed a right-to-work law Tuesday limiting their ability to collect dues, are eyeing a large-scale counteroffensive against the conservative state leaders who have slashed away at union power since the 2010 midterm elections.For national labor groups, the upcoming gubernatorial elections in 2013 and 2014 may be a greater test...

The Department of Health and Human Services extended the original deadline by which states need to decide whether they will be setting up their own versions of the virtual health insurance exchanges required via the auspices of ObamaCare, or allowing (making?) the federal government to do it for them, or forging some kind of partnership with the feds to get the things done --- meaning that states now have until this Friday, December 14th to report their decision to HHS. Many Republican governors have been leaning back on forth on which option to take, torn between trying to mitigate the...

First the personal-computer industry, then the smartphone and then the tablet. The latest area touched by Apple's AAPL -0.44% innovation: its hometown of Cupertino. As Apple moves closer to breaking ground on its new campus, Cupertino is experiencing a flurry of economic activity, with commercial rental rates surging and construction projects ramping up. "It brings a sense of confidence to see that Apple is making this significant investment here," says Todd Trekell, a regional senior vice president at commercial real-estate-services firm Borelli Investment Co. He says many property owners are touting their relative proximity to Apple as a selling point....

On the same day the US government announced that al Qaeda in Iraq's Al Nusrah Front was a terrorist organization, Al Nusrah and nine other jihadist groups banded together in the Syrian province of Deir al Zour and formed a Mujahideen Shura Council. The 10 jihadist groups, headed by the Al Nusrah Front, released a statement yesterday announcing the council's formation "on jihadist forums and pro-Syrian resistance social networking sites," according to the SITE Intelligence Group, which obtained and translated the message. "The jihadi Islamic brigades in the city of proud Deir al Zour in the Levant of Islam...

The Legacy Lives On! Mark’s Lost Dog & Cat Rescue Foundation “Conservatism is the antidote to tyranny precisely because its principles are the founding principles.” --Mark Levin in Liberty and TyrannyWelcome to “The Levin Lounge”… Step in and have a virtual FRink.Taking the country by storm, one radio station at a time – and kicking the BUTTS of the competition! Welcome all, to the most FUN LIVE THREAD on FreeRepublic.com! You can call Mark’s show: 1-877-381-3811

Israeli and Jewish officials in Denmark on Wednesday warned Jews to avoid openly wearing religious symbols and dress when moving about Copenhagen amid rising anti-Israeli sentiments. "We advise Israelis who come to Denmark and want to go to the synagogue to wait to don their skull caps until they enter the building and not to wear them in the street, irrespective of whether the areas they are visiting are seen as being safe," Israel's ambassador to Denmark, Arthur Avnon, told AFP. Avnon added that visitors were also advised not to "speak Hebrew loudly" or demonstrably wear Star of David jewelry,...