The Screen Actors Guild said Saturday it will ask its members to authorize a strike after its first contract talks in four months with Hollywood studios failed despite the help of a federal mediator.The guild said it adjourned talks with the Alliance of Motion Picture and Television Producers shortly before 1 a.m. after two marathon sessions with federal mediator Juan Carlos Gonzalez. more >>
A suspected U.S. missile strike at the home of a Taliban commander in northwestern Pakistan on Saturday killed at least five militants, officials said. The attack occurred before dawn in the North Waziristan region, part of the Pakistani tribal belt that is considered a possible hiding place for al-Qaida leader Osama bin Laden. more >>
President-elect Barack Obama has moved with unusual speed to select officials for his administration, and senior Democratic officials say he intends to name Timothy Geithner as his treasury secretary as soon as Monday. It was not clear when Obama intended to formally unveil any of his other picks for the administration that takes office at the stroke of noon on Jan. 20. One Democrat said John Podesta, a leader of Obama's transition team, had told Senate aides on Friday that Obama hoped for speedy confirmation so the new administration could get to work quickly thereafter. more >>
Eric Staal scored three goals in less than 24 minutes to lead the Carolina Hurricanes past the Phoenix Coyotes, 5-2 on Friday night. Busting out of an eight-game scoring drought in a big way, Staal completed his fifth career hat trick in the final minute of the second period to lead the Hurricanes to their season-high third straight victory. Ray Whitney scored two late goals, including one into an empty net. Joni Pitkanen had three assists and Cam Ward stopped 26 shots for Carolina. more >>
Even in a global financial crisis, the world cannot afford to skimp on its obligations to Afghanistan, which wants to double the size of its army but will never be able to pay for it, Defense Secretary Robert Gates says. Gates said some characterizations of backsliding in the 7-year-old Afghan war are too dire, but he said violence is up. Nations with fighting forces in Afghanistan and those without must respond, Gates said Friday after a day of strategy talks with British, Canadian and other defense ministers with troops fighting alongside Americans in Afghanistan's closely contested south. more >>
The last plea has been entered in a brawl between rival biker gangs that left three people dead and dozens injured at a southern Nevada casino in 2002. Hells Angels member Frederick Donahue pleaded guilty Friday in U.S. District Court in Las Vegas to violent crime in aid of racketeering. He is expected to be sentenced to no more than five years in prison. more >>
President-elect Barack Obama intends to name Timothy Geithner, president of the New York Federal Reserve, as his treasury secretary to confront the nation's intense economic turmoil, senior Democratic officials said Friday. The stock market soared on the news. Word of Geithner's likely selection emerged as New York Sen. Hillary Rodham Clinton, in line to become secretary of state, said through a spokesman that discussions were on track for her appointment but no final arrangement had been made. Obama plans to announce Geithner's appointment in Chicago on Monday, barring an unforeseen snag in a background check that is nearly complete, said one of the senior officials, both of whom were familiar with the deliberations. more >>
When food importer Luciano Sclafani spied a three-liter tin of extra virgin olive oil a couple of years ago selling for $9.99, he could tell without tasting a drop that it wasn't legitimate. Lab tests proved him right. The oil, which should have sold for $25 or $30, was a cheap knockoff, 90 percent soybean oil and 10 percent pomace, the oil that's collected from the ground flesh and pits after pressing. more >>
Gov. Rick Perry on Thursday called the federal government's efforts to help Texas recover from Hurricane Ike "underwhelming" and announced the formation of a state commission to help move the process along. Hurricane Ike slammed into the Texas coast on Sept. 13, but more than two months later, there are still thousands of displaced residents without homes and counties with debris fields as long as 30 miles. more >>
Two Hells Angels bikers have been acquitted of attempted murder in a gunfight during the Sturgis motorcycle rally. Chad Wilson of San Diego and John Midmore of Indiana were found not guilty Thursday of five counts of attempted murder. more >>
What Robert Gates once called "inconceivable to me" - his remaining as defense secretary beyond Inauguration Day - is looking a bit more conceivable to the rest of Washington. The 65-year-old former spymaster has turned publicly mum on the circumstances under which he would stay, even briefly, after President-elect Barack Obama takes office. But one of the leading scenarios for a wartime transition at the Pentagon has Gates holding the fort, at least for some months. more >>
The cost of public transit in New York City would skyrocket next year - even as bus and subway service is reduced - under a plan unveiled Thursday by the nation's largest such system. The Metropolitan Transportation Authority said it needs to raise fare revenue by 23 percent by June in order to plug a yawning budget gap worsened by the global financial crisis. more >>
New York Yankees pitcher Mike Mussina announced his retirement Thursday even as he comes off his first 20-win season. Mussina, who turns 40 next month, was 270-153 with a 3.68 ERA in 18 seasons in the majors. He becomes the first pitcher to retire after a 20-win season since Hall of Famer Sandy Koufax in 1966. more >>
The U.S.-developed F-35 fighter jet has been chosen to replace Norway's aging F-16 aircraft in a purchase that would cost the NATO member about 18 billion kroner ($2.5 billion) for 48 aircraft, officials said Thursday. Norway chose the aircraft to replace U.S.-made F-16s in preference to JAS Gripen fighters from Sweden. The new fighters would be phased in between 2016 and 2020, the government said in a statement. more >>
Eric Holder is in line for nomination by President-elect Barack Obama to the attorney general's job that Holder has long wanted, but the 2001 episode with fugitive financier Marc Rich is stirring partisan acrimony. The role of the former deputy attorney general in the pardon of Rich opened Holder to strong criticism from Capitol Hill in a political uproar that Republicans refuse to forget nearly eight years later. The Republican National Committee is resurrecting the episode, circulating an e-mail Wednesday that asks, "Why does Obama want to appoint an attorney general with a long history of controversial pardons?" more >>
North Carolina says forward Tyler Zeller will likely miss the rest of the season with a broken wrist. School officials say the freshman, who started in place of injured star Tyler Hansbrough, had surgery Wednesday to repair his left wrist. The university's doctors say normal recovery time for the injury is 12-16 weeks. more >>
"Sewer" has always been a dirty word in this celebrity-studded community, which has avoided the sprawl that pervades much of the Southern California coast in part because it has refused to install the plumbing for it. The city has long resisted switching from septic tanks to sewer pipes, concerned that it would open the door to massive development projects that are currently out of the question because septic systems can't support them. more >>
A suspected U.S. missile attack well inside Pakistani territory Wednesday killed at least six alleged militants, intelligence officials said, but the attack could exacerbate tensions between the anti-terror allies. The missile struck a house in Indi Khel village in Bannu, which is part of Pakistan's North West Frontier Province and neighbors semiautonomous tribal areas that have borne the brunt of past such strikes. more >>
Congressional Budget Office chief Peter Orszag is the front-runner to be President-elect Barack Obama's budget director, Capitol Hill Democrats say. The 39-year-old CBO director has been reluctant to leave Capitol Hill's budget agency in the middle of his four-year term, but Democratic aides said Tuesday that Orszag appears likely to accept the job if offered. It's among the toughest jobs in Washington, but he would find it virtually impossible to turn down a request from Obama, they said. more >>
Sergei Samsonov and Ray Whitney scored 3 1/2 minutes apart in the third period to help the Carolina Hurricanes rally past the Montreal Canadiens 2-1 on Tuesday night. Whitney followed Samsonov's first goal of the season with the go-ahead score with 13:27 remaining to jump-start a Carolina offense that averaged fewer than two goals in its previous six games. more >>
