http://www.post-gazette.com/nationworld/ National and world news en-us Copyright 2012, post-gazette.com. Thu, 9 Feb 2012 05:09:33 -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/12040/1209040-84-0.stm?cmpid=nationworld.xml WASHINGTON -- The Obama administration's new requirement that most health insurance plans provide contraceptive services has exploded into a high-octane political weapon, with combatants on both sides scrambling to score points among the electorate and gin up fundraising from their most ardent supporters. Thu, 9 Feb 2012 00:00:00 -0500 http://www.post-gazette.com/pg/12040/1209041-84-0.stm?cmpid=nationworld.xml Over most of the past decade, budget deliberations in Michigan have taken on a glum and familiar monotony: What do we cut now? But the state that experienced an economic downturn earlier, deeper and longer than most of the rest of the country has made an unlikely discovery as its officials closed out its latest financial books: Michigan has a $457 million surplus. Thu, 9 Feb 2012 00:00:00 -0500 http://www.post-gazette.com/pg/12040/1209042-84-0.stm?cmpid=nationworld.xml WASHINGTON -- Republicans are looking to deny child tax credits to illegal immigrants -- refund checks averaging $1,800 a family -- in an effort that has roused anger among Hispanics and some Democratic lawmakers. Thu, 9 Feb 2012 00:00:00 -0500 http://www.post-gazette.com/pg/12040/1209043-84-0.stm?cmpid=nationworld.xml STEUBENVILLE, Ohio -- Ohio Gov. John Kasich spent much of his first year in office pushing a law to rein in public-employee unions. Now, with voters having shot it down, the 59-year-old Republican is recasting his agenda to include "tough environmental rules" and pleas for bipartisanship. Thu, 9 Feb 2012 00:00:00 -0500 http://www.post-gazette.com/pg/12040/1209047-84.stm?cmpid=nationworld.xml ALBANY, N.Y. -- New York and California have agreed to sign the proposed settlement between U.S. states and the nation's biggest mortgage lenders over foreclosure abuses, according to a source close to the negotiations. Thu, 9 Feb 2012 00:00:00 -0500 http://www.post-gazette.com/pg/12040/1209058-82-0.stm?cmpid=nationworld.xml CAIRO -- Egypt's government won't back off its criminal investigation of U.S. and other civil society workers even if the United States withdraws financial aid, Egypt's military-appointed prime minister said Wednesday, in a case that could end one of the closest U.S.-Arab alliances. Thu, 9 Feb 2012 00:00:00 -0500 http://www.post-gazette.com/pg/12040/1209059-82-0.stm?cmpid=nationworld.xml WASHINGTON -- Amid mounting tensions over whether Israel will carry out a military strike against Iran's nuclear program, the United States and Israel remain at odds over a fundamental question: Whether Iran's crucial nuclear facilities are about to become impregnable. Thu, 9 Feb 2012 00:00:00 -0500 http://www.post-gazette.com/pg/12040/1209060-82.stm?cmpid=nationworld.xml MOSCOW -- Russian Prime Minister Vladimir Putin warned Wednesday of a growing "cult of violence" around the world and expressed concern that upheavals in the Middle East could spread to his own country. In an apparent reference to Western governments, Mr. Putin said he was alarmed by what he deemed to be interference in the affairs of sovereign nations, especially Libya and Syria. Thu, 9 Feb 2012 00:00:00 -0500 http://www.post-gazette.com/pg/12040/1209062-82-0.stm?cmpid=nationworld.xml MAFRAQ, Jordan -- Every day, rockets and mortars fired by Syrian government forces rattle the streets of the Syrian city of Homs. Armed rebels ambush government military checkpoints. Hatreds brew on either side of the avenues that divide the bloodstained city. Thu, 9 Feb 2012 00:00:00 -0500 http://www.post-gazette.com/pg/12040/1209065-82-0.stm?cmpid=nationworld.xml TEHRAN -- A former U.S. Marine sentenced to death in his native Iran for spying for the CIA could be saved if the Obama administration would consider a prisoner swap, his Iranian attorney said Wednesday. Amir Mirzaei Hekmati, 28, who was sentenced to be hanged in January, could face execution immediately after an appeals court has reviewed his sentence. Thu, 9 Feb 2012 00:00:00 -0500 http://www.post-gazette.com/pg/12040/1209109-84-0.stm?cmpid=nationworld.xml WASHINGTON -- The Republican Party may never have been destined to fall in love with Mitt Romney, but even persuading voters to fall in line behind his candidacy is proving far more taxing than he had once hoped. Thu, 9 Feb 2012 00:00:00 -0500 http://www.post-gazette.com/pg/12040/1209110-84-0.stm?cmpid=nationworld.xml WASHINGTON -- With the House poised to take up a major ethics bill, Republican leaders have deleted a provision that would, for the first time, regulate the collection of "political intelligence" from political insiders for the use of hedge funds, mutual funds and other investors. Thu, 9 Feb 2012 00:00:00 -0500 http://www.post-gazette.com/pg/12040/1209111-84-0.stm?cmpid=nationworld.xml WASHINGTON -- Dozens of local and regional construction projects, which the Obama administration did not include in this year's budget, managed to received special financing through money set aside by lawmakers, according to a review of documents issued Wednesday by the Army Corps of Engineers. Thu, 9 Feb 2012 00:00:00 -0500 http://www.post-gazette.com/pg/12040/1209112-84-0.stm?cmpid=nationworld.xml WASHINGTON -- Senator Jon Kyl of Arizona hustled through the Capitol on Wednesday to huddle with fellow Republicans trying to head off the next political train wreck for their party, another crisis over the expiring payroll tax cut. Thu, 9 Feb 2012 00:00:00 -0500 http://www.post-gazette.com/pg/12040/1209113-82-0.stm?cmpid=nationworld.xml WASHINGTON -- Amid mounting tensions over whether Israel will carry out a military strike against Iran's nuclear program, the United States and Israel remain at odds over a fundamental question: whether Iran's crucial nuclear facilities are about to become impregnable. Thu, 9 Feb 2012 00:00:00 -0500 http://www.post-gazette.com/pg/12040/1209114-82-0.stm?cmpid=nationworld.xml TRIPOLI, Libya -- As the militiamen saw it, they had the best of intentions. They assaulted another militia at a seaside base here this week to rescue a woman who had been abducted. When the guns fell silent, briefly, the scene that unfolded felt as chaotic as Libya's revolution these days -- a government whose authority extends no further than its offices, militias whose swagger comes from guns far too plentiful and residents whose patience fades with every volley of gunfire that cracks at night. Thu, 9 Feb 2012 00:00:00 -0500 http://www.post-gazette.com/pg/12039/1208734-82.stm?cmpid=nationworld.xml After several failed attempts, Iranian lawmakers for the first time mustered enough votes Tuesday to compel President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad to testify before them in coming weeks about what they called "irregularities" related to his handling of the country's struggling economy. Wed, 8 Feb 2012 00:00:00 -0500 http://www.post-gazette.com/pg/12039/1208735-82.stm?cmpid=nationworld.xml BAGHDAD -- Less than two months after U.S. troops left, the State Department is preparing to slash by as much as half the enormous diplomatic presence it had planned for Iraq, a sharp sign of declining U.S. influence in the country. Wed, 8 Feb 2012 00:00:00 -0500 http://www.post-gazette.com/pg/12039/1208736-84.stm?cmpid=nationworld.xml ATLANTA -- A vice president at the Susan G. Komen for the Cure foundation resigned Tuesday, saying the breast cancer charity should have stood by its politically explosive decision to cut off funding for Planned Parenthood. Wed, 8 Feb 2012 00:00:00 -0500 http://www.post-gazette.com/pg/12039/1208737-84-0.stm?cmpid=nationworld.xml WASHINGTON -- Faced with continued criticism from a new rule on health insurance coverage for birth control, the White House on Tuesday emphasized that the details of the mandate were not yet settled. Wed, 8 Feb 2012 00:00:00 -0500 http://www.post-gazette.com/pg/12039/1208738-84.stm?cmpid=nationworld.xml A federal appeals panel in San Francisco ruled Tuesday that California's Proposition 8 banning same-sex marriage is unconstitutional, a decision that could lead to the Supreme Court's consideration of the controversial social issue. Wed, 8 Feb 2012 00:00:00 -0500 http://www.post-gazette.com/pg/12039/1208739-82-0.stm?cmpid=nationworld.xml DAMASCUS, Syria -- Russia's top diplomat said Tuesday that a Syrian commission has prepared a new constitution, to be voted on in a referendum, and added that President Bashar al-Assad is ready for a "dialogue" with opposition groups after months of a harsh and bloody crackdown on anti-government protesters. Wed, 8 Feb 2012 00:00:00 -0500 http://www.post-gazette.com/pg/12039/1208768-84.stm?cmpid=nationworld.xml Leading Democrats have commenced a furious drive to galvanize and expand the network of wealthy liberal donors that has been largely dormant since 2004, hoping to recruit them to Democratic-leaning "Super-PACs" that President Barack Obama now believes will be critical to winning re-election in November. Wed, 8 Feb 2012 00:00:00 -0500 http://www.post-gazette.com/pg/12039/1208796-84-0.stm?cmpid=nationworld.xml His candidacy all but dismissed just days ago, Rick Santorum won the Minnesota caucuses and a nonbinding primary in Missouri on Tuesday, raising fresh questions about Mitt Romney's ability to corral conservative support. Wed, 8 Feb 2012 00:00:00 -0500 http://www.post-gazette.com/pg/12039/1208797-84-0.stm?cmpid=nationworld.xml HARRISBURG, Pa. -- The Pennsylvania Senate on Tuesday passed legislation that would authorize a tax on the shale gas industry and set uniform standards for development, changes that critics said would leave many municipalities with little control over the use of their land. Wed, 8 Feb 2012 00:00:00 -0500 http://www.post-gazette.com/pg/12039/1208798-84-0.stm?cmpid=nationworld.xml DAYTON, Ohio -- On a day that was not kind to Newt Gingrich, he traveled to a place he hopes will help get him back in the saddle next month: Ohio. Wed, 8 Feb 2012 00:00:00 -0500 http://www.post-gazette.com/pg/12039/1208799-84-0.stm?cmpid=nationworld.xml Leading Democrats have commenced a furious drive to galvanize and expand the network of wealthy liberal donors that has been largely dormant since 2004, hoping to recruit them to Democratic-leaning "super PACs" that President Obama now believes will be critical to winning re-election in November. Wed, 8 Feb 2012 00:00:00 -0500 http://www.post-gazette.com/pg/12039/1208801-82-0.stm?cmpid=nationworld.xml ATHENS -- As thousands of Greeks walked off the job in a general strike on Tuesday to protest stringent new austerity measures, there was a growing sense that the country was reaching a critical point in its efforts to survive the debt crisis. Wed, 8 Feb 2012 00:00:00 -0500 http://www.post-gazette.com/pg/12039/1208802-82-0.stm?cmpid=nationworld.xml KABUL, Afghanistan -- Afghan government officials cast doubt Tuesday on whether more than 20 children who died in camps recently had perished from the cold. Wed, 8 Feb 2012 00:00:00 -0500 http://www.post-gazette.com/pg/12039/1208803-82.stm?cmpid=nationworld.xml MOSCOW -- The police in Russia plan to resubmit for trial a tax evasion case in which the primary defendant died in detention more than two years ago, his former employer said Tuesday. Wed, 8 Feb 2012 00:00:00 -0500 http://www.post-gazette.com/pg/12039/1208804-82-0.stm?cmpid=nationworld.xml RIO DE JANEIRO -- Faced with an influx of thousands of Haitians into its Amazonian frontier, Brazil has reacted by cracking down, offering a view into its growing pains as it wields greater regional influence and emerges as an immigration magnet. Wed, 8 Feb 2012 00:00:00 -0500 http://www.post-gazette.com/pg/12039/1208805-82.stm?cmpid=nationworld.xml In the centenary year of his birth, Alan Turing, the British mathematician and cryptanalyst regarded as one of the central figures in the development of the computer and artificial intelligence, has been denied a formal pardon by the government of Prime Minister David Cameron for his conviction in 1952 on charges of homosexuality, then a criminal offense in Britain. An e-mail petition for a pardon for Mr. Turing, who committed suicide by eating a cyanide-laced apple in 1954, when he was 41, has drawn worldw Wed, 8 Feb 2012 00:00:00 -0500 http://www.post-gazette.com/pg/12039/1208806-82.stm?cmpid=nationworld.xml Scotland Yard formally acknowledged on Tuesday that it had acted unlawfully in 2006 and 2007 in failing to notify hundreds of individuals targeted by The News of the World as it hacked into the cellphone voice mail messages of politicians, sports stars and other celebrities. The admission came as two judges at the High Court in London were hearing evidence in a lawsuit brought by a former deputy prime minister, John Prescott, and a group of other litigants. Top officers at Scotland Yard have previously reje Wed, 8 Feb 2012 00:00:00 -0500 http://www.post-gazette.com/pg/12039/1208807-82-0.stm?cmpid=nationworld.xml TUXTLA GUTIÉRREZ, Mexico -- In the 1990s, they helped their parents run a small family food stand in front of a bus terminal in southern Mexico. Today, the Álvarez Puga brothers, Alejandro and Victor, sit atop a multimillion-dollar financial consulting firm, travel in private jets, own property in New York and boast of having clients around the world. Wed, 8 Feb 2012 00:00:00 -0500 http://www.post-gazette.com/pg/12039/1208808-82-0.stm?cmpid=nationworld.xml Correction Appended Wed, 8 Feb 2012 00:00:00 -0500 http://www.post-gazette.com/pg/12039/1208809-82.stm?cmpid=nationworld.xml After several failed attempts, Iranian lawmakers for the first time mustered enough votes on Tuesday to compel President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad to testify before them in coming weeks about what they called "irregularities" related to his handling of the country's struggling economy. Wed, 8 Feb 2012 00:00:00 -0500 http://www.post-gazette.com/pg/12039/1208810-82-0.stm?cmpid=nationworld.xml BAGHDAD -- Less than two months after American troops left, the State Department is preparing to slash by as much as half the enormous diplomatic presence it had planned for Iraq, a sharp sign of declining American influence in the country. Wed, 8 Feb 2012 00:00:00 -0500 http://www.post-gazette.com/pg/12039/1208811-82-0.stm?cmpid=nationworld.xml The last veteran of World War I was a waitress, and for 90 years no one knew her name. Wed, 8 Feb 2012 00:00:00 -0500 http://www.post-gazette.com/pg/12039/1208812-82.stm?cmpid=nationworld.xml FLORENCE, Italy -- A judge in Florence continued on Tuesday the house arrest of Francesco Schettino, the captain of the luxury liner that ran aground off the Tuscan coast on Jan. 13, leaving 17 people dead and 15 still unaccounted for. Wed, 8 Feb 2012 00:00:00 -0500 http://www.post-gazette.com/pg/12038/1208569-82.stm?cmpid=nationworld.xml ATHENS, Greece -- Greece's government said Monday that it will cut 15,000 state jobs this year, part of new austerity measures it must adopt to secure new debt agreements and rescue funds from international lenders. Tue, 7 Feb 2012 00:00:00 -0500 http://www.post-gazette.com/pg/12038/1208570-82-0.stm?cmpid=nationworld.xml WASHINGTON -- The White House moved Monday to tighten sanctions against Iran because of the country's suspect nuclear program, freezing all property of the Central Bank of Iran, other Iranian financial institutions and the Iranian government in the United States. Tue, 7 Feb 2012 00:00:00 -0500 http://www.post-gazette.com/pg/12038/1208571-82-0.stm?cmpid=nationworld.xml RAMALLAH, West Bank -- After months of wavering, Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas took a decisive step Monday toward reconciliation with the Islamic militant group Hamas, a move that Israel promptly warned would close the door to any future peace talks. Tue, 7 Feb 2012 00:00:00 -0500 http://www.post-gazette.com/pg/12038/1208573-82.stm?cmpid=nationworld.xml BEIRUT -- The U.S. closed its embassy in Syria and withdrew its staff Monday in the face of escalating mayhem that U.S. officials blamed on the Syrian government's unbridled repression of an 11-month-old uprising. The move marked another dramatic moment in a week full of them, as the confrontation in Syria turned even more violent and unpredictable. Tue, 7 Feb 2012 00:00:00 -0500 http://www.post-gazette.com/pg/12038/1208574-82-0.stm?cmpid=nationworld.xml OSLO, Norway -- The right-wing extremist who has admitted killing 77 people in Norway's worst peacetime massacre told a court Monday that he deserves a medal of honor for the bloodshed and demanded to be set free. Anders Behring Breivik smirked as he was led into the Oslo district court, handcuffed and dressed in a dark suit, for his last detention hearing before the trial starts in April. Tue, 7 Feb 2012 00:00:00 -0500 http://www.post-gazette.com/pg/12038/1208599-176-0.stm?cmpid=nationworld.xml WASHINGTON -- Perhaps the most attention-getting Super Bowl ad -- other than that dog blackmailing his owner with tortilla chips to keep quiet over a felinicide, of course -- was Clint Eastwood's paean to a resurgent auto industry in Detroit. Tue, 7 Feb 2012 00:00:00 -0500 http://www.post-gazette.com/pg/12038/1208601-84-0.stm?cmpid=nationworld.xml WASHINGTON -- More than a third of the advertising tied to the presidential race has been funded by nonprofit groups that will never have to reveal their donors, suggesting that a significant portion of the 2012 elections will be wrapped in a vast cloak of secrecy. Tue, 7 Feb 2012 00:00:00 -0500 http://www.post-gazette.com/pg/12038/1208614-84-0.stm?cmpid=nationworld.xml Two American brothers of a Mexican casino magnate who fled drug and fraud charges in the United States and has been seeking a pardon enabling him to return have emerged as major fundraisers and donors for President Barack Obama's re-election campaign. Tue, 7 Feb 2012 00:00:00 -0500 http://www.post-gazette.com/pg/12038/1208618-84-0.stm?cmpid=nationworld.xml WASHINGTON -- President Barack Obama will use the backdrop of a White House science fair today to highlight a nationwide shortage of math and science teachers and unveil a plan to invest $100 million to help train 100,000 new educators over the next decade. Tue, 7 Feb 2012 00:00:00 -0500 http://www.post-gazette.com/pg/12038/1208634-84-0.stm?cmpid=nationworld.xml NAVAL AIR STATION WHIDBEY ISLAND, Wash. -- The pilot sat strapped to a chair, held in place as if he were in the backseat of a helicopter. Beside him, on a mock wall, was a window. The window was closed. Tue, 7 Feb 2012 00:00:00 -0500 http://www.post-gazette.com/pg/12038/1208635-84-0.stm?cmpid=nationworld.xml Two American brothers of a Mexican casino magnate who fled drug and fraud charges in the United States and has been seeking a pardon enabling him to return have emerged as major fund-raisers and donors for President Obama's re-election campaign. Tue, 7 Feb 2012 00:00:00 -0500 http://www.post-gazette.com/pg/12038/1208636-84-0.stm?cmpid=nationworld.xml GRAND JUNCTION, Colo. -- Elizabeth Young, a mother and artist in Las Vegas, likes Mitt Romney's successful record of "turning around companies that have been doing so poorly." Chad Backus, a physical therapist from Winnemucca, Nev., appreciates his "business experience, his leadership experience." And Arwen Spor, a mother of three in Spring Creek, Nev., lived in the Salt Lake City area during the 2002 Olympics, and trusts Mr. Romney because of his role in reviving the struggling games. Tue, 7 Feb 2012 00:00:00 -0500 http://www.post-gazette.com/pg/12038/1208637-84-0.stm?cmpid=nationworld.xml WASHINGTON -- President Obama is signaling to wealthy Democratic donors that he wants them to start contributing to an outside group supporting his re-election, reversing a long-held position as he confronts a deep financial disadvantage on a vital front in the campaign. Tue, 7 Feb 2012 00:00:00 -0500 http://www.post-gazette.com/pg/12038/1208639-82-0.stm?cmpid=nationworld.xml ROME -- Leaders of the Roman Catholic Church began a four-day symposium on Monday about the prevention of sexual abuse of minors by the clergy, an unprecedented assembly described by the Vatican as a response to a painful issue that has wracked the church and estranged many faithful. Tue, 7 Feb 2012 00:00:00 -0500 http://www.post-gazette.com/pg/12038/1208640-82.stm?cmpid=nationworld.xml An immigration appeals judge ordered the government on Monday to release on bail a militant Islamic preacher who is considered a leader of Al Qaeda in Europe, despite government arguments that he is a threat to Britain's security. The preacher, Abu Qatada, 51, whose real name is Omar Othman, has spent more than six years in British jails since his arrest after the Sept. 11 attacks in the United States, and had been described by a Spanish terrorism judge as "Osama bin Laden's right-hand man in Europe." Mr. O Tue, 7 Feb 2012 00:00:00 -0500 http://www.post-gazette.com/pg/12038/1208641-82.stm?cmpid=nationworld.xml Queen Elizabeth II broke with her custom of performing no public duties on the anniversary of the death of her father, King George VI, in 1952, leaving her Sandringham estate in rural Norfolk on Monday to make brief appearances at a neighboring town hall and a village nursery school. The day marked the 60th anniversary of her accession to the throne, an accomplishment matched by only one other British monarch in more than 1,000 years. Her great-great grandmother, Queen Victoria, celebrated her Diamond Jubil Tue, 7 Feb 2012 00:00:00 -0500 http://www.post-gazette.com/pg/12038/1208642-82-0.stm?cmpid=nationworld.xml WASHINGTON -- Authoritarian rulers from Caracas to Moscow and beyond have long viewed pro-democracy groups financed by the United States with deep suspicion, regularly denouncing them as meddlers or spies and sometimes harassing their workers. Tue, 7 Feb 2012 00:00:00 -0500 http://www.post-gazette.com/pg/12038/1208643-82-0.stm?cmpid=nationworld.xml PARIS -- The leaders of Germany and France, meeting here on Monday, pledged not to allow Russia and China to block international action to stop the bloodshed in Syria, and promised to help the Syrian people. Tue, 7 Feb 2012 00:00:00 -0500 http://www.post-gazette.com/pg/12038/1208644-82-0.stm?cmpid=nationworld.xml MEXICO CITY -- The historic choice of a woman as its presidential candidate may turn out to be a shrewd move for the party of Mexico's incumbent president, political analysts said Monday, allowing it to capitalize on the growing power of women in politics and offering a fresh approach for a party that has been mired in a bloody drug war. Tue, 7 Feb 2012 00:00:00 -0500 http://www.post-gazette.com/pg/12038/1208645-82-0.stm?cmpid=nationworld.xml TEHRAN -- One measure of the profound anxiety now coursing through Iranian society can be seen on Manouchehri Street, a winding lane at the heart of this city where furtive crowds of men gather every day like drug dealers to buy and sell American dollars. Tue, 7 Feb 2012 00:00:00 -0500 http://www.post-gazette.com/pg/12038/1208646-82-0.stm?cmpid=nationworld.xml ST. MORITZ, Switzerland -- In an earlier era in Europe, it was not unusual for the sudden and unexpected departure of a monarch to touch off a prolonged period of claims and counterclaims until one of the pretenders finally prevailed. Tue, 7 Feb 2012 00:00:00 -0500 http://www.post-gazette.com/pg/12038/1208647-82.stm?cmpid=nationworld.xml Some sanctions against Myanmar were waived by the United States on Monday, allowing the Myanmar government to work with the World Bank and other international financial organizations to bolster its economy. The decision is the latest in a series of cautious reciprocal steps intended to reward sweeping political and economic changes in the country, also known as Burma. The restrictions on international financial organizations stem from American laws against human trafficking, which the United States State De Tue, 7 Feb 2012 00:00:00 -0500 http://www.post-gazette.com/pg/12038/1208648-82-0.stm?cmpid=nationworld.xml WASHINGTON -- A senior American military commander is expected to travel to Pakistan this month in what Obama administration officials say is the first step toward thawing a strategic relationship that has been in effect frozen for more than two months. Tue, 7 Feb 2012 00:00:00 -0500 http://www.post-gazette.com/pg/12038/1208649-82-0.stm?cmpid=nationworld.xml WASHINGTON -- The White House moved to enforce tightened sanctions against Iran on Monday because of the country's suspect nuclear program, freezing all property of the Central Bank of Iran, other Iranian financial institutions and the Iranian government in the United States. Tue, 7 Feb 2012 00:00:00 -0500 http://www.post-gazette.com/pg/12038/1208650-82-0.stm?cmpid=nationworld.xml LAHORE, Pakistan -- Long unchallenged, Pakistan's top spy agency faces a flurry of court actions that subject its darkest operations to unusual scrutiny, amid growing calls for new restrictions on its largely untrammeled powers. Tue, 7 Feb 2012 00:00:00 -0500 http://www.post-gazette.com/pg/12037/1208420-82-0.stm?cmpid=nationworld.xml The United States proposed an international coalition to support Syria's opposition Sunday after Russia and China blocked a U.N. attempt to end nearly 11 months of bloodshed, raising fears that violence will escalate. Rebel soldiers said force was now the only way to oust President Bashar Assad, while the regime vowed to press its military crackdown. Mon, 6 Feb 2012 10:23:00 -0500 http://www.post-gazette.com/pg/12037/1208415-82-0.stm?cmpid=nationworld.xml For the first time in nearly two decades of escalating tensions over Iran's nuclear program, world leaders are genuinely concerned that an Israeli military attack on the Islamic Republic could be imminent -- an action that many fear might trigger a wider war, terrorism and global economic havoc. Mon, 6 Feb 2012 10:15:00 -0500 http://www.post-gazette.com/pg/12037/1208406-84-0.stm?cmpid=nationworld.xml After a blockbuster few months, the race for the Republican presidential nomination may be about to hit the snooze button. The closely watched early states are done, and the competition has whittled down to a hardy four candidates. The next landmark day is a month off -- March 6, otherwise known as Super Tuesday. Mon, 6 Feb 2012 00:00:00 -0500 http://www.post-gazette.com/pg/12037/1208410-84-0.stm?cmpid=nationworld.xml The long, bizarre case of a Utah wife missing for two years took a horrific turn Sunday when a powerful house explosion killed the woman's husband and his two young sons, moments after the boys arrived for a visit that was supposed to be supervised by a social worker. Authorities say the husband, Josh Powell, blew the house up on purpose. Mon, 6 Feb 2012 00:00:00 -0500 http://www.post-gazette.com/pg/12037/1208413-82.stm?cmpid=nationworld.xml A suicide bomber detonated his vehicle Sunday at a police parking lot in central Kandahar, killing at least seven people, including five police officers and a child, in the fourth attempted suicide bombing in this southern city in less than a month. Mon, 6 Feb 2012 00:00:00 -0500 http://www.post-gazette.com/pg/12037/1208414-82.stm?cmpid=nationworld.xml Egyptian investigators filed criminal charges Sunday against at least 40 international civil society workers, reportedly including the son of a U.S. Cabinet secretary, in a case that could cost the ruling generals more than $1 billion in U.S. aid. Mon, 6 Feb 2012 00:00:00 -0500 http://www.post-gazette.com/pg/12037/1208416-82-0.stm?cmpid=nationworld.xml Subzero cold combined with snowstorms continued to claim lives across Europe, bringing the death toll to more than 280 by Sunday. Most of the victims were in Ukraine, where 30 more people died over the weekend. Mon, 6 Feb 2012 00:00:00 -0500 http://www.post-gazette.com/pg/12037/1208431-114-0.stm?cmpid=nationworld.xml PPG Industries has been selling house paint high in lead content in the African nation of Cameroon for years, and although it says it stopped production of that paint late last year, it has rejected a request that it recall or accurately label its lead paints now selling in stores there. Mon, 6 Feb 2012 00:00:00 -0500 http://www.post-gazette.com/pg/12037/1208463-84-0.stm?cmpid=nationworld.xml WASHINGTON -- Members of Congress may no longer be able to direct federal money to projects back home because of a moratorium on legislative earmarks, but that has not stopped them from trying. Mon, 6 Feb 2012 00:00:00 -0500 http://www.post-gazette.com/pg/12037/1208464-84-0.stm?cmpid=nationworld.xml WASHINGTON -- For Brad Woodhouse, the spokesman for the Democratic National Committee, it was when he came across a Twitter post about a CNN interview in which Mitt Romney seemed to shrug off concern for the very poor. Mon, 6 Feb 2012 00:00:00 -0500 http://www.post-gazette.com/pg/12037/1208465-84-0.stm?cmpid=nationworld.xml LAS VEGAS -- The morning after losing to Mitt Romney by 25 points in the Nevada caucuses, Newt Gingrich did not sound very conciliatory. Mon, 6 Feb 2012 00:00:00 -0500 http://www.post-gazette.com/pg/12037/1208466-84.stm?cmpid=nationworld.xml The husband and the two young sons of a missing Utah woman died on Sunday at the husband's home in Washington State in what appeared to be an intentional explosion, the authorities said. Mon, 6 Feb 2012 00:00:00 -0500 http://www.post-gazette.com/pg/12037/1208468-82.stm?cmpid=nationworld.xml President Obama said Sunday that he did not believe Israel was preparing to attack Iran to disrupt its nuclear program and that diplomacy remained the "preferred solution" to resolving the standoff over what Western leaders believe is Tehran's pursuit of nuclear weapons. Mon, 6 Feb 2012 00:00:00 -0500 http://www.post-gazette.com/pg/12037/1208469-82-0.stm?cmpid=nationworld.xml BEIRUT, Lebanon -- The collapse of diplomatic efforts to mediate Syria's uprising reverberated across the country Sunday, emboldening a government that pressed on with a crackdown in the capital's suburbs and the north and prompting rebel leaders to vow that only force would drive President Bashar al-Assad from power. Mon, 6 Feb 2012 00:00:00 -0500 http://www.post-gazette.com/pg/12037/1208470-82-0.stm?cmpid=nationworld.xml WASHINGTON -- British and Pakistani journalists said Sunday that the C.I.A.'s drone strikes on suspected militants in Pakistan have repeatedly targeted rescuers who responded to the scene of a strike, as well as mourners at subsequent funerals. Mon, 6 Feb 2012 00:00:00 -0500 http://www.post-gazette.com/pg/12037/1208471-82-0.stm?cmpid=nationworld.xml ATHENS -- Pushed against the wall by its foreign lenders, the Greek government agreed on Sunday to drastic new spending cuts but failed to complete an arrangement that would unlock the financing the country needs to prevent default. It agreed instead to resume talks on Monday. Mon, 6 Feb 2012 00:00:00 -0500 http://www.post-gazette.com/pg/12037/1208472-82-0.stm?cmpid=nationworld.xml ABBEVILLE, France -- This small city in northern France has few immigrants and little crime. But in the last local elections here, the candidate of the far-right National Front eliminated the standard-bearer of President Nicolas Sarkozy's party in the first round of voting and then won 30.2 percent of the vote in the runoff, losing to a Socialist. Mon, 6 Feb 2012 00:00:00 -0500 http://www.post-gazette.com/pg/12037/1208473-82-0.stm?cmpid=nationworld.xml CAIRO -- Egypt's military-led government said Sunday that it would put 19 Americans and two dozen others on trial in a politically charged criminal investigation into the foreign financing of nonprofit groups that has shaken the 30-year alliance between the United States and Egypt. Mon, 6 Feb 2012 00:00:00 -0500 http://www.post-gazette.com/pg/12037/1208474-82-0.stm?cmpid=nationworld.xml JERUSALEM -- Israelis like to say that when it comes to military and security operations, those who know don't talk, and those who talk don't know. But the intense and increasingly public debate about whether to attack Iran's nuclear facilities is challenging that piece of conventional wisdom. Mon, 6 Feb 2012 00:00:00 -0500 http://www.post-gazette.com/pg/12037/1208475-82-0.stm?cmpid=nationworld.xml GAZA -- Initial Palestinian reports late Sunday indicated that the leaders of the rival Palestinian movements Fatah and Hamas might have found a way to break a long political deadlock by forming an interim unity government that would be led, at least at first, by Mahmoud Abbas, the president of the Palestinian Authority based in the West Bank. Mon, 6 Feb 2012 00:00:00 -0500 http://www.post-gazette.com/pg/12037/1208476-82-0.stm?cmpid=nationworld.xml   Mon, 6 Feb 2012 00:00:00 -0500 http://www.post-gazette.com/pg/12037/1208477-82-0.stm?cmpid=nationworld.xml BAMAKO, Mali -- In life, he delighted in fomenting insurgencies in the African nations to the south. And in death, Col. Muammar el-Qaddafi is doing it all over again. Mon, 6 Feb 2012 00:00:00 -0500 http://www.post-gazette.com/pg/12037/1208478-82-0.stm?cmpid=nationworld.xml WASHINGTON -- On his second yearlong deployment to Afghanistan, Lt. Col. Daniel L. Davis traveled 9,000 miles, patrolled with American troops in eight provinces and returned in October of last year with a fervent conviction that the war was going disastrously and that senior military leaders had not leveled with the American public. Mon, 6 Feb 2012 00:00:00 -0500 http://www.post-gazette.com/pg/12037/1208479-82-0.stm?cmpid=nationworld.xml KANDAHAR, Afghanistan -- A suicide bomber detonated his vehicle at a police parking lot in central Kandahar on Sunday, killing at least seven people, including five police officers and a child, in the fourth attempted or successful suicide bombing there in less than a month. Mon, 6 Feb 2012 00:00:00 -0500