Airlines halt ticket sales in Venezuela

---

• Airlines halt ticket sales in Venezuela
• Dow plunges 318 points, worst drop since last June, as investors fear slower global growth
• Mangled metal, victims' screams mark Ind. pileup
• Column: Manning, Sherman both worth celebrating
• Syrian government, opposition to discuss aid for Homs over next two days: sources
• Mangled metal, screams leave mark on rescuers
• Both sides in Syrian talks to meet in 'same room'
• Hagel says 'something is wrong' with nuke force
• Former Sen. Bond now lobbying for Medicaid growth
• W.Va. teen to plead guilty in friend's killing
• Natural gas soars as cold grips homes, drillers
• 8 things to know about 'Octomom' Nadya Suleman
• Nigerian presidential elections Feb. 14, 2015
• Obama focus on 'opportunity,' less on 'inequality'
• 35 feared dead in Quebec retirement home fire
• Fear of slowing growth pushes down global markets
• Exclusive: Global regulators eye forex benchmarks after rigging probe
• Insight: U.S. pensions' funding gap closes, driving corporate profits
• Guns, swords, grenades: busy year for air passenger seizures
• Ukraine leader loses control in west, offers concessions
• US prosecutor had warned of aide's suicide risk
• Deadly bombings rock Cairo on uprising anniversary eve
• 1 student injured in shooting at SC State dorm
• KPMG to pay $8.2 mn to settle SEC auditing charges
• Barcelona reveal Neymar deal, deny lies
• GOP activists defend Christie at national meeting
• 1 student injured in shooting at SC State University dormitory; search on for suspect
• W.Va. official: Spill company knew of 2nd chemical
• Gmail service disrupted
• Babe Ruth's 1923 Series watch coming to NY auction
• Syria foes agree to meet face-to-face
• Israel warns of growing jihadi threat from Syria
• Cameron, Bono link poverty, climate at AP debate
• Argentina lifts controls on buying foreign currency
• British Museum: Prototype for Noah's Ark was round
• S. Sudan rebels say gov't violating new cease-fire
• 2 versions of Van Gogh's 'Sunflowers' go on show
• Ageless Hopkins seeks undisputed crown at 49
• Syria peace talks falter on after rocky start
• Sampras scotches coaching return

Airlines halt ticket sales in Venezuela Posted: 24 Jan 2014 01:07 PM PST CARACAS, Venezuela (AP) — Tempers flared at airline offices in Caracas on Friday as Venezuelans reacted angrily to international carriers' refusal to sell tickets after the government devalued the bolivar for flights abroad.

Dow plunges 318 points, worst drop since last June, as investors fear slower global growth Posted: 24 Jan 2014 01:05 PM PST NEW YORK (AP) — Dow plunges 318 points, worst drop since last June, as investors fear slower global growth.

Mangled metal, victims' screams mark Ind. pileup Posted: 24 Jan 2014 01:03 PM PST MICHIGAN CITY, Ind. (AP) — Cars were mangled, and some were burned despite the blowing snow. Other vehicles were crushed between jackknifed semi-tractors, so entwined that it was difficult to tell them apart.

Column: Manning, Sherman both worth celebrating Posted: 24 Jan 2014 01:03 PM PST Well, here we go again.

Syrian government, opposition to discuss aid for Homs over next two days: sources Posted: 24 Jan 2014 01:01 PM PST The Syrian government and opposition have agreed to discuss over the next two days a possible deal to provide humanitarian access to the besieged city of Homs as part of confidence building measures, diplomatic sources said on Friday. "They agreed to work for the next 48 hours on providing humanitarian access to Homs," one of the sources said, referring to the city where rebels are surrounded in central districts by forces loyal to President Bashar al-Assad. "The practical aspects have been worked on, things are ready and if the government doesn't put a block on it then it could happen quickly." The two parties will hold their first joint meeting on Saturday to launch peace talks aimed at resolving nearly three years of civil war after negotiations almost collapsed before they started. The face-to-face meeting was delayed from Friday after the opposition at first said it would not meet the government side unless it first agreed to sign up to a 2012 statement by world powers calling for a transitional government in Syria.

Mangled metal, screams leave mark on rescuers Posted: 24 Jan 2014 01:00 PM PST MICHIGAN CITY, Ind. (AP) — First responders called to a 46-vehicle crash that killed three people on an Indiana highway say it's a miracle the death toll wasn't higher.

Both sides in Syrian talks to meet in 'same room' Posted: 24 Jan 2014 12:58 PM PST GENEVA (AP) — Bending to intense international pressure, Syria's government and the Western-backed opposition agreed Friday to face each other for the first time since the start of the uprising against President Bashar Assad.

Hagel says 'something is wrong' with nuke force Posted: 24 Jan 2014 12:56 PM PST WASHINGTON (AP) — Defense Secretary Chuck Hagel says "something is wrong" inside the Air Force's nuclear missile corps.

Former Sen. Bond now lobbying for Medicaid growth Posted: 24 Jan 2014 12:54 PM PST JEFFERSON CITY, Mo. (AP) — As a Republican senator, Kit Bond voted against the federal health care overhaul. Now lobbying for a prominent business group, Bond is pushing Republican legislators in his home state of Missouri to embrace a key provision of the law by expanding Medicaid eligibility.

W.Va. teen to plead guilty in friend's killing Posted: 24 Jan 2014 12:53 PM PST MORGANTOWN, W.Va. (AP) — A West Virginia teenager pleaded guilty to a first-degree murder charge Friday in the stabbing death of her one-time best friend.

Natural gas soars as cold grips homes, drillers Posted: 24 Jan 2014 12:53 PM PST NEW YORK (AP) — The frigid winter of 2014 is setting the price of natural gas on fire.

8 things to know about 'Octomom' Nadya Suleman Posted: 24 Jan 2014 12:49 PM PST LOS ANGELES (AP) — Much has transpired since Nadya Suleman became "Octomom" by giving birth to eight premature but otherwise healthy children on Jan. 26, 2009. She's gone from medical marvel — hers are the only known full set of octuplets to live past their first week — to national punch line for her various money-generating efforts

Nigerian presidential elections Feb. 14, 2015 Posted: 24 Jan 2014 12:49 PM PST ABUJA, Nigeria (AP) — Nigeria's electoral commission says presidential and legislative elections in Africa's biggest oil producer will be held Feb. 14, 2015.

Obama focus on 'opportunity,' less on 'inequality' Posted: 24 Jan 2014 12:48 PM PST WASHINGTON (AP) — Income inequality is out, "ladders of opportunity" is in.

35 feared dead in Quebec retirement home fire Posted: 24 Jan 2014 12:46 PM PST L'ISLE-VERTE, Quebec (AP) — Using steam to melt the ice, investigators searched the frozen-over ruins of a retirement home Friday for victims of a fire that left about 35 people feared dead and cast such a pall over the village of 1,500 that psychologists were sent door to door.

Fear of slowing growth pushes down global markets Posted: 24 Jan 2014 12:41 PM PST Fear is back in the market.

Exclusive: Global regulators eye forex benchmarks after rigging probe Posted: 24 Jan 2014 12:39 PM PST By Douwe Miedema WASHINGTON (Reuters) - A powerful global financial regulator will scrutinize benchmarks used in currency trading, it said on Friday, a first sign that the largely unregulated market may be kept on a tighter leash after allegations of manipulation. The Financial Stability Board, which coordinates regulation for the Group of 20 leading economies, is already working on a reform of interest rate benchmarks after the Libor interbank rate-fixing scandal. "The FSB is in the process of defining the work it will do on issues around FX benchmarks," the Swiss-based agency told Reuters in an emailed statement. Britain's Financial Conduct Authority (FCA) and the U.S. Department of Justice have been investigating allegations that traders at some of the world's biggest banks manipulated the largely unregulated $5.3 trillion-a-day foreign exchange market.

Insight: U.S. pensions' funding gap closes, driving corporate profits Posted: 24 Jan 2014 12:37 PM PST Large companies' pension plans are reporting among their best returns on record in 2013, dramatically closing funding gaps that had opened up because of losses in the 2008-2009 stock market collapse, and as government bond yields sank. All told, companies in the S&P 500 saw an aggregate improvement of more than $300 billion in their pension plans, a gain that brought assets to around 93 percent of expected obligations, according to International Strategy & Investment, a New York research firm. For investors, the performance of corporate pension plans is a small but under-appreciated side effect of the bull market that has now lasted for nearly five years. David Zion, an analyst at ISI who co-authored the report, estimates that the strong performance of pension plans will save companies in the S&P 500 a total of $26 billion in the current fiscal year, resulting in a 1.6 percent boost for the 2014 earnings per share of the index.

Guns, swords, grenades: busy year for air passenger seizures Posted: 24 Jan 2014 12:35 PM PST Passengers also sought to sneak grenades, inert explosives, tear gas, cane-swords and even a medieval mace onto flights, all part of the varied weaponry detected at airport checkpoints by the Transportation Security Administration in 2013. TSA said agents seized 1,813 guns, 1,477 of them loaded, from checkpoints at 205 airports last year, thanks to the use of metal detectors and advanced imaging technology. TSA revealed the data in a blog post, with images of various weaponry and non-functioning explosives such as an inert Claymore mine or gag gifts resembling live grenades or improvised explosive devices, that passengers sought to bring aboard commercial flights. "The problem with these types of items is that we don't know if they are real, toys or replicas until we call out the explosive experts," TSA said on its blog.

Ukraine leader loses control in west, offers concessions Posted: 24 Jan 2014 12:32 PM PST President Viktor Yanukovych on Friday pledged to reshuffle his government and amend controversial anti-protest laws to ease Ukraine's crisis, after losing control of local administrations across the west of the country. With the ex-Soviet state in shock after five days of deadly clashes, Yanukovych vowed to press on with talks with the opposition but warned he would use "all legal methods" if no solution was found. The protesters occupying the city centre of the capital Kiev showed no sign of yielding and extended their barricades close to the presidential administration. Clashes that started Sunday on Grushevsky Street on the fringes of the main protest zone in central Kiev had left five dead, according to activists.

US prosecutor had warned of aide's suicide risk Posted: 24 Jan 2014 12:31 PM PST A federal prosecutor warned more than a month ago that the former chief of staff to U.S. Sen. Lamar Alexander might be at risk of harming himself over child pornography charges.

Deadly bombings rock Cairo on uprising anniversary eve Posted: 24 Jan 2014 01:07 PM PST A car bomb struck Cairo police headquarters Friday, the first of four blasts in Egypt's capital that killed six people on the eve of the anniversary of the 2011 uprising. The bombings, all targeting the police, came as street clashes between Islamist supporters of deposed president Mohamed Morsi and backers of the military killed 14 people, the latest in violence that has killed hundreds. They struck a day before police were to deploy across the capital for the third anniversary of the Arab Spring uprising that unseated autocratic president Hosni Mubarak.

1 student injured in shooting at SC State dorm Posted: 24 Jan 2014 12:26 PM PST ORANGEBURG, S.C. (AP) — Officials at South Carolina State University say a student has been injured in a shooting at an on-campus dorm.

KPMG to pay $8.2 mn to settle SEC auditing charges Posted: 24 Jan 2014 12:26 PM PST US accounting firm KPMG violated rules aimed at maintaining auditors' independence from their clients and will pay $8.2 million to settle the charges, regulators said Friday. The Securities and Exchange Commission found that KPMG broke the rules by providing prohibited non-audit services such as bookkeeping, corporate finance and expert services to affiliates of companies whose books they were auditing. In addition, the SEC said in a statement, some KPMG personnel also owned stock in companies or affiliates of companies that were KPMG audit clients, in a further violation of the rules designed to ensure auditors maintain objectivity and impartiality in reviewing a client's books. "KPMG compromised its role as an independent audit firm by providing prohibited non-audit services to companies that it was supposed to be auditing without any potential conflicts," John Dugan, associate director for enforcement in the SEC's Boston regional office, said in the statement.

Barcelona reveal Neymar deal, deny lies Posted: 24 Jan 2014 12:26 PM PST Barcelona's new boss declared Friday the club had "never lied" as he revealed for the first time financial details of a disputed 57.1-million-euro ($78 million) signing of Brazilian star Neymar, a deal that helped to topple his predecessor. "We never lied," 50-year-old club president, Josep Maria Bartomeu told his first news conference. A day after former president Sandro Rosell resigned because of a judicial wrangle over the Neymar deal, Bartomeu said the player's father had given permission for previously confidential details of the transfer to be made public. In addition, Neymar gets an annual salary of 11.3 million euros to be paid over five years, he said.

GOP activists defend Christie at national meeting Posted: 24 Jan 2014 12:25 PM PST WASHINGTON (AP) — Republican activists at a national gathering are defending New Jersey Gov. Chris Christie — but also saying it's far too soon to grant him presidential frontrunner status.

1 student injured in shooting at SC State University dormitory; search on for suspect Posted: 24 Jan 2014 12:24 PM PST ORANGEBURG, S.C. (AP) — 1 student injured in shooting at SC State University dormitory; search on for suspect.

W.Va. official: Spill company knew of 2nd chemical Posted: 24 Jan 2014 12:22 PM PST CHARLESTON, W.Va. (AP) — An environmental official says the company in the West Virginia water crisis immediately knew a second chemical leaked from its plant into the river, telling its workers in an email.

Gmail service disrupted Posted: 24 Jan 2014 12:20 PM PST San Francisco (AFP) - Google's widely used free email service was disrupted on Friday, with the extent of the problem yet to be disclosed.

Babe Ruth's 1923 Series watch coming to NY auction Posted: 24 Jan 2014 12:15 PM PST NEW YORK (AP) — Babe Ruth's 1923 World Series championship pocket watch, for decades thought to be lost to history, is coming to a New York City auction, where it's expected to fetch at least $750,000.

Syria foes agree to meet face-to-face Posted: 24 Jan 2014 12:13 PM PST Syria's warring sides have agreed to meet together on Saturday after a first day of peace talks in Geneva stumbled with President Bashar al-Assad's regime threatening to walk away. After meeting with delegations from the regime and opposition, UN-Arab League Syria envoy Lakhdar Brahimi said they had agreed to "meet in the same room" after failing to do so on the first day of planned negotiations. Pulled together by the United Nations, Russia and the United States, the delegations had been due to sit down early Friday at UN headquarters in Geneva for their first face-to-face talks. Foreign Minister Walid Muallem had earlier warned Brahimi that the Syrian delegation "will leave Geneva" should "serious sessions" fail to take place on Saturday.

Israel warns of growing jihadi threat from Syria Posted: 24 Jan 2014 12:12 PM PST TEL AVIV, Israel (AP) — A sharp increase in the number of al-Qaida linked fighters joining the fight against President Bashar Assad in Syria is threatening to spill over the borders and prompting the Jewish state to re-evaluate its policy of neutrality in the civil war next door, a senior Israeli intelligence official warned on Friday.

Cameron, Bono link poverty, climate at AP debate Posted: 24 Jan 2014 12:07 PM PST DAVOS, Switzerland (AP) — Global leaders argued Friday that efforts to eradicate poverty must be linked to climate change, saying that rising temperatures will have widespread effects on everything from food supplies to education.

Argentina lifts controls on buying foreign currency Posted: 24 Jan 2014 12:00 PM PST Argentina abandoned an unpopular ban on buying dollars Friday allowing citizens to once again hedge against the plunging value of the peso by hoarding their savings in foreign currency. President Cristina Kirchner's cabinet dropped the unloved 2011 rule restricting access to foreign currency, although the moved risks adding more downward pressure on the peso. Jorge Capitanich, the leader of Kirchner's cabinet, said the government has decided "to authorize the purchase of dollars for spending or saving." Share prices in Madrid tumbled 3.6 percent Friday, reflecting global market concern over the plunging currency in Argentina, where a large number of Spanish companies have investments.

British Museum: Prototype for Noah's Ark was round Posted: 24 Jan 2014 11:58 AM PST LONDON (AP) — It was a vast boat that saved two of each animal and a handful of humans from a catastrophic flood.

S. Sudan rebels say gov't violating new cease-fire Posted: 24 Jan 2014 11:58 AM PST JUBA, South Sudan (AP) — South Sudan's president on Friday said a new peace deal with rebels will help see the country's five-week conflict resolved through dialogue, even as a rebel leader accused the country's military of breaking the cease-fire.

2 versions of Van Gogh's 'Sunflowers' go on show Posted: 24 Jan 2014 11:54 AM PST LONDON (AP) — Two versions of Vincent Van Gogh's "Sunflowers" are going on display side-by-side in London.

Ageless Hopkins seeks undisputed crown at 49 Posted: 24 Jan 2014 11:53 AM PST Age-defying American fighter Bernard Hopkins, already the oldest boxer to win a major title, wants a chance to celebrate his 50th birthday next year as the undisputed world light-heavyweight champion. Hopkins, who turned 49 on January 15, defended his International Boxing Federation title three months ago with a unanimous decision over German Karo Murat. Next on the Hopkins' hit list is World Boxing Association champion Beibut Shumenov, a Kazakhstan fighter who is 14-1 with nine knockouts, in a unification bout likely coming in March or April. At an age when most fighters are reliving past glories, Hopkins is looking for rival champions Adonis Stevenson and Sergey Kovalev to fight each other and set the stage for a unification showdown for the undisputed light-heavyweight throne sometime around his 50th birthday.

Syria peace talks falter on after rocky start Posted: 24 Jan 2014 11:50 AM PST By Khaled Yacoub Oweis and Mariam Karouny GENEVA (Reuters) - The Syrian government and its opponents will hold their first joint meeting on Saturday to launch peace talks aimed at resolving nearly three years of civil war, after negotiations almost collapsed before they started. The face-to-face meeting had been planned for Friday, but the opposition said early on it would not meet the government side unless it first agreed to sign up to a 2012 statement by world powers calling for a transitional government in Syria. Even if the talks appear be back on track, few expect the conference to come up with an overall political settlement to the war, given the absence from Geneva of powerful Islamist opposition groups and President Bashar al-Assad's ally, Iran. After separate meetings with government and opposition delegations, U.N. mediator Lakhdar Brahimi indicated on Friday afternoon their argument, which centers on whether or not Assad would have to step down, had been put on one side.

Sampras scotches coaching return Posted: 24 Jan 2014 11:47 AM PST Tennis great Pete Sampras on Friday said he was not interested in joining the clamour of legends returning to the game as high-profile coaches. The American 14-time Grand Slam champion, who is in Melbourne to present the trophy to the men's winner in Sunday's Australian Open final, said it was not for him. Sampras, who won two Australian titles in 1994 and 1997, said while it was good to have his contemporaries, Stefan Edberg, Boris Becker and Ivan Lendl, involved with the game's top players, he was now happily retired. "No, no, no. It's not for me," Sampras said.

You are subscribed to email updates from Yahoo News - Top Stories To stop receiving these emails, you may unsubscribe now.	Email delivery powered by Google
Google Inc., 20 West Kinzie, Chicago IL USA 60610