All 3 arrested US students leave Egypt

Three American students arrested during a protest in Cairo caught flights out of Egypt early Saturday, according to an airport official and an attorney for one of the trio. The three Americans were arrested on the roof of a university building near Cairo's Tahrir Square last Sunday. Officials accused them of throwing firebombs at security forces fighting with protesters.Luke Gates, 21, and Derrik Sweeney, 19, left the Egyptian capital Saturday on separate flights to Frankfurt, Germany, an airport official in Cairo said. Gregory Porter, 19, also left the country, his attorney said.The official spoke on condition of anonymity because he was...

Read more »

NBA owners, players reach tentative deal

After nearly two years of bickering, NBA players and owners are back on the same side. "We want to play basketball," Commissioner David Stern said.Come Christmas Day, they should be.The sides reached a tentative agreement early Saturday to end the 149-day lockout and hope to begin the delayed season with a marquee tripleheader Dec. 25. Most of a season that seemed in jeopardy of being lost entirely will be salvaged if both sides approve the handshake deal.Barring a change in scheduling, the 2011-12 season will open with the Boston Celtics at New York Knicks, followed by Miami at Dallas in an NBA finals rematch before MVP Derrick Rose and...

Read more »

Violence mars Black Friday shopping

Black Friday's typical jostling and jockeying took a more ominous turn during this year's bargain-hunting ritual with a shooting, a pepper spraying and other episodes of violence that left several people injured. In the most serious case, a robber shot a shopper who refused to give up his purchases outside a San Leandro, Calif., Walmart store, leaving the victim hospitalized in critical but stable condition.Police in San Leandro, about 15 miles east of San Francisco, said the victim and his family were walking to their car around 1:45 a.m. Friday when they were confronted by a group of men who demanded their shopping items. When the family...

Read more »

Marines to wind down Afghan combat in 2012

U.S. Marines will march out of Afghanistan by the thousands next year, winding down combat in the Taliban heartland and testing the U.S. view that Afghan forces are capable of leading the fight against a battered but not yet beaten insurgency in the country's southwestern reaches, senior U.S. military officers say. At the same time, U.S. reinforcements will be sent to eastern Afghanistan in a bid to reverse recent gains by insurgents targeting Kabul, the capital.Gen. James F. Amos, commandant of the Marine Corps, said in an Associated Press interview that the number of Marines in Helmand province will drop "markedly" in 2012, and the role...

Read more »

Pakistan: 25 troops dead in NATO helicopter attack

Pakistan on Saturday accused NATO helicopters of firing on two army checkpoints in the northwest and killing 25 soldiers, then retaliated by closing a key border crossing used by the coalition to supply its troops in neighboring Afghanistan. The incident Friday night was a major blow to already strained relations between Islamabad and U.S.-led forces fighting in Afghanistan. It will add to perceptions in Pakistan that the American presence in the region is malevolent, and to resentment toward the weak government in Islamabad for co-operating with Washington.It comes a little over a year after a similar but less deadly incident, in which...

Read more »

Mom of kids killed in Ariz. crash drawing support

Friends and acquaintances are lending support to an Arizona mother who lost her three children and her ex-husband in a plane crash in the Superstition Mountains. Karen Perry, of Apache Junction, Ariz., has experienced a series of struggles in recent years and is described as a selfless woman trying to raise her three children. Morgan Perry, 9, was diagnosed with epilepsy and faced multiple brain surgeries. Luke Perry, 6, had autism. Perry's third child, Logan Perry, was 8. "They were just great kids," Mark Blomgren, principal at the school in Apache Junction where the two oldest children attended, told the Arizona Republic. "All the teachers...

Read more »

Biden's 2012 targets: Ohio, Pennsylvania, Florida

A year from Election Day, Democrats are crafting a campaign strategy for Vice President Joe Biden that targets the big three political battlegrounds: Ohio, Pennsylvania, and Florida, states where Biden might be more of an asset to President Barack Obama's re-election campaign than the president himself. The Biden plan underscores an uncomfortable reality for the Obama team. A shaky economy and sagging enthusiasm among Democrats could shrink the electoral map for Obama in 2012, forcing his campaign to depend on carrying the 67 electoral votes up for grabs in the three swing states.Obama won all three states in 2008. But this time he faces...

Read more »

Pressure mounts as Syria misses observer deadline

Syria faced the possibility of sweeping economic sanctions from the Arab League on Friday as pressure mounted on Damascus to end the country's bloodshed, even as the military vowed to "cut every evil hand that targets Syrian blood." The army's defiant statement signaled the country's violence is worsening as President Bashar Assad tries to quash the most serious threat to his family's 40-year dynasty under ever increasing international pressure.Assad is facing the most severe isolation his country has seen in decades because of the violence, which appears to be spiraling out of control. The largely peaceful uprising against Assad that...

Read more »

US awaits release of 3 students held in Egypt

Three American students arrested during a protest in Cairo and ordered released by an Egyptian court are in the midst of being processed by authorities there, a U.S. Embassy spokeswoman said Friday. Katharina Gollner-Sweet, a spokeswoman for the U.S. Embassy in Cairo, told The Associated Press that Derrik Sweeney, Luke Gates and Gregory Porter are being processed for their eventual release one day after a court ordered them released from police custody, according to information from Egyptian officials."According to the latest information that the Egyptians gave out they were ordered released in the court but they are in an administrative...

Read more »

Earlier deals, longer hours woo Friday shoppers

Big crowds on Black Friday can be both a blessing and a curse.Early signs point to bigger crowds at the nation's malls and stores as retailers like Target and Macy's opened their doors at midnight on the most anticipated shopping day of the year and a few others opened on Thanksgiving Day. Shoppers were mostly peaceful across the country, but a few violent incidents broke out as millions of shoppers rushed into stores and tensions flared.It started on Thanksgiving, when Los Angeles authorities say 20 people at a local Walmart store suffered minor injuries when a woman used pepper spray to gain a "competitive" shopping advantage shortly...

Read more »

Egypt new PM claims more powers than predecessor

Egypt's military rulers picked a prime minister from ousted leader Hosni Mubarak's era to head the next government in a move quickly rejected by tens of thousands of protesters, while the United States ratcheted up pressure on the generals to quickly transfer power to a civilian leadership. More than 100,000 people packed into Cairo's central Tahrir Square for their biggest demonstration since the current showdown began, with activists accusing the generals of trying to extend the old guard and demanding they step down immediately after failing to stabilize the country, salvage the economy or bring democracy following Mubarak's ouster.Tensions...

Read more »

Festive Thanksgiving Day Parade heads through NYC

Spectators cheered and sang on Thursday as the annual Macy's Thanksgiving Day Parade made its way through the crowded streets of Manhattan beneath brilliant sunshine. A jetpack-wearing monkey and a freakish creation from filmmaker Tim Burton were two of the big new balloons that made their inaugural appearances. Paul Frank's Julius and Burton's B. joined more than a dozen other giant balloons, including fan favorites like Snoopy and Spider-Man."Here comes Snoopy!" said an excited Regan Lynch, 5, nudging her grandfather, Nick Pagnozzi.Pagnozzi, 59, of Saddle River, N.J., drove into the city at 6 a.m. to get a seat on the bleachers along Central...

Read more »

Top Marine spends Thanksgiving in Afghanistan

A turkey trot it was not. The U.S. Marines' top general, James Amos, sprinted up and down the Helmand River Valley in southern Afghanistan on Thursday, visiting frontline Marines at nine remote outposts to share Thanksgiving and applaud their gains against the Taliban in a region where al-Qaida hatched the 9/11 plot a decade ago.Traveling mostly in an MV-22 Osprey, the hybrid that flies like an airplane and takes off and lands like a helicopter, Amos began shortly after daylight and finished 14 hours later — and, improbably, managed to confront just one turkey dinner.At one point the 65-year-old Amos referred to his unusual daytrip as the...

Read more »

Protesters reject Yemen president's power transfer

A U.S.-backed deal for Yemen's authoritarian president to step down fell far short of the demands of protesters who fought regime supporters on the streets of Sanaa Thursday in clashes that left five dead. The agreement ending President Ali Abdullah Saleh's 33-year rule provides for only the shallowest of changes at the top of the regime, something the U.S. administration likely favored to preserve a fragile alliance against one of the world's most active al-Qaida branches based in Yemen.The plan drawn up by Yemen's oil-rich Gulf neighbors does not directly change the system Saleh put in place over three decades to serve his interests."It...

Read more »

Justin Bieber’s Accuser Can’t Wait for DNA Test

Justin Bieber’s kind of, sort of, baby mama drama continues with Mariah Yeater saying she can’t wait to submit her baby for DNA testing. Yeater’s attorney Jeffrey Leving told TMZ.com that his client is looking forward to comparing her son’s DNA with Bieber’s. In her paternity suit, Yeater claims that Bieber is the father of her son Tristyn, the result of a backstage tryst at one of his concerts last year. Bieber’s reps did not immediately respond to ABCNews.com’s requests for comment. On Monday, a source close to Bieber told ABCNews.com that arrangements were made for Bieber to take a DNA test, but did not confirm whether...

Read more »