Despite emerging deal, US to miss fiscal cliff deadline

WASHINGTON: US lawmakers missed a deadline to avoid the "fiscal cliff" budget crunch Monday but inched towards a deal to ease the worst impact of the crisis by heading off economy-busting tax hikes.

In dramatic New Year's Eve brinkmanship, Republicans and the White House reached an agreement that means only the richest Americans will pay more tax, but were still deadlocked on how to avert $109 billion in automatic government spending cuts.

Despite the emerging deal, the economy will technically go over the cliff at midnight after aides to Republican leaders in the House of Representatives said no vote on a pact could be scheduled in time on Monday.

Senators meanwhile were still hoping for a late-night vote if a deal is finalized. The legislation would then go to a House vote on Tuesday.

While automatic spending cuts and tax hikes will come into force on January 1, global stock markets will be closed on New Year's Day, giving lawmakers a few more hours of breathing room before panic over the US economy sets in.

"If a deal is reached, there's little difference between a vote tonight or tomorrow to give members a chance to review," a House Republican source said.

President Barack Obama earlier said a deal was close though not done and the top Senate Republican negotiator Mitch McConnell, who thrashed out a compromise with Vice President Joe Biden, agreed.

"It appears that an agreement to prevent this New Year's tax hike is within sight. It's not done. There are still issues left to resolve, but we're hopeful that Congress can get it done," Obama said at the White House.

Sources said the deal would include a two-month postponement of the sequester, the sweeping package of automatic government spending cuts that is feared, especially by the Pentagon.

It would also mean a return to Bill Clinton-era tax rates for top earners to 39.6 percent, starting at a threshold of annual household earnings of $450,000 and above.

Obama had originally campaigned for tax hikes to kick in for those making $250,000 and above and his acceptance of a higher threshold has already angered liberals, though still represents a political victory.

As he tried to sell the emerging deal to his Democratic Party's liberal base, he said it would extend tax credits for clean energy firms and also unemployment insurance for two million people due to expire later Monday.

It was also expected to include an end to a temporary two percent cut to payroll taxes for Social Security retirement savings and Medicare health care programs for seniors and changes to inheritance and investment taxes.

The president angered Republicans in remarks in which he warned -- in what is certain to be a bitter fight over cutting the deficit -- that he was not done with seeking higher taxes for the rich.

"Now, if Republicans think that I will finish the job of deficit reduction through spending cuts alone... then they've another thing coming," Obama said, and also poked fun at the glacial pace of Congressional deliberations.

Republicans immediately took to the floor of the Senate to complain.

Senator John McCain accused Obama of ridiculing Republicans and of needlessly antagonizing House of Representatives' members who will be required to vote for an eventual deal.

Republican Senator Bob Corker said his heart was pounding with disappointment at Obama's remarks.

"I know the president has fun heckling Congress. I think he lost probably numbers of votes with what he did," he said.

"It's unfortunate he doesn't spend as much time solving problems as he does with campaigns and pep rallies."

Signs that a deal could be close cheered investors Friday as US markets rose before closing for the year. The Dow Jones Industrial Average closed up 166.03 points (1.28 percent) at 13,104.14.

Even as a deal neared, both sides were gearing up for the next legislative showdown over the need to lift the government's statutory borrowing limit of $16.4 trillion, which was reached Monday.

The Treasury will now take extraordinary measures to keep the government afloat for an undisclosed period of time until the ceiling is raised. Republicans are already demanding spending cuts in return.

"I think there is going to be a pretty big showdown next time when we go to the debt limit," McCain told CNN.

-AFP/ac

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Over the fiscal cliff we go -- at least for tonight

STORY HIGHLIGHTS

• NEW: A "notional agreement" is being discussed, Republican whip says


• NEW: "Take the 84% of your winnings off the table," anti-tax crusader advises GOP


• Obama says more work will be needed and chides Congress for dragging its feet


• The fiscal cliff triggers broad tax increases and an automatic $110 billion in spending cuts

As the fiscal cliff looms, what's your New Year's message to Washington? Go to CNN iReport to share your video.

(CNN) -- The feared fiscal cliff was at hand Monday night, with nothing expected to pass Congress before a combination of tax increases and spending cuts starts to kick in at midnight.

A deal to avert that combination, which economists warn could push the U.S. economy back into recession, was "within sight" on Monday afternoon, President Barack Obama said. In the Senate, Arizona Sen. Jon Kyl, the Republican whip, told reporters Monday evening that a "notional agreement" had been reached -- but until Obama, Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid and Minority Leader Mitch McConnell sign off, "it's not necessarily formalized."

The House of Representatives adjourned without voting on anything, however -- and Obama's remarks earlier, in which he chided Congress and warned that battles over spending still loomed, hit a nerve among several Republicans in the Senate.

"They are close, but they're not there yet," Obama said. "And one thing we can count on with respect to this Congress is that if there is even one second left before you have to do what you're supposed to do, they will use that last second."

Obama said the plan on the table would prevent a tax increase for the overwhelming majority of Americans, extend the child tax and tuition credits for families, extend credits for clean-energy companies and extend unemployment benefits for 2 million people. But he said lawmakers still have to figure out how to mitigate the possible damage from sharp spending cuts that are scheduled to start biting January 2, when the federal government reopens after the New Year's holiday.

And he warned that if Republicans think they can get future deficit reduction solely through spending cuts "that will hurt seniors, or hurt students, or hurt middle-class families without asking also equivalent sacrifice from millionaires or companies with a lot of lobbyists ... they've got another think coming."

Latest updates: Final fiscal cliff scramble

That irked Republican senators who have been grappling for a deal with the Democratic majority in that chamber. Sen. Bob Corker, R-Tennessee, called the president's comments "very unbecoming of where we are at this moment" and added, "My heart's still pounding."

"I know the president has fun heckling Congress," Corker said. "I think he lost probably numbers of votes with what he did."

And Sen. John McCain said Obama "sent a message of confrontation to Republicans" with his remarks.

"People have to wonder whether the president really wants issue resolved, or is it in his short-term political benefit for us to go over the cliff," said McCain, R-Arizona.

Read more: Why your paycheck is getting smaller, no matter what

The nonpartisan Congressional Budget Office has predicted the combined effect of the tax increases and budget "sequestration" -- budget cuts set up by the 2011 standoff over the federal debt ceiling -- could pare economic growth by 0.5%. That could tip the U.S. economy into a recession and drive unemployment back over 9% from its current 7.7%, the CBO estimated.

A source familiar with the negotiations said the proposals under discussion would generate $600 billion by ending the Bush-era tax cuts on individuals with incomes above $400,000 and families over $450,000. The top tax rate would return to 39.6% from its current 35%.

The deal would also increase the estate tax to 40% from the current 35% level and cap itemized deductions for individuals with incomes above $250,000 and household income over $300,000, the source said.

In the House, GOP sources said there's little practical difference in settling the issue Monday night versus Tuesday. But if House Republicans approve the bill on Tuesday -- when taxes have technically gone up -- they can argue they've voted for a tax cut to bring rates back down, even after just a few hours, GOP sources said. That could bring some more Republicans on board, one source said.

Read more: What if there's no deal on fiscal cliff

Earlier, a GOP source told CNN that the sticking point in talks was $24 billion in spending cuts being sought by Republicans in place of the $110 billion in automatic spending now set to take effect.

As Monday's deadline drew nigh, federal agencies were preparing for the possibility of furloughing workers. At the Pentagon, a Defense Department official said as many as 800,000 civilian employees could be forced to take unpaid days off as the armed services face an expected $62 billion in cuts in 2013 -- about 12% of its budget.

Read more: Medicare patients may suffer if country goes over fiscal cliff

Those workers perform support tasks across the department, from maintaining aircraft and weapons systems to processing military payrolls and counseling families. The Pentagon believes it can operate for at least two months before any furloughs are necessary, but has to warn its civilian workforce that furloughs could be coming, the official said.

The White House budget office noted in September that sequestration was designed in 2011 as "a mechanism to force Congress to act on further deficit reduction" -- a kind of doomsday device that was never meant to be triggered. But Congress failed to substitute other cuts by the end of 2012, forcing the government to wield what the budget office called "a blunt and indiscriminate instrument."

Republicans want a three-month delay, while Democrats seek to forestall the cuts by one year, a Democratic source told CNN. Another Democratic source said the proposed three-month delay "can't pass."

Despite Obama's backing, one leading Senate Democrat warned a deal could run into trouble -- not only from House Republicans who have long opposed any tax increase, but also from liberals in the Senate who oppose allowing more high-income households to escape a tax increase.

"No deal is better than a bad deal, and this looks like a very bad deal the way this is shaping up," Sen. Tom Harkin, D-Iowa, said.

Conservative lobbyist Grover Norquist, whose Americans for Tax Reform pushes candidates to sign a pledge never to raise taxes, said the plan "right now, as explained" would preserve most of the Bush tax cuts and wouldn't violate his group's pledge.

"Take the 84% of your winnings off the table," Norquist told CNN. "We spent 12 years getting the Democrats to cede those tax cuts to the American people. Take them off the table. Then we go back and argue about making the tax cuts permanent for everyone."

But Robert Reich, who served as labor secretary in the Clinton administration, said the $450,000 threshold "means the lion's share of the burden of deficit reduction falls on the middle class, either in terms of higher taxes down the road or fewer government services." In addition, he said, the plan does nothing to raise the federal debt ceiling just as the federal government bumps up against its borrowing limit.

And that, McCain told CNN, is likely to be "a whole new field of battle."

"We just added 2.1 trillion in the last increase in the debt ceiling, and spending continues to go up," McCain said. "I think there's going to be a pretty big showdown the next time around when we go to the debt limit."

CNN's Mike Pearson, Jessica Yellin, Dana Bash, Deirdre Walsh, Lisa Desjardins, Ted Barrett and Ashley Killough contributed to this report.

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New technology to keep drunk drivers from driving

(CBS News) CHARLOTTE, N.C. - The message from police to party-goers this New Year's Eve is: "Drive sober or get pulled over."

There were nearly 10,000 deaths from drunk driving in the U.S. last year, down 2.5 percent from the year before.

There is now a debate over technology that could prevent drunk drivers from starting their engines.

Meredith and Matt Eastridge, in an undated photo

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CBS News

On October 29, 2010, Matt and Meredith Eastridge were pregnant with their first child, a son.

The same night, David Huffman spent the last two hours of his life getting drunk. He put away the equivalent of 15 drinks, each one recorded on a security camera.

The 25-year-old stumbled out of the Charlotte bar and three minutes later, Matt and Meredith Eastridge were critically injured when Huffman, with a blood alcohol content of .23 and driving 100 miles per hour, hurtled into their SUV.

"I remember saying look at that, look at that car. That was the last thing i remember" before being hit head-on, Meredith said.

Six months pregnant, Meredith lost their baby.

"I think about him every day, how old he would be and what he would be doing," Meredith said.

"There were multiple times in that night this tragedy could have been avoided," Matt said.

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Bud Zaouk is leading a research team creating technology that could help save 10,000 lives a year.

"One is breath-based and the other is touch-based. The idea is to develop a sensor that could detect if anyone is above the legal limit of .08 and prevent them from moving the vehicle and driving," Bud said.

With the touch-based detector, "you press the start button and it starts the vehicle. And it will be a small infrared light that shines inside the finger," Bud said.

The infra-red light looks for alcohol in the finger's tissue.

"Alcohol has its own unique optical signature," Bud said, and if the optical signature registers above .08, "then the vehicle prevents you from moving."

The sensor in the breath-based approach is located around the steering wheel.

"That infra-red light excited the molecules and allows you to find out how much alcohol you have in the breath. It's non-contact, non-invasive," Bud said.

The $10 million funding for Bud Zaouk's project is split between 16 carmakers and the federal government.

However, it's opposed by the American Beverage Institute, which represents 8,000 chain restaurants in the U.S.

The group made the following statement: "Drunk driving fatalities are at historically low levels. We shouldn't try to solve what's left of the drunk driving problem by targeting all Americans with alcohol sensing technology."

Bud Zaouk said the technology still needs work.

"I think at this stage we are probably looking at eight to 10 years, when you would start seeing it inside vehicles," Bud said.

The Eastridges now have a daughter, Sloane. They hope this technology will be standard in new cars by the time she is old enough to drive.

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Clinton's Blood Clot Could've Been Life Threatening

Hillary Clinton's latest health update -- cerebral venous thrombosis -- is a rare and potentially "life-threatening" condition, according to medical experts, but one from which the globe-trotting secretary of state is likely to recover from.

In an update from her doctors, Clinton's brain scans revealed a clot had formed in the right transverse venous sinus, and she was being successfully treated with anticoagulants.

"She is lucky being Hillary Clinton and had a follow-up MRI -- lucky that her team thought to do it," said Dr. Brian D. Greenwald, medical director at JFK Johnson Rehabilitation Center for Head Injuries. "It could have potentially serious complications."

The backup of blood flow could have caused a stroke or hemorrhage, according to Greenwald.

"Imagine this vein, where all the cerebral spinal fluid inside the head and spine no longer flows through this area," he said. "You get a big back up and that itself could cause a stroke. In the long-term … the venous system can't get the blood out of the brain. It's like a Lincoln Tunnel back up."

A transverse sinus thrombosis is a clot arising in one of the major veins that drains the brain. It is an uncommon but serious disorder.

Morne de Klerk/Getty Images

Hillary Clinton Has Blood Clot From Concussion Watch Video

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Hillary Clinton's Concussion: Doctor Orders Rest Watch Video

According to Greenwald, the clot was most likely caused by dehydration brought on by the flu, perhaps exacerbated by a concussion she recently suffered.

"The only time I have seen it happen is when people are severely dehydrated and it causes the blood to be so thick that it causes a clot in the area," said Greenwald. "It's one of the long-term effects of a viral illness."

Drs. Lisa Bardack of the Mt. Kisco Medical Group and Dr. Gigi El-Bayoumi of George Washington University discovered the clot during a routine follow-up MRI on Sunday.

"This is a clot in the vein that is situated in the space between the brain and the skull behind the right ear," they said in a statement today. "It did not result in a stroke, or neurological damage. To help dissolve this clot, her medical team began treating the secretary with blood thinners. She will be released once the medication dose has been established."

Clinton is "making excellent progress," according to her doctors. "She is in good spirits, engaging with her doctors, her family, and her staff."

Clinton, 65, was hospitalized at New York-Presbyterian Hospital Sunday. She suffered a concussion earlier this month after she hit her head when she fainted because of dehydration from a stomach virus, according to an aide.

Dehydration can also precipitate fainting, according to Dr. Neil Martin, head of neurovascular surgery at University of California, Los Angeles Medical Center.

He agreed that the condition could potentially have caused a brain hemorrhage or stroke and been fatal.

"In patients with no symptoms after many days, full recovery is the norm," said Martin. "However, some cases show extension of the thrombus or clot into other regions of the cerebral venous sinuses, and this can worsen the situation considerably -- thus the use of anticoagulants to prevent extension of the thrombus."

But, he said, anticoagulants can be a "double-edged sword." With even a tiny injury within the brain from the concussion, these medications can cause "symptomatic bleed," such as a subdural or intracerebral hemorrhage.

The clot location is not related to the nasal sinuses, but are rather large venous structures in the dura or protective membrane covering the brain, which drains blood from the brain.

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Today on New Scientist: 28 December 2012

Best videos of 2012: Rare view of Challenger tragedy

Watch a rare amateur video of the Challenger explosion, our most-viewed video of the year

Strong jet stream super-charged US Christmas storms

Record snowfall and dozens of tornadoes snarled holiday travel as a powerful winter storm plowed across much of the US, while rainstorms battered the UK

2012 review: The year in life science

The year's biggest stories in life science, including James Cameron's descent into the Mariana trench and efforts to break into Antarctica's buried lakes

Superstorm lessons for adapting to climate change

As the post-Sandy rebuild gets under way, coastal cities around the world will be watching

Best videos of 2012: First MRI movie of childbirth

Watch a unique view of a baby's birth, at number 2 in our countdown of the year's top science videos

Fleadom or death: Reviving the glorious flea circus

The parasite-based sideshows were almost done for by the domestic vacuum cleaner - but they are bouncing back, finds Graham Lawton

Approval for gene-modified salmon spawns controversy

Apparently months late, US regulators have declared genetically engineered fish safe to farm and eat, but final approval could be some way off

Best videos of 2012: New aircraft flies inside out

Watch a novel flying machine use a unique mechanism to propel itself, at number 3 in our countdown of the top videos of the year

2012 review: The year in technology

The year's biggest stories in technology, including Kinect devices that may spot signs of autism and controlling a robot by the power of thought

Superdoodles: The science of scribbling

Far from being a distraction, doodling has an important purpose - and you can harness it

2013 Smart Guide: Wave goodbye to the mouse

The Leap, a 3D motion control device set to launch next year, will let you control your computer with touch-free hand and finger movements

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Talks stall as fiscal cliff looms

WASHINGTON: Two days of last-gasp talks produced no deal Sunday between US political leaders struggling to averting a fiscal calamity due to hit the American and world economy within hours.

Party leaders in the US Senate groped for a compromise to head-off a punishing package of spending cuts and tax hikes that is due come into force on January 1 and which could roil global markets and plunge the US into recession.

Senate Republican minority leader Mitch McConnell warned that, despite through-the-night talks, negotiators were still a long way from success, as they raced against the ebbing 2012 calendar in search of a compromise.

McConnell told AFP he received no response to a "good faith offer" to Senate Democrats and had spoken twice by telephone with his old friend and sparring partner Vice President Joe Biden in the hope of breaking the stalemate.

Senate Democratic Majority Leader Harry Reid agreed that talks were at a standstill, and warned that Americans could ring in the New Year with no deal to avert a budget disaster known as the "fiscal cliff."

"There is still significant distance between the two sides, but negotiations continue," Reid told the Senate, after huddling for nearly two hours with his Democratic caucus on one of the latest December Senate workdays in 50 years.

"There is still time left to reach an agreement, and we intend to continue negotiations," he said, as he ordered the Senate back into session at 11:00am (1600 GMT) Monday, New Year's eve and the last day before the deadline.

Reid said Democrats were unwilling to brook talk of social security cuts.

"This morning, we have been trying to come up with some counter-offer to my friend's proposal," Reid told the Senate. "We have been unable to do that."

The already tense mood on Capitol Hill had soured during Sunday's confusing hours, when some lawmakers tossed out varying versions of what may or may not be in Democratic and Republican offers.

"I'm incredibly disappointed we cannot seem to find common ground. I think we're going over the cliff," Republican Senator Lindsey Graham said on Twitter.

Moderate Democrat Clair McCaskill was also pessimistic.

"This is definitely not a kumbaya moment," she said.

Earlier, President Barack Obama accused Republicans of causing the mess, saying they had refused to move on what he said were genuine offers of compromise from his Democrats.

"Now the pressure's on Congress to produce," Obama said, in an interview with NBC's "Meet the Press" that was recorded on Saturday, a day after he expressed modest optimism that a deal could be reached.

Obama said it had been "very hard" for top Republican leaders to accept that "taxes on the wealthiest Americans should go up a little bit, as part of an overall deficit reduction package."

But Republicans were irked by Obama's tone.

"I don't know if this is the president saying $250 (thousand) or 'Go to hell'," Graham told reporters, referring to Obama's insistence that taxes rise on households income greater than a quarter million dollars per year.

The Senate's number two Democrat, Dick Durbin, said Republicans want the tax threshold be raised to $550,000 per household and that Democrats might counter with $450,000, considerably higher than the president's $250,000.

But Reid warned: "We're still left with a proposal they've given us that protects the wealthy and not the middle class. I'm not going to agree to that"

If no deal is reached, a package of tax cuts for all Americans that was first passed by then-president George W. Bush will expire on January 1.

All American workers will see their own paycheck hit and the broader economy will suffer from massive automatic spending cuts across the government.

Experts expect the US economy to slide into recession if the standoff is prolonged, in a scenario that could cause turmoil in stock markets and hit prospects for global growth in 2013.

The president won re-election partly on a platform of raising taxes on the rich, but Republicans who run the House of Representatives oppose tax hikes as a point of principle and claim Obama is addicted to runaway spending.

Any deal must pass the Senate, before going to the House, where such is the power of the conservative bloc of the Republican Party, it is unclear whether any solution backed by Obama can win majority support.

If leaders fail to find agreement, Obama has demanded a vote on his fallback plan that would preserve lower tax rates for families on less than $250,000 a year and extend unemployment insurance for two million people.

Republicans admitted such an option could emerge on Monday.

-AFP/ac

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Opinion: 12 lessons

What we learned in 2012

What we learned in 2012

What we learned in 2012

What we learned in 2012

What we learned in 2012

What we learned in 2012

What we learned in 2012

What we learned in 2012

What we learned in 2012

What we learned in 2012

STORY HIGHLIGHTS

• Dean Obeidallah: You are smarter today than 365 days ago


• Obeidallah: You probably learned a few Korean words like "Gangnam Style"


• He says we found out poultry can be a political tool and some people talk to chairs


• Obeidallah: The good news is that we'll soon forget the inane lessons of 2012

Editor's note: Dean Obeidallah, a former attorney, is a political comedian and frequent commentator on various TV networks including CNN. He is the editor of the politics blog "The Dean's Report" and co-director of the upcoming documentary, "The Muslims Are Coming!" Follow him on Twitter: @deanofcomedy

(CNN) -- You are smarter today than 365 days ago. You know more than you did at the end of 2011.

And here's the kicker, you may not even be aware of how much you learned this past year. It's analogous to how you're affected by the hit songs of boy bands. No matter how much you might try to avoid them, you can't, because these songs are everywhere. Consequently, the words are subtly drilled into your head and the next thing you know, you find yourself unconsciously singing along to the songs when they play on the radio.

So regardless if you were paying attention or not, there's a lot of new information from this past year trapped inside your brain. Here are just some of the things we collectively learned in 2012:

Dean Obeidallah

1. Mitt Romney had binders full of women

During the second presidential debate, Romney shared with us that when he was governor of Massachusetts, he had binders filled with information about women he was considering hiring. (When I was a teenager, I, too, had binders full of women. But mine I hid under my bed so my mom wouldn't find them.)

2. We picked up some Korean

We're not fluent yet, but thanks to the Korean pop singer PSY and his song "Gangnam Style," we all learned a few Korean words. And because of the song's ubiquitous music video -- which broke the record as the first video to get more than 1 billion views on YouTube -- some of us even have a vague idea of how to do his famous "horse dance."

3. Women love to read "porn"

The runaway hit book, "Fifty Shades of Grey," created a sensation across the country as women -- many over 30 years old -- bought this sexually provocative book, thus coining the term "mommy porn." In contrast, most men are waiting for the movie because we are more traditional in our "porn" tastes.

4. Poultry can be a political tool

Fast food chain Chick-fil-A went from just serving chicken to serving a political message as the head of the company announced publicly that he opposed marriage equality. Consequently, ordering a chicken sandwich at this chain came with a side dish of right-wing politics.

5. Some people talk to chairs

Clint Eastwood taught us at this year's Republican National Convention that you can have a full conversation on national television with your furniture. Hey, Clint made it OK for you to have a conversation with your couch or end table.

6. "James Bond" met the "The Real Housewives"

CIA Director David Petraeus resigned from his job because his extramarital affair was discovered. This is especially shocking because Petraeus' job as the nation's top spy chief was to keep secrets.

7. Cliffs are not just in nature

As we get closer to a precipitous "fiscal cliff" -- a term more overexposed than "Gangnam Style," it seems -- we have all learned that Congress has truly earned its low approval rating -- any lower and certain infectious diseases may become more popular than Congress.

8. What's the big deal with silver?

U.S. Olympian McKayla Maroney made it clear at the London Olympics that she was not impressed by winning the silver medal with her famous "I'm not impressed" face.

9. The way to reduce gun violence is more guns

At least this is what we were told by NRA's Vice President Wayne LaPierre in December as he called for armed guards to be placed in each of the roughly 100,000 public schools in the country.

10. Reality stars are not just for dysfunctional adults

Child star Alana "Honey Boo Boo" Thompson proved that children can be just as self-absorbed and horribly demanding as adult reality show stars.

11. Calendars are not always reliable

The fact you're reading this means that the Mayan apocalypse did not come to pass. That's good news. The bad news is that I now have to pay late fees on the credit cards I didn't pay because I thought there was a chance the Mayans were right.

12. America is the best democracy money can buy

This year's presidential election saw roughly $2 billion spent by the two campaigns and their supporters. That's more than the annual GDP of numerous countries.

You probably recalled more of these things than you guessed you would. While old acquaintances should not be forgot, the good news is that we will likely soon forget the details of the more inane lessons of 2012. Of course, the bad news is that they may be replaced by even more ridiculous ones in 2013.

Follow us on Twitter @CNNOpinion

Join us on Facebook/CNNOpinion

The opinions expressed in this commentary are solely those of Dean Obeidallah.

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Five killed in Oregon tour bus crash

LA GRANDE, Ore. Authorities say five people died and about 20 more were injured in a tour bus crash on an icy stretch of interstate in Oregon.

Police say the bus lost control around 10:30 a.m. on the snow- and ice-covered lanes of Interstate 84 in eastern Oregon. The bus crashed through a guardrail and went down an embankment a few hundred feet.

Rescue workers are using ropes to help retrieve people from the crash scene. State police say the charter bus was carrying about 40 people, but they did not say where the vehicle was traveling to or from.

The bus crash was the second fatal accident in Oregon on Sunday morning due to icy conditions. A 69-year-old man died in a single-vehicle rollover accident. CBS affiliate KOIN-TV in Portland reports both the 26-year-old driver, who is expected to survive, and the deceased passenger were wearing safety restraints.

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Hillary Clinton Hospitalized With Blood Clot

Dec 30, 2012 8:11pm

(MICHAL CIZEK/AFP/Getty Images)

Secretary Hillary Clinton was hospitalized today after a doctors doing a follow-up exam discovered a blood clot had formed, stemming from the concussion she sustained several weeks ago.

She is being treated with anti-coagulants and is at NewYork-Presbyterian Hospital so that they can monitor the medication over the next 48 hours, Deputy Assistant Secretary Philippe Reines said.

Her doctors will continue to assess her condition, including other issues associated with her concussion. They will determine if any further action is required, Reines said.

Clinton originally fell ill from a stomach virus following a whirlwind trip to Europe at the beginning of the month, which caused such severe dehydration that she fainted and fell at home, suffering a concussion. No ambulance was called and she was not hospitalized, according to a state department official.

The stomach virus had caused Clinton to cancel a planned trip to North Africa and the United Arab Emirates, and also her scheduled testimony before Congress at hearings on the attack on the U.S. consulate in Benghazi, Libya.

According to a U.S. official, the secretary had two teams of doctors, including specialists, examine her after the fall.  They also ran tests to rule out more serious ailments beyond the virus and the concussion. During the course of the week after her concussion, Clinton was on an IV drip and being monitored by a nurse, while also recovering from the pain caused by the fall.

SHOWS: World News

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The gang-rape on a bus that sickened India

NEW DELHI: After spending her evening watching "Life of Pi" in a New Delhi mall, the 23-year-old student and her male companion were looking for a quick lift home when a bus with tinted windows pulled over.

The pair were then subjected to a catalogue of violence and sexual depravity which has evoked comparisons with Anthony Burgess's novel "A Clockwork Orange" and brought simmering anger over the plight of women to the boil across India.

The Indian news channel NDTV greeted news of her death in the early hours of Saturday in a Singapore hospital with the banner headline "RIP: India's Daughter", in a reflection of how her plight had moved the nation.

Ever since she was attacked on the night of December 16, the country's leaders have lined up to offer their prayers and condemn the attack as well as paying for her treatment in Singapore.

Although the identity of the young woman has not yet been released, reports have said she was a medical student who hailed from a rural area of Uttar Pradesh, India's largest state which borders the capital New Delhi.

Her parents, who had travelled to Singapore after she was flown out by air ambulance on Wednesday night, are said to have sold their small piece of land in order to fund their daughter's education, often limiting their own meals to little more than rotis with namak (bread with salt), according to NDTV.

"These are simple, rustic people, who have never dreamt of boarding an aircraft, much less travel to a foreign country in an air ambulance," a source at the hospital told Singapore's Straits Times after meeting her relatives.

Before flying out to Singapore, the woman had managed to give an interview to police at Delhi's Safdarjung Hospital about the events on the night of her attack.

Police and prosecutors have outlined how six men picked the pair up outside the mall in a school bus which they had taken for a joyride after drinking heavily.

Even before they stopped outside the mall, they had allegedly picked up another passenger and then forced him to hand over the contents of his wallet.

After getting into an argument with the woman's male companion, the group are then alleged to have lashed out at the pair before taking turns to rape the woman in the back of the bus while driving around Delhi for some 45 minutes.

They also sexually assaulted the woman with a rusting metal bar, leaving her with severe intestinal injuries, before hurling her out of the vehicle.

The bus would have had to cross numerous police checkpoints at that time of night but at no stage was the vehicle pulled over by officers.

After news of the attack emerged, small-scale protests quickly swelled and were then repeated across the country -- fuelled in part by anger at the police's use of teargas and water cannon.

The Indian government has set up a commission of inquiry to investigate what mistakes were made on the night of the attack and in its aftermath.

But in an address to chief ministers from the country's states who gathered in New Delhi on Thursday, Prime Minister Manmohan Singh acknowledged that it was far from an isolated event.

"We must reflect on this problem, which occurs in all states and regions. It requires greater attention by the central government and states," he said.

Gang-rapes happen on such a regular basis that they are rarely reported in the Indian press although the attack in Delhi has led papers to shine a rare spotlight on such attacks.

On Thursday night, it emerged that a 17-year-old girl had committed suicide after police allegedly tried to persuade her to drop a complaint of gang-rape and instead either accept a cash settlement or even marry one of her attackers.

After quoting from the infamous gang-rape scene in Burgess's novel, a columnist for The Hindu wrote this week that "few Indians will need a dictionary of the teenage slang Burgess invented to grasp the horror of this passage".

"For progress to be made, we must begin by acknowledging this one fact: the problem isn't the police, the courts or the government. The problem is us," wrote Praveen Swami.

- AFP/ck

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