Treasury: No $1 trillion coin

A Treasury Department spokesman announced today that the department will not mint a platinum coin to sidestep raising the federal government's borrowing limit, telling the Washington Post that "neither the Treasury Department nor the Federal Reserve believes that the law can or should be used to facilitate the production of platinum coins for the purpose of avoiding an increase in the debt limit."The...

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Poisoned Lottery Winner's Kin Were Suspicious

Urooj Khan had just brought home his $425,000 lottery check when he unexpectedly died the following day. Now, certain members of Khan's family are speaking publicly about the mystery -- and his nephew told ABC News they knew something was not right."He was a healthy guy, you know?" said the nephew, Minhaj Khan. "He worked so hard. He was always going about his business and,...

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Britain to provide France with logistical support in Mali

LONDON: Britain will provide France with logistical military assistance during its intervention in Mali, but will not deploy any personnel in a combat role, the prime minister's office said Saturday."The Prime Minister has agreed that the UK will provide logistical military assistance to help transport foreign troops and equipment quickly to Mali," David Cameron's office said in a statement."We...

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CES postscript: The touch laptop, like it or not

Intel showing off touch laptops and desktops at CES. (Credit:Brooke Crothers)The laptop was reinvented at CES.Or maybe I should say there was a vigorous attempt to reinvent the laptop. Because we won't know how successful touch has been until next year this time.Intel's CES booth -- still a large presence in the CES Central Hall -- had one basic unmistakable message: touch has arrived. Windows 8 convertibles,...

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CDC: Flu grips 47 states; vaccine found 62% effective

Flu activity continues to rise in the U.S., according to new surveillance statistics released by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention on Friday. Forty-seven states have now reported widespread influenza activity, according to the CDC's latest FluView report, three more states than officials estimated Wednesday. Two more children have died since last week's report, raising the total to 20...

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Obama Promises Faster Transition in Afghanistan

President Obama and Afghan President Hamid Karzai said today that most U.S. combat operations in Afghanistan would end this spring, signaling a quickening troop drawdown that will bring the decade-long war to a close at the end of 2014."Our troops will continue to fight alongside Afghans when needed, but let me say it as plainly as I can: Starting this spring, our troops will...

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Obama, Karzai accelerate end of U.S. combat role in Afghanistan

WASHINGTON (Reuters) - President Barack Obama and Afghan President Hamid Karzai agreed on Friday to speed up the handover of combat operations in Afghanistan to Afghan forces, raising the prospect of an accelerated U.S. withdrawal from the country and underscoring Obama's determination to wind down a long, unpopular war. Signaling a narrowing of differences, Karzai appeared to give ground...

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Euro adds more gains on dollar

NEW YORK: The euro surged for a second day Friday, adding 0.7 US cents to Thursday's two cent gain, pushed by what one analyst said was short covering and sustained by poor US trade data.The European currency traded roughly around the break-even line of $1.3261 but then took a leap to the $1.3350 levels the morning opening -- just 15 minutes before US trade data for November showed a wider-than-expected...

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$100 to Facebook message Mark Zuckerberg? Bargain!

LAS VEGAS -- I woke up this morning wanting to tell the world about all the fun last night.I wanted to tell Beyonce about how much one woman told me she had worked in order to get her man to put a ring on it.I wanted to tell Britney Spears that there were still people in the world who adored her music and some of them are here in Nevada, worried that she's leaving "The X Factor."And I wanted to tell...

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Student shot at Calif. high school by classmate

Updated at 5:48 p.m. ET TAFT, Calif. A 16-year-old student armed with a shotgun walked into class in a rural California high school on Thursday and shot one student, fired at another but missed, and then was talked into surrendering by a teacher and another staff member, officials said. The teen victim was in critical but stable condition, Kern County Sheriff Donny Youngblood told a press conference....

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Jodi Arias: 'No Jury Will Convict Me' for Murder

The jury in the Jodi Arias murder trial watched a television interview today in which Arias said "no jury will convict me" for killing her ex-boyfriend, Travis Alexander.Arias added that she could never imagine committing such a violent act as killing Alexander. "I understand all the evidence is really compelling," she said in the interview. "In a nutshell, two people came in...

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String of bombings kill 101, injure 200 in Pakistan

QUETTA, Pakistan (Reuters) - At least 101 people were killed in bombings in two Pakistani cities on Thursday in one of the country's bloodiest days in recent years, officials said, with most casualties caused by sectarian attacks in Quetta. The bombings underscored the myriad threats Pakistani security forces face from homegrown Sunni extremist groups, the Taliban insurgency in the northwest...

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American Express cuts 5,400 jobs

American Express said Thursday it would lay off 8.5 per cent of its workforce in 2013, in an effort to contain operating expenses and adapt to customers moving to online and mobile platforms.The bank said it would eliminate 5,400 jobs, though some of those will be offset by new positions, for a net cut of 4-6 per cent of the 63,500-strong workforce.The layoffs will span different staff...

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Plextor unveils various SSD-based products at CES 2013

Plextor SSDs being showcased at CES 2013.(Credit:Dong Ngo/CNET)LAS VEGAS--Plextor has more news in regard to its SSD development to share at CES 2013, in addition to introducing the M5 Pro Xtreme drive.The storage vendor unveiled a few new solid-state storage devices today, including the M5M mSATA SSD, a Next Generation Form Factor (NGFF) SSD, and its new embedded multimedia card (eMCC). The M5M mSATA...

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Hilda Solis stepping down as labor secretary

Hilda Solis announced that she is stepping down from her post as labor secretary, CBS News has confirmed. She sent a letter to President Obama today notifying him of her retirement. Solis was nominated to the position the same day the president was inaugurated in 2009, serving through the president's entire first term. She ran the Labor Department during the worst economic recession since the Great...

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White House Won't Rule Out $1 Trillion Coin

(United States Mint/Wikimedia Commons)White House Press Secretary Jay Carney today flatly ruled out any negotiations with Congress over raising the debt ceiling, but there’s one odd-ball solution he would not rule out:  minting trillion dollars coins to pay off the debt.“There is no Plan B. There is no backup plan. There is Congress’s responsibility to pay the bills of the United States,”...

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Venezuela's top court endorses Chavez inauguration delay

CARACAS (Reuters) - Venezuela's top court endorsed the postponement of Hugo Chavez's inauguration this week and ruled on Wednesday that the cancer-stricken president and his deputy would continue in their roles, despite a cacophony of opposition complaints. Critics had argued the 58-year-old's absence from his own swearing-in ceremony on January 10 meant a caretaker president must be...

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Football: Ronaldo hat-trick fires Madrid into quarter-finals

MADRID: Cristiano Ronaldo responded to missing out on the Ballon d'Or by hitting a stunning hat-trick as Real Madrid beat Celta Vigo 4-0 to reach the Spanish Cup quarter-finals on Wednesday.Trailing 2-1 from the first leg of their last-16 tie, Portuguese star Ronaldo hit two early openers before settling the tie with three minutes remaining to calm his team's nerves after Sergio Ramos...

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Verizon will be late to the HD Voice game

Verizon CEO Lowell McAdam at his keynote presentation.(Credit:CNET)LAS VEGAS--HD Voice has suddenly become a hot topic at this year's Consumer Electronic Show.The feature, which significantly enhances call quality by improving voice clarity while blocking out background noise, has been long touted by the wireless carriers. Widely available in Europe for years, the U.S. carriers have lagged behind....

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Armstrong allegedly offered USADA large "donation"

(CBS News) Cyclist Lance Armstrong once offered a large "donation" to the same agency that recently concluded he and his team had used illegal substances, causing him to be stripped of his seven Tour de Frances wins. The brazenly inappropriate gesture made to the U.S. Anti-Doping Agency is recounted by the agency's CEO Travis Tygart, who tells Scott Pelley the whole story of his agency's investigation...

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CIA Nominee May Have 'Zero Dark Thirty' Problem

Navy SEALs are seen fighting through a dust storm in the new thriller directed by Kathryn Bigelow, "Zero Dark Thirty." (Columbia Pictures/AP Photo)There’s only one White House staffer portrayed in the new movie “Zero Dark Thirty,” and it is someone described in the credits as “National Security Advisor.”It’s a position that’s possibly filled in real life by John Brennan, the president’s counterterrorism...

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Venezuela postpones inauguration for cancer-stricken Chavez

CARACAS (Reuters) - Venezuela will postpone the inauguration of President Hugo Chavez for a new term due to health problems, the government said on Tuesday, another sign the socialist leader's cancer may be bringing an end to his 14 years in power. The 58-year-old former soldier who has dominated the South American OPEC nation since 1999 has not been heard from since surgery on December...

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Judge reduces possible sentence for WikiLeaks suspect

FORT MEADE: A US judge on Tuesday reduced the potential sentence for WikiLeaks suspect Bradley Manning by 112 days because of his harsh treatment at a military jail, where he was held in isolation despite advice from psychiatrists.Judge Denise Lind said the US Army private's detention conditions were "excessive" and at times illegal, going beyond what was needed to ensure his safety and...

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Mauz goes all 'Minority Report' as a mouse replacement

Mauz is currently up as a Kickstarter project.(Credit:Amanda Kooser/CNET)LAS VEGAS--We tech writers are constantly comparing real products to what we've seen in sci-fi movies. I'm still waiting for my Hoverboard, but at least we're inching a little closer to some "Minority Report"-style computer interfaces with the Mauz, a device that turns your iPhone into a mouse with special skills.The hardware...

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