Thursday, January 24, 2013

The Morning Report -- Thursday January 24, 2013

North Korea Targets U.S. -- Women In Combat? -- CA School Gets High-Powered Rifles -- Debt Ceiling Raised; History Looms -- Charlie Brown Arrested -- Clinton Takes On Benghazi, GOP

NORTH KOREA TO TARGET U.S. WITH NUCLEAR, ROCKET TESTS

Credit: REUTERS/Bobby Yip/Files

(Reuters) - North Korea said on Thursday it would carry out further rocket launches and a nuclear test that would target the United States, dramatically stepping up its threats against a country it called its "sworn enemy".

The announcement by the country's top military body came a day after the U.N. Security Council agreed a U.S.-backed resolution to censure and sanction the country for a rocket launch in December that breached its bans.

PENTAGON SAYS YES TO WOMEN IN COMBAT

(Photo: Adek Berry, AFP/Getty Images)
The thought of women dodging bullets and bombs in combat may have seemed jarringly out of place in earlier eras of Doughboys and G.I. Joes and the wars of the previous century.
But for anyone familiar with today's troops and the missions they face — or who has paused to read the names of this nation's combat casualties — the historic move by the Pentagon to open up front-line roles to women is hardly a shock.

FONTANA, CALIFORNIA SCHOOL GETS HIGH POWERED RIFLES

DEBT CEILING RAISED BUT GOP FIGHTS HISTORY

WASHINGTON (MarketWatch) — All right, so the fight over the U.S. debt ceiling has been put off until late May. Time to celebrate, right?
Photo Credit: AP
Well, no. Republicans are sure to try to force the White House to agree to more spending cuts when a short-term suspension of the debt ceiling expires on May 19. House Republicans passed the temporary extension on Wednesday, and the Senate and White House say they will go along. Read MarketWatch article on debt-ceiling compromise.
The problem for conservatives is, the White House doesn’t have much incentive to play ball. Sure, President Obama might agree to small spending cuts if Republicans pass a longer-term extension of the debt limit. Yet Obama won’t do anything to alienate his political base or put congressional Democrats in a political bind.
What’s more, history says the president doesn’t have to. The fact is, presidents of both parties have won every standoff with Congress over the debt limit since the first major tussle in the Kennedy administration in the early 1960s. Read about history of debt limit.

CHARLIE BROWN VOICE ACTOR ARRESTED OVER ALLEGED THREATS, STALKING

SAN DIEGO, CALIF. - The former child actor who was the voice of Charlie Brown in the 1960s “Peanuts” animated television specials pleaded not guilty on Wednesday to charges he threatened his girlfriend and a surgeon who carried out her breast enhancement surgery.
Peter Robbins, 56, from Oceanside, California, pleaded not guilty in San Diego Superior Court to two counts of stalking and 10 counts of criminal threats. If convicted, he could face up to nine years in prison, Deputy District Attorney Elizabeth McClutchey said.

SECRETARY OF STATE HILLARY CLINTON'S BENGHAZI HEARINGS: FIVE THINGS LEARNED

J. Scott Applewhite/AP
Secretary of State Hillary Clinton on Wednesday took on Republican congressional critics of her department's handling of the deadly September terrorist attack in Libya.
Conservative GOP members challenged Clinton on the lack of security at the diplomatic compound in Benghazi as well as the erroneous account that the attack grew spontaneously from a protest over an anti-Islam film produced in the United States.
At two hearings, which together totaled more than five hours, Clinton acknowledged a "systemic breakdown" cited by an independent review of issues leading up to the armed assault and said her department was taking additional steps to increase security at U.S. diplomatic facilities.
Here are five things we learned from the hearings before the Senate Foreign Relations and House Foreign Affairs committees.


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