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California Governor Jerry Brown declared a drought emergency on Friday, a move that will allow the parched state to seek federal aid as it grapples with what could turn out to be the driest year in recorded state history for many areas. The dry year California experienced in 2013 has left fresh water reservoirs with a fraction of their normal reserves and slowed the normally full American River so dramatically that brush and dry riverbed are showing through in areas normally teeming with fish. "We can't make it rain, but we can be much better prepared for the terrible consequences that California's drought now threatens, including dramatically less water for our farms and communities and increased fires in both urban and rural areas," Brown, a Democrat, said in a statement. "I've declared this emergency and I'm calling all Californians to conserve water in every way possible," he said, in a move that will allow him to call for conservation measu...

Senior members of the influential U.S. Senate Foreign Relations Committee urged South Sudan's leaders on Friday to stop violence threatening to spiral into civil war in a country that has received billions of dollars in U.S. taxpayer funds. In letters obtained by Reuters, Democratic Senators Robert Menendez, chairman of the committee, and Chris Coons, chairman of the Africa subcommittee, wrote to South Sudanese President Salva Kiir and former Vice President Riek Machar expressing deep concern about the turmoil. Fighting since mid-December, often along ethnic lines, has pitted Kiir's SPLA government forces against rebels loyal to Machar, raising fears the oil-exporting country could become Africa's next failed state. At least 1,000 people have been killed, with some estimates as high as 10,000, and more than 200,000 have been displaced. Oil exports - key to South Sudan's economy - have plummeted, adding to regional instability. "As long-time friends of South S...

Twenty New Jersey officials, including top aides to Governor Chris Christie, were served with subpoenas on Friday as the state assembly begins its investigation into a massive bridge traffic jam that was apparently politically motivated. Christie, seen as a likely Republican candidate for the White House in 2016, has denied any involvement in the so-called "Bridgegate" scandal that is dogging his second term in office. Assembly Democrats said 20 subpoenas had gone out seeking information related to the September traffic snarl, created by the abrupt closing of access lanes to the busy George Washington Bridge, which spans the Hudson River connecting New York and New Jersey. Among those receiving subpoenas were Christie spokesmen Michael Drewniak and Colin Reed, communications director Maria Comella, the governor's incoming chief of staff Regina Egea, and Christie's former campaign manager Bill Stepien. The list also includes David Samson, chairman of the Port Aut...

President Barack Obama on Friday took a swipe at Edward Snowden, the former U.S. spy contractor whose revelations about American surveillance practices tarnished relations with foreign allies and prompted reforms in Washington. Obama unveiled those reforms during a long-awaited speech that balanced pledges to increase privacy protections with a warning that intelligence gathering would continue. But the president could not get through his remarks without mentioning the man who, to the Obama administration's chagrin, forced its hand in changing the system. "Given the fact of an open investigation, I'm not going to dwell on Mr. Snowden's actions or his motivations," Obama said in his address at the Department of Justice, taking the somewhat unusual step of mentioning the former National Security Agency contractor by name. "I will say that our nation's defense depends in part on the fidelity of those entrusted with our nation's secrets." The ...

Lawmakers for at least two U.S. states say they should conduct executions by firing squad if opposition to capital punishment by pharmaceutical companies makes it hard to obtain drugs for lethal injections. States have turned to pharmacies that customize drugs and adopted untested new mixes after supplies of traditional execution drugs were cut off by manufacturers opposed to their use for the procedure. The debate over lethal injections was reignited on Thursday when an inmate gasped and convulsed violently during his execution in Ohio as the state used a two-drug method for the first time in the United States. Missouri state Representative Rick Brattin, said Friday the controversy over lethal injections forces families of murder victims to wait too long for justice so he introduced his bill Thursday to add "firing squad" as an execution option. "A lot of folks may picture the 1850s and everyone lining up to shoot, but the reality is that people suffer with every ...

A Mississippi man accused of sending poisoned letters to President Barack Obama and two other public officials, and then pinning them on an Elvis impersonator, pleaded guilty in U.S. court and agreed to a 25-year jail sentence, the Justice Department announced on Friday. James Everett Dutschke, 41, has been jailed since his arrest last April, when authorities accused him of sending ricin-tainted letters to Obama, U.S. Senator Roger Wicker of Mississippi and a local Lee County judge, Sadie Holland. Ricin is a highly toxic protein found in castor oil plants that can kill an adult human in tiny doses. Dutschke, a former martial arts instructor and one-time political candidate, originally had denied the charges but on Friday changed his plea in U.S. District Court in Oxford, Mississippi, according to a Justice Department press release. "It's closure, and any time you can get that it's a good thing," said Lee County Sheriff Jim Johnson, whose department had assisted ...

The Obama administration is delaying enforcement of a provision of the new healthcare law that prohibits employers from providing better health benefits to top executives than to other employees, the New York Times reported on Saturday. _0"> Tax officials said they would not enforce the provision this year because they had yet to issue regulations for employers to follow, according to the Times. Internal Revenue Service spokesman Bruce Friedland said employers would not have to comply until the agency issued regulations or other guidance, the newspaper reported. The IRS was not immediately available to confirm the Times story. The rollout of the Affordable Care Act, known as Obamacare, has been marked by a number of delays in implementing certain parts of the law. In November, the administration announced a one-year delay in online insurance enrollment for small businesses. Technical problems with the enrollment website plagued its launch on October 1, but they have larg...

The New Jersey mayor who added to Governor Chris Christie's woes with fresh claims that his office punishes uncooperative local officials stuck to her story on Sunday, overshadowing the governor's fundraising trip in Florida. Widely seen as a Republican contender for the White House in 2016, Christie avoided mention of his troubles at home while he raises funds on a closely watched trip to Florida this weekend. His office dismissed as false claims by Hoboken Mayor Dawn Zimmer that he sent his deputy to tell her she risked not getting requested funds for Superstorm Sandy relief unless she backed a redevelopment project in her city. But Zimmer stuck to her story on Sunday that two state officials, including Lieutenant Governor Kim Guadagno, told her Christie would withhold funding if Zimmer did not support a bid by the New York-based Rockefeller Group to build on several blocks in the city. "She came and made a direct threat to me," Zimmer told CNN television, des...

Queen Elizabeth's granddaughter, Zara Phillips, gave birth to a girl on Friday who becomes 16th in line to the British throne, Buckingham Palace said. _0"> It is Phillips' first child with her rugby-player husband Mike Tindall and the Queen's fourth great grandchild. The pair are known in Britain for their sporting success with Phillips, 32, the 15th in line to the throne, winning an equestrian silver medal at the London Olympic Games in 2012 and Tindall, 35, the former captain of the England rugby union team. The palace said in a statement: "Mrs. Michael Tindall today safely delivered a baby girl at Gloucestershire Royal Hospital. Mr. Tindall was present at the birth. The weight of the baby was 7lbs 12oz (3.5 kg). "The Queen, The Duke of Edinburgh, The Princess Royal, Captain Mark Phillips and Mike's parents, Mr. Phillip and Mrs. Linda Tindall, have been informed and are delighted with the news. The baby's name will be confirmed in due cours...

Beyonce fans got a big surprise at midnight on December 13, when the pop star announced her new album from out of the blue. Just as surprising was her decision to announce the album by posting a 15-second video on Instagram, the Facebook-owned online photo-and-video sharing service. The exclusive announcement - virtually unheard of for a recording artist of that caliber - was a coup for Facebook, which has been upstaged by younger rival Twitter Inc as the go-to online forum for celebrities, sports and news. Potentially billions of dollars in television advertising are at stake as consumers increasingly turn to social networks to stay abreast of the latest news and entertainment. Twitter and Facebook both are wooing advertisers with video ad platforms and trying to hold off mobile communications startups like WhatsApp and SnapChat, which have lured many younger users. Leading the Facebook charge is Dan Rose, vice president of partnerships, acquisitions chief, and architect of some...

Russell Johnson, the veteran character actor who appeared in science fiction films and Westerns before earning enduring fame as "The Professor" on the classic 1960s sitcom "Gilligan's Island," died on Thursday at the age of 89, his agent said. "He died at 5:21 a.m. of natural causes at home in Washington state," agent Michael Eisenstadt said, adding that Johnson's wife and his daughter were at his side. "Gilligan's Island," which was created by producer Sherwood Schwartz, ran for three seasons on the CBS network, from 1964 to 1967, and attracted even more popularity in syndication. "I worked with him for over 20 years. He was a gentleman, a great guy and a family man, an iconic figure," Eisenstadt said. "In the history of television ‘Gilligan's Island' was one of the most re-run shows. He'll be missed. He was old-time Hollywood." Actress Dawn Wells, who played the perky Mary Ann Summers in the sho...

Rita Moreno, the 82-year-old actress who won an Oscar for her role as Anita in "West Side Story," lit up the Screen Actors Guild awards on Saturday accepting a lifetime achievement award with a wistful song and an exclamation of profanity. _0"> Moreno uttered the expletive as soon as she ascended to the stage to accept the award presented to her by actor Morgan Freeman. "I am sorry about that word. Actually, I am not," she added later, laughing. The standard TV telecast delay allowed the network to bleep out the profanity for television viewers. Moreno, who also sang Frank Sinatra's song "This Is All I Ask" while on stage, was soon after the top trending topic on Twitter. The outspoken Puerto Rico-born actress is the only Hispanic to have won the four major awards in the entertainment industry - the Emmys, the Grammys, the Oscars and the Tonys. "The difference between getting an Oscar, for instance, and having an honor like this to...

More than 1,000 rhinos were poached for their horns in South Africa in 2013, a record number and an increase of over 50 percent from the previous year, the country's department of environmental affairs said on Friday. Rhino hunting is driven by soaring demand in newly affluent Asian countries such as Vietnam and China , where the animal's horns are prized as a key ingredient in traditional medicine. Rhino horn has a street value of more than $65,000 a kg in Asia, conservation groups say, making it more valuable than platinum, gold or cocaine. The data is sure to ring conservation alarm bells about a downward population spiral in a country that is home to almost all of Africa and the world's rhinos, and it may bring renewed pressure on the government to do something to halt the slayings. In 2013, 1,004 of the massive animals were illegally killed in South Africa, compared with 668 the previous year and 448 in 2011. Most of the killings are taking place in South Africa...

With an oink oink here and a cluck cluck there, animals arrived at the Vatican on Friday to get a blessing. _0"> The animals, including pigs, chickens, horses, cats and dogs, were at St. Peter's Square to mark the feast of St. Anthony the Abbot, the third-century holy man who is the Catholic Church's patron of animals. Farmers, ranchers and breeders brought their animals to the square for a blessing by Cardinal Angelo Comastri, the archpriest of St. Peter's Basilica. Comastri also said a Mass inside the church for the humans - the animals waited outside. As well as the spiritual comfort, veterinarians from the Italian animal breeders association AIA offered free check-ups to pets brought to the square. (Reporting By Philip Pullella; Editing by Janet Lawrence)

A Mississippi man accused of sending poisoned letters to President Barack Obama and two other public officials, and pinning them on an Elvis impersonator, pleaded guilty in U.S. court and agreed to a 25-year jail sentence, the Justice Department announced on Friday. James Everett Dutschke, 41, has been jailed since his arrest last April, when authorities accused him of sending ricin-tainted letters to Obama, U.S. Senator Roger Wicker of Mississippi and a local Lee County judge, Sadie Holland. Ricin is a highly toxic protein found in castor oil plants that can kill an adult human in tiny doses. Dutschke, a former martial arts instructor and one-time political candidate, originally had denied the charges but on Friday changed his plea in U.S. District Court in Oxford, Mississippi, according to a Justice Department press release. "It's closure, and any time you can get that it's a good thing," said Lee County Sheriff Jim Johnson, whose department had assisted the F...

A former Wisconsin medical examiner who took a piece of spinal column that had been removed from a corpse to train her cadaver dog, pleaded guilty to felony charges on Friday, according to court documents. Traci England, 46, will be sentenced February 10 on two felony counts of misconduct in public office. Theft and obstruction charges against England were dismissed as part of a plea bargain, the Forest County Circuit Court records showed. The criminal complaint said England took a piece of bone from a corpse's spinal column after another medical examiner removed it during an autopsy on September 5, 2011. She told fellow employees she planned to use the bone to train her cadaver dog, the complaint said. Investigators wrote in the complaint that England "made a comment on how lucky she was to have gotten this section of the spine because it was hard to come by." During a search of her Town of Newbold home on January 4, 2012, investigators found what appeared to be b...

A Mississippi man accused of sending poisoned letters to President Barack Obama and two other public officials, and then pinning them on an Elvis impersonator, pleaded guilty in U.S. court and agreed to a 25-year jail sentence, the Justice Department announced on Friday. James Everett Dutschke, 41, has been jailed since his arrest last April, when authorities accused him of sending ricin-tainted letters to Obama, U.S. Senator Roger Wicker of Mississippi and a local Lee County judge, Sadie Holland. Ricin is a highly toxic protein found in castor oil plants that can kill an adult human in tiny doses. Dutschke, a former martial arts instructor and one-time political candidate, originally had denied the charges but on Friday changed his plea in U.S. District Court in Oxford, Mississippi, according to a Justice Department press release. "It's closure, and any time you can get that it's a good thing," said Lee County Sheriff Jim Johnson, whose department had assisted ...

Fox, CBS and ESPN have submitted bids for the rights to broadcast as many as eight Thursday night National Football League games, three people familiar with the bidding process told Reuters, as bidders began assembling for what is expected to be a highly contested auction. NBC, which already broadcasts NFL games on Sunday nights, is expected to join the bidding by Friday night, when bids are due, according to one of the people. Fox, owned by 21st Century Fox Inc, CBS, Comcast's NBC and Disney's ESPN sports channel were among TV networks that the NFL has invited to join the bidding process. Based on the reported $950 million that NBC pays for its package of 19 NFL Sunday night games, an eight-game lineup could be worth $400 million or more. The bids may come in lower because the league wants Thursday night games simultaneously televised on its own NFL Network cable channel along with the winning bidder's network, according to two of the people. Representatives for Fox...

Up to 15 people, mostly foreigners, were killed on Friday when a suicide bomber blew himself up outside a popular Lebanese restaurant in the Afghanistan capital of Kabul, police said. Islamist Taliban insurgents claimed responsibility for the attack in the upscale Wazir Akbar Khan district, which hosts many embassies and restaurants catering for expatriates. The International Monetary Fund (IMF) said its representative in Afghanistan was one of the dead, and the United Nations said four of its staff were unaccounted for. General Ayoub Salangi, an Afghan deputy interior minister, said between 13 and 15 people, mostly foreigners, were killed but their nationalities were not immediately clear. A Taliban spokesman said that those killed were German nationals. In Berlin, the Foreign Ministry said it could not confirm that Germans were involved. The attack took place during a busy dinner time on a Friday evening when expatriates in Kabul tend to eat out. The heavily fortified diploma...

Intel Corp plans to reduce its global workforce of 107,000 by about 5 percent this year as the chipmaker, struggling with falling personal-computer sales, shifts focus to faster-growing areas, a company spokesman said on Friday. The announcement, equivalent to over 5,000 positions, comes a day after Intel posted a fourth-quarter earnings report that did little to dispel concerns about a slowing PC industry. "This is part of aligning our human resources to meet business needs," spokesman Chris Kraeuter said. The job reductions may include retirements, voluntary programs and other options, Kraeuter said, adding that Intel's typical annual attrition worldwide is about 4 percent. He declined to say whether details of the changes had been announced internally. On a conference call with analysts on Thursday after the earnings release, Chief Financial Officer Stacy Smith alluded to a reduction in employment this year and said that Intel would increase investments in area...

The initial reads on earnings have been mixed, and yet U.S. stocks are hovering near all-time highs. Next week, investors will see whether the first companies out of the gate were a harbinger of what's to come. More than 60 S&P 500 companies are scheduled to release results next week, including more than half a dozen Dow components. The reports will give the fullest picture yet of how corporations are faring and whether the market can advance further as Fed stimulus begins to recede. "Given that equities are fully valued and arguably overvalued, we need earnings and revenue to come through to support the gains we've already made," said Jack Ablin, chief investment officer at BMO Private Bank in Chicago. "There's a reasonable chance we could see a 10 percent correction in the event we get some high-profile disappointments." Earnings for S&P 500 companies are seen rising 7 percent in the quarter, down from the 7.6 percent rate that had been ...

Warner Bros. pushed back the release date of the still untitled film that will bring together superheroes Superman and Batman, delaying it by almost a year to May 2016, the studio said on Friday. _0"> The sequel to last year's hit Superman film "Man of Steel" was revealed at the Comic-Con convention last July by director Zack Snyder, who said the two DC Comics' caped crusaders will face off against each other. Warner Bros., a unit of Time Warner Inc, said in a statement that it needed to move back the date to allow "the filmmakers time to realize fully their vision, given the complex visual nature of the story." The decision was made after the start of production was moved to the second quarter of this year, Warner Bros. said. The superhero-duo was originally slated for July 17, 2015, and Warner Bros. said it would put a still untitled Peter Pan adventure into that slot. "We are happy to take advantage of these coveted summer dates, which...

Firefighters sought to prevent a wildfire in the foothills near Los Angeles from flaring up on Saturday, as they put out embers from a blaze that has destroyed five homes, officials said. The so-called Colby Fire, which officials said started from a campfire early on Thursday, has blackened nearly 1,900 acres of drought-parched chaparral and is 30 percent contained, said U.S. Forest Service spokesman Robert Brady. That was the same level of containment firefighters reported on Friday, but officials were optimistic they were gaining the upper hand on the blaze centered in the San Gabriel Mountains, on territory that is part of the Angeles National Forest. "It's not spreading anymore," Brady said. More than 1,100 firefighters, backed by four water-dropping airplanes and three helicopters, are battling the blaze, officials said. Hot, dry Santa Ana winds from interior deserts fanned the flames when it broke out on Thursday, but the next day, the winds subsided and the ...

Al Qaeda and other insurgent groups have tightened their grip on Falluja, defying the Shi'ite-led Iraqi government's efforts to persuade local tribesmen to expel them from the Sunni Muslim city, residents and officials say. Despite an army siege, fighters and weapons have been flowing into the city, where U.S. troops fought some of their fiercest battles during their 2003-11 occupation of Iraq. In an embarrassing setback for a state that has around a million men under arms, the al Qaeda-linked Islamic State of Iraq and the Levant (ISIL) and its tribal allies overran Falluja and parts of the nearby city Ramadi on January 1. Prime Minister Nuri al-Maliki, seeking a third term in a parliamentary election in April, deployed troops and tanks around the city of 300,000 and funneled weapons to anti-Qaeda tribesmen, but has ruled out a full-scale military assault. He was quoted by the Washington Post on Thursday as saying that 80 soldiers and police had been killed so far, as wel...

Spinning off the clean-up project at Japan's wrecked Fukushima nuclear plant from the rest of operator Tokyo Electric Power's business could be an option in the future if the decommissioning runs smoothly, the company's president said. Nearly three years after a devastating earthquake and tsunami hit the plant, Tokyo Electric (Tepco) is still struggling to contain radioactive water at the site and turn around its battered finances. "Paying compensation (to evacuees), decontamination, and the work at the Fukushima plant; there is a lot of work to be done ... We have to continue doing this, while maintaining the workers' safety, their sense of responsibility, duty and keeping up their morale," said Naomi Hirose in an interview with Reuters on Saturday. Hirose said if working conditions improve significantly at Fukushima and worker shortages become no longer a problem, the utility could consider hiving off the Fukushima decommissioning from the rest of the b...

Anti-government protesters marched defiantly through Thailand's capital on Saturday, with one group entering a police compound, undeterred by a grenade explosion the day before that wounded 35 demonstrators and killed one. Friday's blast sent tension rippling through Bangkok after several days of relative calm that had suggested the movement to close down the government and force the resignation of Prime Minister Yingluck Shinawatra was running out of steam. It was unclear who was behind the attack on the protesters. Their firebrand leader, Suthep Thaugsuban, blamed the government and said the incident would not dent the morale of thousands who on Monday stepped up a two-month agitation, blockading key arteries of the city and occupying ministries. The incident, which came two weeks before a general election, may have heightened the risk of a move by the Thai army to end an impasse that is starting to damage the economy. Boonyakiat Karavekphan, a political scientist at Ra...

Th death of an Indian government minister's wife was described as "sudden" and "unnatural" following an autopsy on Saturday, a day after she was found dead in a New Delhi hotel room having earlier accused her husband of adultery. Police have launched an inquest into the death of junior human resource development minister Shashi Tharoor's wife. Earlier in the week the wife, Sunanda Pushkar, had gone public on Twitter saying she wanted to expose a "rip-roaring affair" between her husband and a Pakistan -based journalist. "It was sudden, unnatural death. There were certain injuries on the body," Sudhir Gupta, the head of the forensic sciences department at the All India Institute of Medical Sciences, said after an autopsy was conducted on the body. He told reporters it would take a couple of days to determine the precise cause of death. The scandal could hardly come at a worse time for India's ruling Congress party, as it prepares...

Seven suspected militants were killed by security forces in a shootout on Saturday near Makhachkala in Dagestan, Russian news agencies reported, a day after a grenade and bomb attack outside a restaurant in the regional capital injured several people. _0"> A spokesman for Russia's Anti-Terrorist Committee told ITAR-TASS agency those killed were suspected of carrying out Friday's attack in the mostly Muslim Dagestan region. Interfax news agency, citing the Investigative Committee department for Dagestan, said one woman was among the suspects killed when police stormed a house where they were hiding. The Dagestan region has been plagued by bombings and shootings that target state and police officials as part of a campaign by militants to create an Islamist state there. Regional capital Makhachkala is about 620 km (385 miles) east of the Black Sea resort of Sochi, the site of next month's Winter Olympic Games, which President Vladimir Putin has made his top prior...

An Iranian diplomat was killed in Yemen's capital Sanaa on Saturday when he resisted gunmen who were trying to kidnap him near the ambassador's residence, the Iranian Foreign Ministry and Yemeni security sources said. _0"> Iranian Foreign Ministry spokeswoman Marzieh Afkham told Fars News Agency the diplomat was seriously injured when he resisted his attackers and was taken to a Sanaa hospital, where he died. "We are seriously following up the dimensions of this terrorist action with the relevant Yemeni government officials," Afkham said. Security sources in Yemen told Reuters the diplomat was travelling in a car belonging to the Iranian embassy, but the ambassador was not in the car at the time of the attack. The gunmen fled, and there was no immediate claim of responsibility, they said. Kidnapping of foreigners in Yemen is common, often carried out by disgruntled tribesmen seeking to press the government to free jailed relatives or to improve public ...

U.S. prosecutors in Manhattan are sitting on a multimillion-dollar bitcoin gold mine. And it could get much bigger. Federal authorities hauled in 29,655 units of the digital currency - worth $27 million at current exchange rates - through an official forfeiture by Bitcoin this week. The bitcoins had belonged to Silk Road, an anonymous online black market that authorities say was a conduit for purchases of drugs and computer hacking services - even a place where assassins may have advertised. It was shuttered after an FBI raid in September, when agents took control of its server and arrested the man they say was its founder in San Francisco. No one stepped forward to claim these bitcoins, which were found in electronic "wallets" used to store the digital currency. An additional 144,336 bitcoins, worth more than $128 million today, were also discovered, but the government's claim on them is being disputed by Ross William Ulbricht, 29, who U.S. authorities say was the f...