FBI thwarts terrorist bombing attempt at Portland holiday tree lighting, authorities say  —  The FBI thwarted an attempted terrorist bombing in Portland's Pioneer Courthouse Square before the city's annual tree-lighting Friday night, according to the U.S. Attorney's Office in Oregon.

Mystery Surrounds Cyber Missile That Crippled Iran's Nuclear Weapons Ambitions  —  An aerial view of Iran's nuclear facility in Natanz.  —  In the 20th century, this would have been a job for James Bond.  —  The mission: Infiltrate the highly advanced, securely guarded enemy headquarters …

Scowcroft on START: ‘Partisan’ GOP Don't Want To Give Obama ‘A Foreign Policy Victory’  —  Sen. Richard Lugar (R-IN) has been the leading Senate Republican urging the upper chamber of Congress to ratify the New START arms control treaty with Russia.  However, the Republican obstructionism …

Demonstrators in Ireland Protest Austerity Plan  —  DUBLIN — After a week that brought Ireland a pledge of an $114 billion international rescue package and the toughest austerity program of any country in Europe, thousands of demonstrators took to Dublin's streets on Saturday to protest wide cuts …

Report: ‘Issues of Culture, Ethnicity and Identity’ Raised in U.K. Rape-Gang Case  —  A report on the sexual exploitation of British girls as young as 12 by a gang led by two 28-year-old Muslim men found that cultural issues were “a critical factor in making [the victims] easy targets for abusers.”

Qaeda the enemy - not TSA screeners  —  Tweet  —  The debate over security scanning and pat-downs has reached such a fever pitch, it seems that people are forgetting that the enemy isn't the Transportation Security Administration — it's al Qaeda.  —  I don't want my children …

‘Humiliated’: Female passenger subjected to patdown ‘because her sanitary towel showed up on body scanner’  —  A female passenger has claimed that she was assaulted by TSA agents when she was ordered to be patted down because her sanitary towel showed up on the body scanner.

Africa Needs Aid, Not Flawed Theories  —  The science writer Matt Ridley made his reputation with books like “The Red Queen: Sex and the Evolution of Human Nature” and “Genome: The Autobiography of a Species in 23 Chapters.”  His latest book, “The Rational Optimist: How Prosperity Evolves” is much broader, as its title suggests.

Winning the Class War  —  The class war that no one wants to talk about continues unabated.  —  Even as millions of out-of-work and otherwise struggling Americans are tightening their belts for the holidays, the nation's elite are lacing up their dancing shoes and partying like royalty as the millions and billions keep rolling in.

Workers seek new skills at community colleges, but classes are full  —  LAS VEGAS - The gambling economy here has crapped out, but at the swelling community college, workers are in the grip of new aspirations.  —  In one small anatomy lab, there's a craps dealer training to become an anesthetist …

Barack Obama to Barbara Walters: ‘Extraordinarily proud’ of health care reform  —  President Barack Obama, in a wide-ranging, reflective interview with Barbara Walters, staunchly defends his controversial policies - including sweeping health care reforms and the massive economic stimulus package …