China scrambles fighter jets towards US and Japan planes in airspace  —  Washington tells airlines to notify Chinese authorities if flying through area amid escalating tensions in South China Sea  —  China scrambled fighter jets to investigate US and Japanese aircraft flying through …

U.S. man in hot water in Dubai over parody video  —  (CNN) — It was intended as a piece of comedy, but it's turned into a drama.  —  A young American living in the United Arab Emirates has been imprisoned since April, his family says, for posting what was intended to be a funny video on the Internet.

Rooting for Failure  —  I just spent 15 minutes on my local health care exchange and realized that I could save a couple hundred dollars a month on my family's insurance.  Of course, I live in Washington State, which has a very competitive market, a superbly functioning website …

Peter Kaplan, Who Brought a Cutting Edge to The New York Observer, Dies at 59  —  Peter W. Kaplan, who in his 15 years as editor was credited with making The New York Observer both pertinent and impertinent as it gleefully chronicled the every move and shake of the city's movers and shakers, died on Friday in Manhattan.

Pressure builds on Boehner for NSA vote  —  House Republican leaders are under pressure to allow a vote on legislation that would curb the National Security Agency (NSA).  —  Speaker John Boehner (R-Ohio) has defended the NSA's spying programs, but a growing bloc of his conference is signing …

CNN/ORC Poll: Jump in percentage of those saying things not going well  —  Washington (CNN) - Americans views on the state of the nation are turning increasingly sour, according to a new national poll.  —  And a CNN/ORC International survey released Friday also indicates that less than a quarter …

Former KKK Leader And His Mother Indicted After Alabama Cross Burning  —  A 28-year-old alleged “former Exalted Cyclops” of the Ku Klux Klan and his mother have both been arrested and are facing federal charges relating to a 2009 cross burning in a predominantly African-American neighborhood in Ozark, Ala.

Revisionaries  —  How a group of Texas conservatives is rewriting your kids' textbooks.  —  Don McLeroy is a balding, paunchy man with a thick broom-handle mustache who lives in a rambling two-story brick home in a suburb near Bryan, Texas.  When he greeted me at the door one evening last October …

The Best Walmart Thanksgiving Day Fight Videos  —  According to a Walmart press release, Thanksgiving was a day of record-breaking sales, sales that were “bigger, better, faster, cheaper and safer than ever.”  —  Safer, huh?  Let's examine the video evidence.

Black Friday flurry for UK retailers in discounting push  —  A flurry of promotions tied to Black Friday have caused a frenzy for some UK retailers, with a fight breaking out in one Asda shop apparently over discounted televisions.  —  Asda, owned by the US consumer giant Wal-Mart …

Disabled woman denied entry to U.S. after agent cites supposedly private medical details  —  A Toronto woman is shocked after she was denied entry into the U.S. because she had been hospitalized for clinical depression. … Ellen Richardson was prevented from going on a March of Dimes organized cruise …