WASHINGTON — House GOP leaders Wednesday halted debate on an austere measure that was full of cuts to transportation and housing programs and community development grants, a setback for their budget strategy of embracing the stark spending levels dictated by automatic spending cuts known as sequestration.

GOP aides said there wasn’t enough time in a busy House floor schedule to continue debate, but House Appropriations Committee Chairman Harold Rogers, R-Ky., said it was apparent there weren’t …

Read more

Thanks to new DNA evidence a Kansas City man was released from prison three decades after a wrongful rape conviction, though the 70-year-old clerk instrumental in his release was fired for insubordination.

Sharon Snyder, who was fired about nine months prior to her retirement after 34 years as a court employee, was let go by a Jackson County Circuit judge in Missouri for offering legal advice to 49-year-old Robert Nelson, convicted in 1984 to 50 years …

Read more

Shaker Aamer, the last British resident imprisoned in Guantanamo Bay, says he suffers from regular assaults, including those of a sexual nature, from the guards. He has spent more than 11 years at the US detention facility without charge.

Aamer, who was arrested in Afghanistan’s Jalalabad in November 2001, has been cleared for release by both Bush and Obama administrations, yet he remains incarcerated at Guantanamo.

Aamer has described mistreatment he receives by Forcible Cell Extraction (FCE) …

Read more

(Reuters) – Chinese authorities visited a regional office of French drugmaker Sanofi this week in the latest sign of a widening investigation into Western drugmakers.

Eli Lilly said it had also been visited by officials in the same city of Shenyang as part of a “routine” probe which had started earlier this year, while the CEO of AstraZeneca, which has a sales executive in detention in Shanghai, warned of short-term “turmoil” in the sector.

The latest …

Read more

WASHINGTON (Reuters) – The House of Representatives easily passed a bill on Wednesday to tighten sanctions on Iran, showing a strong message to Tehran over its disputed nuclear program days before President-elect Hassan Rouhani is sworn in. The vote also highlighted a growing divide between Congress and the Obama administration on Iran policy ahead of international talks on the nuclear program in coming months. Iran insists the nuclear program is purely for civilian purposes. The …

Read more

By the narrowest of margins — and after a lengthy vote held open due to one senator’s absence — the Senate voted Wednesday evening to break a Republican filibuster of B. Todd Jones to lead the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives — Sens. Kelly Ayotte (R-NH), Susan Collins (R-ME), Lindsay Graham (R-SC), Mark Kirk (R-IL), John McCain (R-AZ) and Lisa Murkowski (R-AK) crossed over to vote with all 54 Democrats to break the …

Read more