New Year: Good morning. It’s 2016. Amid heightened security, celebrants rang in the New Year in major cities around the world without incident. A “concrete” terrorism threat in Munich failed to materialize. As many as a million people gathered in …

The Co-Pilot: Investigators say today that the co-pilot of the Germanwings jet that crashed in the French Alps had an illness he was hiding from his employers, possibly depression. Prosecutors say they found a note at the home of Andreas …

Bibi Wins It: The Israeli elections went from too close to call to a resounding victory for Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu. His Likud Party won 29 or 30 seats in Parliament to 24 for the Zionist Union. Netanyahu still has …

Oscar: Meryl Streep collected her 18th Oscar nomination this morning, again for playing a woman with a heavy accent, this time in “August Osage County”. She’s won three times. For Best Picture: “12 Years a Slave”, “American Hustle”, “Captain Phillips”, …

Philippines: Philippine President Benigno Aquino has declared a “national calamity” as his country digs out from the damage of Typhoon Haiyan. The UN put out a call for $301 million in disaster aid as the risk of hunger and disease …

GitMo: President Obama in a news conference renewed his call to shut the terrorist holding center at Guantanamo Bay, Cuba. “It hurts us in terms of our international standing, it lessens cooperation with our allies on counter-terrorism efforts, it is …

National: Doctors in Mississippi claim they have cured a baby girl born with HIV. The girl was treated with a cocktail of anti-HIV drugs when she was just 30 hours old. She’s 2 ½ now. If the claim holds true, …

National: The political poison pill known as the “Sequester” that forces  $1.2 trillion in automatic federal budget cuts is just nine days away with the White House and Congressional Republicans making no apparent progress in reaching a budget and deficit …