Feds seize 132 domain names to stop knockoff sales

BUFFALO, N.Y. (AP) -- More than 100 domain names were seized in an international crackdown on websites that sell counterfeit merchandise, federal authorities said Monday, just in time for the biggest online shopping day of the year.

It was the third consecutive Cyber Monday that websites selling knockoff sports jerseys, DVDs, cologne and other goods were blocked from doing business. This year, U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement's Homeland Security Investigations coordinated the 132-site effort with Europol and police in Belgium, Denmark, France, Romania and the United Kingdom.

"This is not an American problem, it is a global one, and it is a fight we must win," ICE Director John Morton said in a statement.

Despite talk of compromise, fiscal deal elusive

WASHINGTON (AP) -- Talk of compromise on a broad budget deal greeted returning lawmakers Monday, but agreement still seemed distant as the White House and congressional Republicans ceded little ground on a key sticking point: whether to raise revenue through higher tax rates or by limiting tax breaks and deductions.

House Speaker John Boehner, R-Ohio, pressed his case for revenue derived by reducing tax loopholes rather than raising tax rates on wealthy taxpayers, as President Barack Obama insists.

Boehner, voicing the Republican stance, said: "The American people support an approach that involves both major spending cuts and additional revenue via tax reform with lower tax rates."

Rolling Stones storm London; New York next

LONDON (AP) -- The verdict is in: The Rolling Stones are back. They may look old, but they still sound young.

That was the consensus Monday as Britain's rock critics responded to the Stones 50th anniversary bash Sunday night, the first of five shows to commemorate their half century of rhythm and blues-tinged rock. It was the band's first London performance in five years, and their own advancing years had led some to be skeptical that they could still perform at the highest level.

JFK's last night, largely forgotten, considered seminal event for Latinos as a voting bloc

President John F. Kennedy was supposed to just stop by and wave hello.

Instead a group of eager Latinos persuaded him to come inside and speak to a packed room of Mexican-American civil rights activists. And then he persuaded his wife, first lady Jacqueline Kennedy, to address the crowd in Spanish.

It was Nov. 21, 1963. Hours later, the president was dead, his assassination overshadowing the significance of a speech that can be seen as the birth of the Latino vote, so instrumental in 2012 in helping re-elect the first black president, Barack Obama.

To historians, Kennedy's appearance at the Rice Ballroom in Houston was likely the first time that a president officially acknowledged Latinos as an important voting bloc.

Jamaica's Usain Bolt and American Allyson Felix named IAAF World Athletes of the Year

BARCELONA, Spain (AP) -- Usain Bolt won the IAAF World Athlete of the Year award for the fourth time Saturday after defending his 100 and 200 meter gold medals at last summer's Olympic Games in London.

The Jamaican sprinter, who beat out American hurdler Aries Merritt and Kenyan runner David Rudisha, had previously won the award in 2008, 2009, and 2011.

"For me this is a great honor to win a fourth time. I really worked hard and I was really focused this year. This season was one of my toughest. I had my ups and downs, even though we don't like to talk about them," said Bolt, who thanked his coach and the fans at the Olympics.

Why must we buy? Black Friday's powerful pull

BEAVER FALLS, Pa. (AP) -- Gravy was still warm. Dallas Cowboys were still in uniform. Thanks were still being given across the country as the pilgrimages to the stores began, heralding a new era of American consumerism.

Lured by earlier-than-ever Black Friday sales, people left Grandma and Grandpa in search of Samsung and Toshiba. They did not go blindly: In dozens of interviews, people acknowledged how spending has become inseparable from the holidays. Older folks pined for the days of Erector Sets and Thumbelinas while in line to pay iPad prices. Even some younger shoppers said it felt wrong to be spending money instead of quality time on Thanksgiving.

Iowa GOP officials call presidential straw poll part of losing past, look to inclusiveness

DES MOINES, Iowa (AP) -- In the days since Republicans lost an election many in the party thought was theirs, chatter has been bubbling about what the GOP should do to recover.

For Iowa Gov. Terry Branstad, it starts with the smallest of actions: abandoning the state's now-infamous straw poll.

Once a festive checkpoint on the road to the leadoff Iowa caucuses, the poll has devolved into a full-blown sideshow, Branstad and other critics contend. They say it's an unfair and false test that has felled good candidates and kept others from competing in the state.

Turkey, apple pie and some arguing: Politically divided families brace for T-day friction

Ah, Thanksgiving. A little turkey, some cranberry mold, maybe apple pie with ice cream, some football on TV. Getting together with the cousins. Catching up beside the fire. Togetherness.

On second thought: Scratch that. What were we thinking? This was an election year.

"The Thanksgiving table will be a battleground," says Andrew Marshall, 34, of Quincy, Mass.

Like many extended families across the country, Marshall's includes Democrats and Republicans, conservatives, liberals and independents. And so, like many families that count both red and blue voters in their ranks, they're expecting fireworks. Things had already gotten so bad on Facebook, the family had to ban political banter.

Tom Hanks, Will Ferrell offer custom recordings

NEW YORK (AP) -- Imagine having William Shatner supply your outgoing voicemail message. Or maybe you'd prefer Morgan Freeman coolly telling callers to wait for the beep. Or perhaps having Betty White joke around is more your speed.

All it takes is $299 and some luck.

The advocacy group Autism Speaks is offering custom-recorded messages from those celebrities as well as Will Ferrell, Carrie Fisher, Tom Hanks, Derek Jeter, Leonard Nimoy, Patrick Stewart and Ed Asner.

From Dec. 3 to Dec. 9, a limited number of 20-second long MP3 messages will be recorded by each celebrity on a first-come, first-served basis for fans to do with as they wish. All requests must be of the PG variety.

Despite investigations spreading blame around, 2 workers shoulder blame for BP oil disaster

NEW ORLEANS (AP) -- The manslaughter charges brought against two relatively low-ranking BP rig workers in the deadly Gulf of Mexico disaster may be as far as federal prosecutors are willing to go. Or maybe they intend to use the two men to work their way up the corporate ladder.

The Justice Department has said only that its criminal investigation is still going on. As a result, others are left guessing about prosecutors' intentions.

"Either there simply isn't evidence that anybody higher up was involved, or the department has concluded the only way it's going to make its case against more senior corporate officers is if it charges and eventually obtains cooperation" from the two men, said David Uhlmann, a University of Michigan law professor and former chief of the Justice Department's environmental crimes section.

Obama's education agenda may look less like real reform and more like tying up loose ends

WASHINGTON (AP) -- President Barack Obama's education agenda for next four years may look less like real reform and more like tying up loose ends, experts say, with practical budget issues and an age-old power struggle between Congress and the administration getting in the way.

Campaign-year aspirations for Obama's second term included closing the educational achievement gap and boosting college graduation rates to the highest in the world. But those lofty goals may have to wait, as lawmakers and Obama tackle a number of gritty funding-related issues that just can't wait.

Civil rights chief says govt should automatically register voters from existing databases

WASHINGTON (AP) -- One of the top enforcers of the nation's civil rights laws said Friday government should be responsible for automatically registering citizens to vote by using existing databases to compile lists of all eligible residents in each jurisdiction.

The proposal by Assistant Attorney General Thomas Perez, chief of the Justice Department's civil rights division, follows an election with breakdowns that forced voters in many states to wait in line for hours.

In remarks at George Washington University law school, Perez said census data shows that of 75 million adult citizens who failed to vote in the 2008 presidential election, 60 million were not registered and therefore ineligible to cast a ballot.

Judge grants Miley Cyrus civil restraining order

LOS ANGELES (AP) -- A judge has granted Miley Cyrus a three-year civil restraining order against a man convicted of trespassing at her home in Los Angeles.

The stay-away order was granted Friday against Jason Luis Rivera by Superior Court Judge William D. Stewart.

The 40-year-old Rivera was convicted in October of trespassing at the singer's home and sentenced to 18 months in jail.

He is scheduled to be released in May. Authorities said at the time of Rivera's arrest in September that he was carrying scissors and ran into the wall of Cyrus' home as if trying to break in.

Rivera did not respond to Cyrus' petition.

The 20-year-old former star of "Hannah Montana" did not attend the hearing. Her attorney Bryan Sullivan declined comment.

Ap.

Israel and Hamas battle on social media as well

JERUSALEM (AP) -- The hostilities between Israel and Hamas have found a new battleground: social media.

The Israeli Defense Forces and Hamas militants have exchanged fiery tweets throughout the fighting in a separate war to influence public opinion.

Shortly after it launched its campaign Wednesday by killing Hamas' top military commander Ahmed Jabari, the Israeli military's media office announced a "widespread campaign on terror sites & operatives in the (hash)Gaza Strip" on its Twitter account.

Report: Employers plan modest increase in hiring for new college grads in coming year

Modest good news for college students: An annual survey predicts employers will increase hiring of new 4-year college graduates about 5 percent in the coming year. Demand for graduates with associate's degrees is expected to increase more sharply - by about 30 percent compared to last year's survey- while MBA hiring appears headed for an unexpected decline.

The 42nd annual survey out Thursday from Michigan State University's College Employment Research Institute collects responses on hiring plans from more than 2,000 U.S. employers. It paints a mixed picture reflecting an improving economy but also uncertainty over whether Congress and the White House will carry the country off the fiscal cliff in January, potentially sending the economy back into recession.

In UK, Twitter, Facebook rants land some in jail

LONDON (AP) -- One teenager made offensive comments about a murdered child on Twitter. Another young man wrote on Facebook that British soldiers should "go to hell." A third posted a picture of a burning paper poppy, symbol of remembrance of war dead.

All were arrested, two convicted, and one jailed - and they're not the only ones. In Britain, hundreds of people are prosecuted each year for posts, tweets, texts and emails deemed menacing, indecent, offensive or obscene, and the number is growing as our online lives expand.

House GOP elects a woman, McMorris Rodgers, to a top leadership post after election losses

WASHINGTON (AP) -- Stinging from double-digit election losses among female voters, House Republicans elected a woman to their top leadership team Wednesday in a tense test of gender politics and the clout of the GOP's power brokers.

The election of Rep. Cathy McMorris Rodgers of Washington state to the No. 4 leadership position among House Republicans dispatches conservative favorite Tom Price of Georgia, who had been endorsed by Mitt Romney's running mate, Rep. Paul Ryan of Wisconsin. House Speaker John Boehner didn't take sides, but McMorris Rodgers was considered the leadership favorite.

Doctors, others demand clearer Irish abortion law

DUBLIN (AP) -- Pressure mounted Thursday for the Irish government to draft a law spelling out when life-saving abortions can be performed - a demand that came after a pregnant woman who was denied an abortion died.

Activists protested Thursday night in Belfast a day after thousands rallied in London, Dublin, Cork and Galway in memory of Savita Halappanavar, a 31-year-old dentist who died a week after doctors said she was starting to miscarry her 17-week-old fetus.

Despite her rising pain, doctors refused her request for an abortion for three days because the fetus had a heartbeat. She died in the hospital from blood poisoning three days after the fetus died and was surgically removed.

Rocky's not so tough: Sly outnumbered by his girls

ROME (AP) -- Rocky's going soft.

Sylvester Stallone confessed Wednesday he's woefully outnumbered at home by his girls - and couldn't be happier.

Presenting his latest film "Bullet to the Head" screening at the Rome Film Festival, he said Wednesday: "I came into my life like Rambo, like Rocky: Boom, boom, no problem. And then one girl, two girls, three of them."

Official: NY emergency chief fired for using crew to clear tree at home during Sandy

ALBANY, N.Y. (AP) -- New York Gov. Andrew Cuomo has fired his $153,000-a-year emergency management director for diverting a crew to remove a tree from his Long Island home's driveway after Superstorm Sandy hit, a state official said Wednesday.

Director of Emergency Management Steven Kuhr was fired after the governor was told that Kuhr called a Suffolk County crew to remove a fallen tree from his driveway, according to the official. Kuhr was working in Albany at the time last week, shortly after Sandy hit.

Early vote turns to Election Day effort, last act of long, intensive presidential campaign

COLUMBUS, Ohio (AP) -- Ever urgent as the clock ran down, Barack Obama's and Mitt Romney's teams pressed voters to get to the polls while thousands who were already there waited in long lines for their final chance to avoid the Election Day crush.

"I thought I'd come today to beat the rush tomorrow," 24-year-old Britnee Luke, a Romney supporter from Columbus, Ohio, said Monday in a line where she had stood for more than an hour Monday morning. "Oh, well."

That line - more than 1,000 murmuring voters winding in a maze through a former department store on Columbus' west side - was just one of the many scenes where some of the 2012 presidential campaign's final acts were playing out across the country.

Freddie Mac posts $2.9B net income for Q3

WASHINGTON (AP) -- Mortgage giant Freddie Mac posted net income of $2.9 billion for the July-September quarter, its second straight profitable quarter.

The government-controlled company attributed the gain to rising home prices and fewer mortgage delinquencies.

Freddie paid a dividend of $1.8 billion to the U.S. Treasury and requested no additional federal aid.

The increase compared with a loss of $6 billion for the same quarter of 2011. It also marked the sixth quarter in which Freddie sought no additional aid since being taken over by the government in September 2008.

Syrian rebels take villages near Israel-held area

JERUSALEM (AP) -- Syrian rebels control almost all the villages near the frontier with the Israel-held Golan Heights, the Israeli defense minister said Wednesday, bringing the conflict dangerously close to the Jewish state and raising the possibility of an armed clash with the region's strongest power.

During a tour of the Golan Heights, Defense Minister Ehud Barak gave a scathing assessment of Syrian President Bashar Assad's forces and said Israel will remain "vigilant and alert."

"Almost all of the villages, from the foot of this ridge to the very top, are already in the hands of the Syrian rebels," said Barak, who was accompanied by Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu. "The Syrian army is displaying ever-diminishing efficiency."

Family defends Malaysian held over Facebook insult

KUALA LUMPUR, Malaysia (AP) -- The family of a Malaysian man detained for allegedly insulting a state sultan on Facebook called for his release Monday, saying the government is violating his free-speech rights.

Police arrested 27-year-old Ahmad Abdul Jalil in Kuala Lumpur and took him to southern Johor state late Friday. He was freed briefly Monday after a magistrate court in Johor refused to extend his remand order but police immediately arrested him again, said his sister Anisa Abdul Jalil.

Anisa said the family was told he was being investigated for seditious remarks against the Johor sultan.

She said the family did not know what the offensive postings were. Local media have reported that the Facebook postings at issue question Sultan Ibrahim Iskandar's abilities as leader of a special forces group.