FBI has exemption to arrange payments to hostage-takers: U.S. sources

WASHINGTON (Reuters) - While U.S. policy bans federal officials from doing business with kidnappers, the FBI for years has used a secret exemption to government rules to communicate with hostage-takers and sometimes send money to them, U.S. government sources said.

from Reuters: Top News http://ift.tt/1OK5k6x

Pacquiao to CNN: This is different

CNN's Don Riddell speaks to professional boxer Manny Pacquiao before his highly anticipated upcoming fight against Floyd Mayweather.

from CNN.com - Top Stories http://ift.tt/1bjzPxB

Senator, Iranian leader tangle on Twitter

from CNN.com - Top Stories http://ift.tt/1dvwA7Z

Serial killer Jeffrey Dahmer's killer explains why

The man who beat serial killer Jeffrey Dahmer to death inside a Wisconsin prison says he did it because of Dahmer's creepy sense of humor -- which included turning prison food into fake limbs covered with ketchup to resemble blood, the New York Post reports.

from CNN.com - Top Stories http://ift.tt/1I1MDqZ

Iran intercepts U.S.-flagged ship

Iran's Revolutionary Guard intercepted a U.S.-flagged ship, the U.S. Navy reports. CNN's Fred Pleitgen has the details.

from CNN.com - Top Stories http://ift.tt/1QQo2rG

Iran accuses seized ship of 'peculiar' activity

A top Iranian official said Wednesday that a foreign cargo ship had been seized in the Persian Gulf because it had a history of "peculiar" activity.

from CNN.com - Top Stories http://ift.tt/1FypQB5

U.S. aircraft carrier enters Persian Gulf

The USS Theodore Roosevelt entered the Persian Gulf Saturday to conduct what a U.S. defense official called routine maritime security operations, days after U.S. warships were deployed to the Yemeni coast to counter an Iranian convoy.

from CNN.com - Top Stories http://ift.tt/1yX2SlU

'Roots' is getting a remake

One of the biggest TV events of all time is being reimagined for new audiences.

from CNN.com - Top Stories http://ift.tt/1JcJB0g

Comic impressions of UK candidates

Satire "thrives on grotesques, in a way," Rory Bremner tells Christiane Amanpour, lamenting the loss of politicians who are true "characters."

from CNN.com - Top Stories http://ift.tt/1IsZm4Z

NYC police commissioner defends 'broken windows' policing but will compromise

NEW YORK (Reuters) - New York City Police Commissioner Bill Bratton said on Thursday he was reforming the department's "broken windows" policy of targeting low-level crimes as a way to prevent more serious offenses from happening.

from Reuters: Top News http://ift.tt/1QQ4nIu

Bill Clinton plane in emergency landing

A plane carrying former President Bill Clinton stopped abruptly to have one of its engines fixed in Tanzania on Wednesday, multiple sources told CNN.

from CNN.com - Top Stories http://ift.tt/1dueYJA

How 'Mission Impossible' risks saved pilot's family

from CNN.com - Top Stories http://ift.tt/1DCGSbr

Colorado movie massacre survivor describes gunman Holmes' actions

CENTENNIAL, Colo. (Reuters) - A survivor of Colorado's movie theater massacre told jurors on Wednesday how he laid wounded as he watched gunman James Holmes move slowly about the body-strewn cinema holding a semiautomatic rifle in front of him.

from Reuters: Top News http://ift.tt/1KuPpmy

CNN uncovers price list of human traffickers

from CNN.com - Top Stories http://ift.tt/1AhEZAM

Iran accuses seized ship

A top Iranian official said Wednesday that a foreign cargo ship had been seized in the Persian Gulf because it had a history of "peculiar" activity.

from CNN.com - Top Stories http://ift.tt/1FypQB5

Did Saudi Arabia just modernize?

With the announcement Interior Minister Prince Mohammed Bin Nayef becomes next in line to the Saudi throne, and the King's own son Defense Minister Prince Mohammed Bin Salman in line after him, Saudi Arabia's ruler King Salman has at a stroke modernized the face of the monarchy.

from CNN.com - Top Stories http://ift.tt/1FypQB9

Fall of Saigon: 100 choppers, 7,000 people, 24 hours

from CNN.com - Top Stories http://ift.tt/1znNpMa

Apple's quarterly revenue jumps 27 percent

(Reuters) - Apple Inc reported a 27 percent rise in quarterly revenue as iPhone sales surged and the company raised its share repurchase program by $50 billion.

from Reuters: Top News http://ift.tt/1DE399Y

Colorado cinema massacre trial to get under way

CENTENNIAL, Colo. (Reuters) - Colorado's long-awaited cinema massacre trial will begin on Monday with jurors asked to decide whether gunman James Holmes was insane when he killed a dozen moviegoers in 2012, or a calculating mass murderer who deserves execution.

from Reuters: Top News http://ift.tt/1A7b5iE

Victims overwhelm hospitals

An ambulance arrives, and a young girl with a bandaged head and badly blackened eye is rushed into Kathmandu's Bir Hopital on a wheelchair amid much commotion.

from CNN.com - Top Stories http://ift.tt/1DDaKWl