ADVISORY - Headlines from BNO News at 1:30 a.m. EST

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ADVISORY - Headlines from BNO News at 1:30 a.m. EST

2011-12-23 13:32:23 GMT+7 (ICT)

SAN FRANCISCO (BNO NEWS) -- The following are stories BNO News is following as of 1:30 a.m. EST on Friday, December 23rd, 2011.

UNITED STATES

-- U.S. House Speaker John Boehner on Thursday announced that he has agreed with U.S. Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid on a two-month extension of a package which includes a payroll tax cut and an extension of unemployment benefits.

-- The U.S. government on Thursday offered a reward of up to $10 million for information leading to the capture of Yasin al-Suri, who is accused of operating from Iran as a facilitator and financier for al-Qaeda.

-- Initial claims for unemployment insurance in the United States dropped to 364,000 in the week ending December 17, a decrease of about 4,000 when compared to the previous week, the U.S. Labor Department (DOL) reported on Thursday. This is the lowest level it has been since April 2008.

INTERNATIONAL

-- At least 50 people sustained minor injuries on early Friday afternoon when two strong earthquakes, measuring 5.8 and 6.0 on the Richter scale, struck off the New Zealand city of Christchurch. Several buildings collapsed, and power outages were reported in the region.

-- At least 72 people were killed and more than 200 were injured when a series of explosions hit the Iraqi capital of Baghdad throughout Thursday, according to security officials. The bomb blasts occurred as political turmoil shakes through the Iraqi government and comes days after the last U.S. troops left the country.

-- An Indonesian girl who was thought to have died when a huge tsunami devastated the island of Sumatra in December 2004, has been found alive and reunited with her parents, local media reported on Thursday. The girl, who is now 15, could not remember the names of her parents and is believed to have wandered across the province of Aceh for seven years until she was recognized on Wednesday.

-- The Turkish government on Thursday suspended all ties with France after the lower chamber of its parliament approved a draft bill which proposes a prison sentence and/or a large fine for those who deny genocides recognized by France. This includes the 'genocide' of Armenians by the Ottoman government during World War I, which Turkey has refused to use the word 'genocide' for.

-- The British government on Thursday said Iran has blocked access to a foreign office website. UK Foreign Secretary William Hague said the Iranian government has added the website of Britain's Foreign and Commonwealth Office (FCO) to its list of censored websites and condemned the move as 'counter-productive and ill-judged.'

-- Thailand and Cambodia have agreed to withdraw their troops from the area surrounding the disputed Preah Vihear temple. The two countries agreed to implement the International Court of Justice's order to establish a "provisional demilitarized zone." It follows deadly clashes in recent years at the temple, which is claimed by both countries.

BUSINESS

-- A U.S. federal judge on Thursday ruled that Texan financier Allen Stanford is mentally fit to stand trial for allegedly operating a $7 billion Ponzi scheme. His lawyers had argued he suffers from memory loss following a prison attack in September 2009.

SPORTS

-- ESPN announced during a broadcast Thursday that University of Southern California (USC) football quarterback Matt Barkley will return to the college for his senior year.

-- U.S. Major League Baseball free agent Outfielder Carlos Beltran has signed a two-year deal with the St. Louis Cardinals. The deal is worth $26 million, according to reports.

-- World road race champion and Tour de France green jersey winner Mark Cavendish has been voted BBC Sports Personality of the Year. He is the third cyclist to win, and the first since 2008. Northern Irish horse racing jockey Tony McCoy (also known as AP McCoy) won in 2010.

HEALTH

-- The United Nations Children's Fund (UNICEF) on Thursday urged for global action to prevent the severe malnourishment of as many as one million children in West and Central Africa's Sahel region. The biggest challenge is to distribute specially developed ready-to-use therapeutic foods to the region. UNICEF appealed for $65.7 million to respond to the crisis earlier this month.

-- The Indian government on Thursday put a draft law before parliament which seeks to provide subsidized food to more than half of the country's 1.2 billion population. Up to 75 percent of the people in rural India would be covered under the bill, which provides 'priority households' with 7 kilograms (15.5 pounds) of rice, wheat and coarse grains for just 6 rupees ($0.11 dollar).

-- The U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA) announced that it has approved Isentress (raltegravir) for use with other antiretroviral drugs for the treatment of HIV-1 infection in children and adolescents.

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