Stocks soar after Congress passes "fiscal cliff" bill

NEW YORK The "fiscal cliff" compromise, even with all its chaos, controversy and unresolved questions, was enough to ignite the stock market on Wednesday, the first trading day of the new year.The Dow Jones industrial average careened more than 300 points higher, its biggest gain since December 2011. It's now just 5 percent below its record high close reached in October 2007. The Russell 2000, an...

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61 killed in post-celebration stampede in Ivory Coast

ABIDJAN, Ivory CoastA crowd stampeded after leaving a New Year's fireworks show early Tuesday in Ivory Coast's main city, killing 61 people — many of them children and teenagers — and injuring more than 200, rescue workers said. Thousands had gathered at the Felix Houphouet Boigny Stadium in Abidjan's Plateau district to see the fireworks. It was only the second New Year's Eve fireworks display...

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Lovie Smith fired as Bears coach after 9 seasons

LAKE FOREST, Ill. The Chicago Bears fired coach Lovie Smith on Monday after the team missed the playoffs for the fifth time in six seasons. Smith was informed of the decision by general manager Phil Emery on the day after the Bears beat Detroit to finish 10-6 but still didn't make the playoffs. 10 PhotosNFL coaches, GMs sacked in firing frenzy Smith led the Bears to a Super Bowl, but also saw...

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Five killed in Oregon tour bus crash

LA GRANDE, Ore. Authorities say five people died and about 20 more were injured in a tour bus crash on an icy stretch of interstate in Oregon. Police say the bus lost control around 10:30 a.m. on the snow- and ice-covered lanes of Interstate 84 in eastern Oregon. The bus crashed through a guardrail and went down an embankment a few hundred feet. Rescue workers are using ropes to help retrieve...

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Indian gang rape victim dies in hospital

SINGAPORE A young Indian woman who was gang-raped and severely beaten on a bus in New Delhi died early Saturday at a hospital in Singapore, the hospital said. The 23-year-old victim "died peacefully," according to a statement by Singapore's Mount Elizabeth hospital where she was being treated. The woman's horrific ordeal galvanized Indians, who have held almost daily demonstrations to demand greater...

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"Low-end blizzard" eases in Northeast

Updated 3:50 p.m. ETCONCORD, New Hampshire A powerful winter storm blamed for 16 deaths in other parts of the country is bringing rain to southernNew England and snow further north, but the region has been largely spared the pounding that other states took. The storm pushed through the Upper Ohio Valley and made its way into the Northeast Wednesday night, leaving up to a foot of snow in some locations...

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Fmr. President Bush battling "stubborn" fever

A "stubborn" fever that kept former President George H.W. Bush in a hospital over Christmas has gotten worse, and doctors have put him on a liquids-only diet, his spokesman said Wednesday, describing Bush's condition as guarded to CBS News. Jim McGrath, Bush's spokesman in Houston, had said earlier in the day that the fever had gone away, but he later corrected himself. "It's an elevated fever,...

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Messy Christmas weather turns dangerous

Updated 4:59 p.m. EST NEW ORLEANS Freezing rain and sleet made for a sloppy Christmas trek in parts of the nation's midsection, while residents along the Gulf Coast faced thunderstorms, high winds and tornadoes that were doing damage in some areas. Winds toppled a tree onto a pickup truck in the Houston area, killing the driver. Icy roads already were blamed for a 21-vehicle pileup in Oklahoma,...

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Israel rejects NRA's guns-in-schools claim

JERUSALEMIsrael's policy on issuing guns is restrictive, and armed guards at its schools are meant to stop terrorists, not crazed or disgruntled gunmen, experts said Monday, rejecting claims by America's top gun lobby that Israel serves as proof for its philosophy that the U.S. needs more weapons, not fewer. Far from the image of a heavily armed population where ordinary people have their own arsenals...

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Inouye remembered at Hawaii memorial service

HONOLULU President Barack Obama, Gov. Neil Abercrombie and other dignitaries attended a memorial service for the late Sen. Daniel Inouye on Sunday. A 19-gun cannon salute was fired as Inouye's coffin arrived for the service at Honolulu's National Memorial Cemetery of the Pacific, the final resting place to thousands of World War II veterans. More than 400 members of the storied Japanese-American...

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Newtown swamped by charity for victims, families

NEWTOWN, Conn. Peter Leone was busy making deli sandwiches and working the register at his Newtown General Store when he got a phone call from Alaska. It was a woman who wanted to give him her credit card number. "She said, 'I'm paying for the next $500 of food that goes out your door,'" Leone said. "About a half hour later another gentleman called, I think from the West Coast, and he did the same...

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Pa. gunman kills 2 at church, 1 on roadway

(CBS/AP) GEESEYTOWN, Pa. - The gunman who died in an apparent shootout with police  in central Pennsylvania Friday morning began his rampage by shooting a woman who was decorating a church for a children's Christmas party, according to the brother of the church's late pastor.The Altoona Mirror reports that  the gunman, who sources identified as Jeffrey Lee Michael of Hollidaysburg, then...

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House GOP: We have the votes for "Plan B"

Play VideoCantor: "We're going to have the votes" to pass "Plan B"Updated 1:45 p.m. ETAs the House readies for an expected vote on an alternate plan, dubbed "Plan B," to avoid massive tax hikes on all income earners, House Majority Leader Eric Cantor, R-Va., said he is confident he will have enough support to pass their plan. "We're going to have the votes," Cantor told reporters this morning. "Plan...

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ATF agent's gun found at Mexican crime scene

CBS News has learned that two guns found in the area of a recent Mexican drug cartel shootout have been linked to Fast and Furious: One trafficked by a suspect in the case, and the other purchased by a federal agent. Mexican beauty queen Susana Flores Maria Gamez and four others died in the brutal gun battle between Sinaloa cartel members and the Mexican military in November. CBS News has learned...

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Cops: 2 inmates escape from Ill. federal prison

CHICAGO, IL - DECEMBER 18: Crime scene tape surrounds the federal Metropolitan Correctional Center in the Loop after two convicted bank robbers escaped on December 18, 2012. (Photo by Scott Olson/Getty Images)/Scott Olson (AP) CHICAGO - Authorities say two men being held on bank robbery charges have escaped from a downtown Chicago federal prison.PICTURES: Inmates escape Chicago prison Chicago Police...

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Ex-babysitter: Lanza's mother warned me about him

HERMOSA BEACH, Calif. A man who says he once babysat for Newtown, Conn., gunman Adam Lanza says he recalls Lanza's mother warning him never to turn his back on the boy - not even to go to the bathroom. Ryan Kraft now lives in Hermosa Beach, in Southern California. But, he tells CBS station KCBS in Los Angeles, he was once a student at Sandy Hook Elementary School in Newtown, Conn., and babysat...

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In wake of school massacre, Conn. police warn against social media frauds

NEWTOWN, Conn. Connecticut authorities complained Sunday that false information about the mass shooting at Sandy Hook Elementary school is being promulgated online by social media tricksters. And they warned that such misinformation is prosecutable under the law. 19 PhotosVictims of Conn. school shooting36 PhotosVigils for Conn. school shooting victims"Misinformation is being posted on social media....

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Mandela undergoes successful gallstone surgery

JOHANNESBURG South Africa's former President Nelson Mandela underwent a successful surgery to remove gallstones Saturday, the nation's presidency said, as the 94-year-old anti-apartheid icon is still recovering from a lung infection. Doctors treating Mandela waited to perform the endoscopic surgery as they wanted to first attend to his lung ailment, presidential spokesman Mac Maharaj said in a statement....

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Will Clinton testify on Libya next Thursday?

Updated: 1:42p.m. ETThe State Department assured Congress today that Hillary Clinton will indeed be ready to testify next Thursday on the recent violence in Benghazi, after suggesting yesterday that the report on which her testimony will be based might not be ready in time. "The committees have announced the secretary will be on the Hill next Thursday, and so that's the plan," said Patrick Ventrell,...

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Experts: N. Korea still far away from reliable rockets

SEOUL, South Korea After 14 years of painstaking labor, North Korea finally has a rocket that can put a satellite in orbit. But that doesn't mean the reclusive country is close to having an intercontinental ballistic missile. Experts say Pyongyang is years from even having a shot at developing reliable missiles that could bombard the American mainland and other distant targets, though it did gain...

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