The U.S. government will block oil giant BP from new government contracts over its "lack of business integrity" stemming from the 2010 oil spill in the Gulf of Mexico, the Environmental Protection Agency said Wednesday.
The decision follows the London-based company's agreement November 15 to plead guilty to criminal charges including manslaughter, obstruction of Congress and environmental violations related to the explosion of the Deepwater Horizon oil rig and subsequent release of about 205 million gallons of oil into the Gulf.
FULL STORYFresh clashes broke out in Cairo on Wednesday near Tahrir Square, as riot police fired tear gas and charged at Egyptian protesters angry about a move by President Mohamed Morsy to extend his powers.
Edict divides Egypt, unifies opponents
Dozens of police officers - backed by trucks firing tear gas - advanced across Simon Boulevard Square, arresting many young people, some of whom were beaten by officers. Protesters continued to throw stones at police.
The latest clashes come after huge numbers of protesters swarmed into the square Tuesday night into Wednesday, hoping to revive a democratic groundswell that swept the country's former strongman from power nearly two years ago.
Observers suggested the crowds were the biggest seen since former strongman Hosni Mubarak was forced out early last year following days of street protests.
FULL STORYThe talk in Washington is all about the "fiscal cliff" and what the president and Congress need to do to avoid it. Watch CNN.com Live for continuing coverage of the fiscal cliff debate.
Today's programming highlights...
11:00 am ET - Amtrak reorganization hearing - What does the future hold for America's national rail service? Amtrak officials will testify before the House Transportation Committee.
A bus careened out of control in New York Tuesday night crashing into a home and killing a 6-year-old boy, police said.
The Nassau Inter-County Express bus was traveling on a Long Island roadway at about 9:30 p.m. when it swerved to try and avoid hitting a person. The bus driver hit the pedestrian, lost control of the bus and crashed into the front bedroom of the house, killing the boy, the Nassau County Police Department said.
FULL STORYMembers of the Democratic Republic of the Congo's M23 rebel movement said Wednesday they would withdraw from the captured city of Goma in line with a demand by regional leaders and the African Union.
The M23 forces will pull back to a position 20 kilometers (12 miles) north of Goma, officers and soldiers from the group told CNN.
FULL STORYThe attorney for a Florida man who shot at a car of unarmed teens over the weekend, killing one, says the incident bares no resemblance to the infamous Trayvon Martin case.
Her client, Michael Dunn, is no "vigilante" but did feel threatened and shot out of "self defense," the attorney said.
"There are no comparisons to the Trayvon Martin situation," said Robin Lemonidis, Dunn's attorney. "He is devastated and horrified by the death of the teen."
FULL STORY
Venezuelan President Hugo Chavez arrived in Havana early Wednesday for medical treatment, Cuban state media reported.
It's unclear whether the trip is a sign of a relapse of the cancer that has ailed him or is for a check-up.
Venezuela's national assembly on Tuesday voted to grant Chavez permission to travel to Cuba for the treatment, the state-run AVN news agency reported.
In October, Chavez was re-elected to a new term after having received treatment for cancer in preceding months.
Between June 2011 and May 2012, he underwent cancer treatment in Cuba, raising speculation about his political future and about a possible successor, especially when he named 10 people to his inner circle of advisers, known as the Council of State.
FULL STORY
A second lawsuit has been filed accusing Kevin Clash, the puppeteer who provided the voice of Elmo on "Sesame Street," of engaging in a sexual relationship with a minor.
In a lawsuit filed Tuesday in U.S. District Court in New York, a Florida man referred to as John Doe says Clash lured him into a sexual relationship in 2000, when the then-16-year-old came to the New York area from Florida to pursue modeling opportunities.
Clash's lawyer said the federal cases against his client are without merit.
FULL STORY
Before Sheldon Bruck told his orthodox Jewish parents he was gay, the teenager looked for a way out of homosexuality.
His search led him to JONAH – Jews Offering New Alternatives for Healing – which claimed on its website to help people "struggling with unwanted same-sex sexual attractions."
JONAH co-director Arthur Goldberg promised Bruck, then 17, that "JONAH could help him change his orientation from gay to straight," according to a consumer fraud lawsuit filed Tuesday against JONAH, Goldberg and a JONAH counselor.
"This is the first time that plaintiffs have sought to hold conversion therapists liable in a court of law," said Samuel Wolfe, a lawyer with the Southern Poverty Law Center.
FULL STORY
Wednesday's Powerball drawing could be one for the history books, with the jackpot rising to a record $500 million.
The prize for Saturday night's Powerball was $325 million – the fourth-largest in the game's history. For the 15th consecutive time, no players matched the winning numbers, which were 22, 32, 37, 44, 50 and Powerball 34.
FULL STORYEgyptians swarmed Cairo's Tahrir Square on Tuesday, seeking to revive a democratic groundswell that swept the country's former strongman from power nearly two years ago and demand that the man they chose to replace him respect their wishes.
Protesters waved flags and banners, chanting slogans and calling on President Mohamed Morsy to roll back his decree on presidential powers or resign.
"I now know that the Brotherhood does not work for the nation but for themselves only," protester Abu Eita said, according to state-run Nile TV. "Egypt is not all Brotherhood."
FULL STORYThe talk in Washington is all about the "fiscal cliff" and what the president and Congress need to do to avoid it. Watch CNN.com Live for continuing coverage of the fiscal cliff debate.
Today's programming highlights...
11:30 am ET - Immigration reform briefing - GOP Sens. Kay Bailey Hutchison and Jon Kyl speaks with reporters from Capitol Hill on immigration reform.
A NATO reconnaissance team is expected to survey the Turkish-Syrian border on Tuesday to prepare for the possible deployment of Patriot anti-aircraft missile batteries along the frontier.
Turkey has turned against its former ally, asking its fellow NATO members last week for Patriot missiles to bolster its air defenses because of several Turkish deaths blamed on Syrian forces.
FULL STORYAn Ohio mother, who frantically reported her 3-year-old son missing over the weekend, is now in jail after the boy's body was found at a nearby waste treatment plant.
The mother, 20-year-old Camilia Terry, reported her son Emilliano missing on Sunday, crying as she struggled to tell a dispatcher what happened. "I am calling you because I am at a park and my son is missing," the tearful mother said in a 911 recording obtained by CNN affiliate WEWS.
FULL STORYThe body of former Palestine Liberation Organization leader Yasser Arafat was exhumed Tuesday for tests to see if poisoning led to his 2004 death, according to WAFA, the official Palestinian news agency.
Arafat will be reburied with a military ceremony, officials have said.
Palestinian officials hope the tests will clear up questions over whether Arafat's death eight years ago was the result of poisoning by the radioactive element polonium.
FULL STORYIs it a slow leak that will grow into a cascade, or a minor drip easily plugged?
More and more, conservative Republicans in Congress are breaking from a pledge they signed years earlier against any kind of tax increase or additional tax revenue.
Facing the so-called fiscal cliff of automatic tax hikes and deep across-the-board spending cuts at the end of the year, the GOP legislators are signaling their willingness to cut a deal with President Barack Obama and Democrats that would include more money for the government.
The overall numbers remain relatively small - a handful of senators and House members - but they include influential veterans such as Sens. Saxby Chambliss of Georgia and Lindsey Graham of South Carolina, along with Rep. Peter King of New York.
FULL STORY
A fire at a workshop in southwestern Germany killed 14 people on Monday, according to a Freiburg police spokesman.
Karl-Heinz Schmid said several other people were injured at the Caritas workshop for the handicapped in the town of Titisee-Neustadt.
Firefighters were still in the middle of "a big operation," he said.
FULL STORYThe talk in Washington is all about the "fiscal cliff" and what the president and Congress need to do to avoid it. Watch CNN.com Live for continuing coverage of the fiscal cliff debate.
Today's programming highlights...
1:30 pm ET - White House briefing - The fiscal cliff debate will likely dominate Press Secretary Jay Carney's briefing with reporters, along with the situations in Egypt and Gaza.
2:00 pm ET - Senate back in session - Senators return from their Thanksgiving holiday break to discuss and debate the fiscal cliff and other matters.
CNN.com Live is your home for breaking news as it happens.
Israeli Defense Minister Ehud Barak announced his resignation Monday, saying he is quitting politics to spend more time with his family.
His resignation comes at a highly delicate time for Israel, which is observing a fragile cease-fire in Gaza with the militant Palestinian group Hamas after an eight-day conflict that killed more than 160 people, the overwhelming majority of them Palestinians.
Barak, who is married and the father of three children, said Monday he will continue in the post for the next three months before elections due in January.
Barak said he won't contest the January elections. Some Israeli political commentators had speculated ahead of the announcement that Barak was planning to quit the Netanyahu government to form a new center-left party.
FULL STORY
Until recently, the main threat to the lives of sea butterflies, tiny snails with winglike lobes that float in ocean currents, had been the fish and birds that rely on them as an important source of food.
But a new, less visible menace is emerging, scientists say, as the parts of the ocean that the snails inhabit become more acidic as a result of the burning of fossil fuels by humans.
In a study published this month, a group of international scientists say they have discovered that the snails' shells are being severely eaten away by the rising acidity in an area of the Southern Ocean near Antarctica.
This is the first evidence of the changing chemistry of the oceans affecting living organisms in their natural environment, according to the scientists, whose paper was published Sunday in the journal Nature Geoscience.
FULL STORY
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