Founded in 2010
News & Entertainment for Mason City, Clear Lake & the Entire North Iowa Region
By Henry Chu, Los Angeles Times – LONDON — European leaders grappling with a stubborn debt crisis reaffirmed their commitment Monday to sign a new pact limiting public spending, but pledged also to
By Gary Marx and David Jackson, Chicago Tribune – CHICAGO — Mexico’s top diplomat in the United States has vowed that his government will redouble efforts to apprehend the growing numbers of criminal
By Patrick J. McDonnell and Rima Marrouch, Los Angeles Times – BEIRUT — Syrian troops reasserted control Monday of rebellious suburbs outside Damascus, retaking some districts amid stiff resistance as the opposition reported
By Jeannine Stein, Los Angeles Times – Here’s some good news for a change from the diabetes front: Lower-limb amputations due to diabetes complications dropped 65 percent from 1996 to 2008. In a
By Lisa M. Krieger, San Jose Mercury News – SAN JOSE, Calif. — Scientists at SLAC National Accelerator Laboratory have created the world’s first atomic X-ray laser. The researchers aimed SLAC’s Linac Coherent
By David Pierson, Los Angeles Times – BEIJING — Eager to lock up natural resources in Africa, despite the geopolitical risks, China pledged to provide nearly $100 million in aid to the continent
By Christi Parsons, Tribune Washington Bureau – WASHINGTON — President Barack Obama offered a vigorous defense of the use of unmanned aircraft to kill al-Qaida operatives and other militants in Pakistan’s tribal areas
By Andrea Chang, Los Angeles Times – LOS ANGELES — Major tech companies including Google Inc., Facebook Inc. and Microsoft Corp. have teamed up to fight email phishing scams. Members say the partnership
Brady Gervais, Pioneer Press, St. Paul, Minn. – The abuse of heroin and other opiates reached the highest levels yet in the Twin Cities during the first half of 2011, according to a
LIMA, Peru — More than 100 people were injured Monday after a strong earthquake in southern Peru, Peruvian civil defense authorities said. Most of the injured however had only slight wounds. “There
By Laura King and Aimal Yaqubi, Los Angeles Times – KABUL, Afghainstan — Another horrific case of violence against women in Afghanistan came to light Monday when authorities reported that a husband in
William Smith, The Hawk Eye, Burlington, Iowa – FORT MADISON – The solitary beat of a snare drum set a slow but steady pace for more than 125 people marching through downtown Saturday
CLEAR LAKE – The Big Bopper Junior is looking forward to an extended weekend of music and his hosting duties at the North Iowa landmark he refers to as the “temple of
By Mark K. Matthews, The Orlando Sentinel – WASHINGTON — There’s no firm date yet, but sometime in early 2014 NASA intends to take its first major step toward rebuilding its human spaceflight
By Sergei L. Loiko, Los Angeles Times – MOSCOW — Moscow’s Garden Ring street, a 10-mile circle around large portions of the city’s historic center including the Kremlin, turned white on a frosty
By Evonne Coutros, The Record (Hackensack N.J.) – HACKENSACK, N.J. — The nation’s oldest Medal of Honor recipient, a World War II Army veteran who fought in the Battle of the Bulge, will
By Barbara Demick, Los Angeles Times – BEIJING — Sudanese rebels have kidnapped about 30 Chinese construction workers who were building a road in a remote stretch of the country, Chinese and Sudanese
By Patrick J. McDonnell and Rima Marrouch,Los Angeles Times – BEIRUT — Syrian tanks and troop reinforcements moved Sunday to reclaim government control of rebellious suburbs outside Damascus, opposition groups reported, bringing
The Yomiuri Shimbun – TOKYO — The number of flu-stricken patients in Japan reached about 1.11 million in the week ended Jan. 20, an increase of about 400,000 from the previous week,
By Patrick McGreevy, Los Angeles Times – SACRAMENTO, Calif. — Gilbert Robles retired as a state parole agent at age 53, able to collect a $101,195 annual pension — 94 percent of his
By Saeed Shah, McClatchy Newspapers – LAHORE, Pakistan — A senior American official has for the first time admitted that a Pakistani doctor played a key role in tracking Osama bin Laden to
By Lee Romney, Los Angeles Times – OAKLAND, Calif. — Police faced off Saturday afternoon with hundreds of Occupy movement protesters, arresting more than a hundred of them during a much-anticipated demonstration focused
By Marco Mierke WASHINGTON — The United States is “very concerned” about the condition of a Pakistani doctor who provided information that helped them track down al-Qaida leader Osama bin Laden, U.S.
By Peter Mayer ROME — The wasting of a “precious hour” by the captain of the Costa Concordia jeopardized the timely evacuation of all those aboard the stricken cruise liner, a top
By Ali Safi, McClatchy Newspapers – KABUL, Afghanistan — A suicide car bomber killed four Afghan civilians and wounded dozens Thursday in the southern province of Helmand, local officials said. The attack, which
By Albert Otti DAVOS, Switzerland — Software billionaire Bill Gates announced Thursday that his foundation would give $750 million to the Global Fund to Fight AIDS, Tuberculosis and Malaria. The pledge, made
By Diana Renee RIO DE JANEIRO — Rescue workers in Rio de Janeiro on Thursday recovered the bodies of three people from the rubble of three collapsed buildings, with at least 16
By Jeffrey Fleishman, Los Angeles Times – CAIRO — The son of a U.S. Cabinet official and other Americans working for a democracy rights group have been stopped from leaving Cairo as part
By Michael Muskal, Los Angeles Times – LOS ANGELES — Gang homicides are less likely to be drug-related than many people think — and more likely to be a result of factors such as
By Shari Roan, Los Angeles Times – LOS ANGELES — Home birth is making a marked resurgence in the United States, according to data released Thursday by the federal government. A century ago,
By Hanns-Jochen Kaffsack – ROME, Italy — Divers on Saturday found the body of a woman on the half-sunken Italian cruise ship Costa Concordia, officials on the island of Giglio said, bringing
By Laura King, Los Angeles Times – KABUL — After France, the deluge? The announcement by French President Nicolas Sarkozy that his troops would sharply accelerate their departure from Afghanistan cast a harsh
By Irmgard Rieger and Farshid Motahari TEHRAN, Iran — Officials from the United Nations nuclear agency arrived Saturday in Tehran for talks aimed at allaying concerns that Tehran is seeking a nuclear
Diane Heldt, The Gazette, Cedar Rapids, Iowa – IOWA CITY — The University of Iowa has released some of the emails that were sent to journalism professor Stephen Bloom last month after the
By Andrew Blankstein and Richard Winton, Los Angeles Times LOS ANGELES — A woman who called 911 from Demi Moore’s home Monday night told officials the movie star was suffering convulsions and was
By Diana Renee RIO DE JANEIRO — The death toll from the collapse of three buildings in central Rio de Janeiro climbed to seven, the authorities confirmed Friday after more bodies were
By Peter Mayer ROME — Italian consumer rights groups were divided over a decision on Friday by the owners of the shipwrecked Costa Concordia to pay 11,000 euros — about $14,550
By Michael Muskal, Los Angeles Times – LOS ANGELES — A teenage girl who received an electronic warning was being praised as a hero Friday for tipping off authorities about what they believe
By Raheem Salman and Patrick J. McDonnell, Los Angeles Times – BAGHDAD — A suicide car bomb detonated Friday at a busy Baghdad intersection as a funeral procession was passing by, killing 32
Michael Schaffer, Daily Iowegian, Centerville, Iowa – CENTERVILLE Between 250-300 people came to the Centerville Fire Department Thursday afternoon to take part in placing 2,200 American flags along the route the body