BREAKING NEWS:
Suicide bomb attack kills senior police official and two others in north-west Pakistan
Clinton: No freeze for Haiti aid
US Secretary of State Hillary Clinton says the United States has no plans to suspend aid to Haiti despite the continuing crisis over the disputed presidential election in the Caribbean nation.
At least one person has been killed and thousands are evacuated after a series of explosions at an arms depot in Venezuela, officials say.
Egypt standoff continues as protesters defy curfew
eremy Bowen reports on Sunday's stand-off in Cairo's Tahrir Square.
Police have been ordered back on to the streets of Cairo and the curfew has been extended, as Egypt's president tries to re-assert control.
But anti-government demonstrators remained camped out in central Cairo overnight and they have called for a general strike on Monday.
Protesters want President Hosni Mubarak to step down after 30 years in power.
The president has ordered his new Prime Minister Ahmed Shafiq to push through political reforms.
Egyptian state television read out a letter he had sent to Mr Shafiq, in which the president speaks of the need to make progress towards constitutional and legislative reform through a dialogue with political parties.
He also calls for economic policies that give the highest concern to people's suffering and bring down unemployment by creating new jobs.
Correspondents say all the signs continue to suggest that the only change the protesters will settle for is Mr Mubarak's removal from office.
Protesters in Tahrir Square say they will stay there until President Mubarak leaves
Protest of millions
As demonstrations enter their seventh day, there are already plans for a "protest of the millions" march on Tuesday.
On Sunday, most of the crowd in Cairo's Tahrir (Liberation) Square were unfazed by low-flying visits from air force jets and a helicopter.
"Change is coming" promised the leading Egyptian opposition figure Mohamed ElBaradei when he addressed the crowds.
Thousands rallied in Alexandria and there were also sizeable demonstrations in Mansoura, Damanhour and Suez.
Police were noticeable by their absence so the protests were not marked by the sort of clashes which have left at least 100 people dead since rallies began on Tuesday.
But with continued reports of looting, the Interior Minister Habib al-Adly announced on Sunday that police would be back on the streets to restore order.
Economic impactThe unrest is having an impact on the Egyptian economy, beyond the closure of shops and businesses and the call for a general strike.
On Monday, New Zealand joined a growing list of countries warning their nationals not to travel to Egypt if they can avoid it and the US, Japan and China are among states preparing to evacuate their citizens.
Tourism is a vital sector in the Egyptian economy, accounting for about 5 to 6% of GDP.
Meanwhile, Japanese car maker Nissan has announced that it is halting production at its Egypt plant for a week, and it has urged non-Egyptian employees to leave the country.
Global markets are also likely to react. The Nikkei fell in early trading in Tokyo as the Egyptian unrest prompted investors to shun riskier assets.
'Orderly transition'
A slogan on a Cairo wall shows a humorous side to the protest
movement
nternational pressure is growing for some kind of resolution.
In the strongest language yet, both US President Barack Obama and his Secretary of State Hillary Clinton talked about the need for an "orderly transition" to a democratic future for Egypt.
The White House says US President Barack Obama made a number of calls about the situation over the weekend to foreign leaders including Turkish Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdogan, King Abdullah of Saudi Arabia and British Prime Minister David Cameron.
The protests in Egypt are top of the agenda of a meeting of European Union foreign ministers in Brussels on Monday.
China, meanwhile, has called for a return to order.
"Egypt is a friend of China's, and we hope social stability and order will return to Egypt as soon as possible," a Chinese foreign ministry spokesman said on Sunday.
The unrest in Egypt follows the uprising in Tunisia which ousted President Zine al-Abidine Ben Ali two weeks ago after 23 years in power.
Are you in Egypt? Are you taking part in a protest or have you witnessed any of the latest events? Are you a tourist attempting to leave? You can send us your pictures and stories using the form below.
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Bangladesh city to pay beggars during cricket World Cup
There are reportedly more than 700,000 beggars across Bangladesh
The authorities in Bangladesh's city of Chittagong say they will pay beggars a daily wage to keep them off the streets during next month's Cricket World Cup.
Some 300 disabled beggars would be paid about $2 (£1.20) a day for three months to compensate them for their loss of earning, Mayor Mansur Alam said.
He added that the beggars would also be given a chance to move into rehabilitation centres.
Bangladesh is co-hosting the World Cup along with India and Sri Lanka.
Egypt protesters defy curfew
Police are ordered back on to the streets and the curfew is extended, but anti-government demonstrators remain in central Cairo and call for a strike.
Egypt's military: Respect the curfew
Egypt's military is urging people to respect a government-ordered curfew so that authorities can more easily capture those accused of looting and destruction, a spokesman said on state-run Nile TVElBaradei joins Cairo protesters
Leading opposition figure Mohamed ElBaradei addresses thousands of protesters defying a curfew to demand President Mubarak steps down.
Egypt: An anxious waiting game as standoff continues
U.S. missionary in Mexico fatally shot
CNN) -- An American missionary was fatally shot in Mexico on Wednesday, police said.
The preliminary investigation indicated that Nancy Davis, 59, and her husband were traveling on a Mexican highway near the city of San Fernando, Mexico, when they were confronted by gunmen in a black pickup, the Pharr Police Department in Texas said in a statement. San Fernando is south of the border city of Reynosa in Tamaulipas state.
"The gunmen were attempting to stop them and the victims accelerated in efforts of getting away from them," the police statement said. "At a certain point the gunmen discharged a weapon at the victim's vehicle and a bullet struck the victim Nancy Shuman Davis on the head."
Davis' husband, identified as Sam Davis by family friends, drove their truck "at high rate of speed" to the Pharr International Bridge, which crosses the Rio Grande. Nancy Davis was taken to a hospital in nearby McAllen, where she was pronounced dead about 90 minutes later.
The Texas Department of Public Safety, Immigration and Customs Enforcement, the FBI and U.S. Customs and Border Protection are also assisting, police said.
The Mexican Interior Ministry said it, too, was investigating "for the purpose of clarifying the facts and act accordingly to punish the person or persons responsible."
Merton Rundell, a professor in the missions department at Indiana's Union Bible College & Academy and a family friend, told CNN the couple had lived in Mexico since the 1970s and worked with the Gospel Proclaimers mission in Mexico.
Maryanne Wheeler, another friend who worked with the Davises in the 1990s, said Nancy Davis' death was a great loss.
"They breathed Mexico," Wheeler said. "That's their love.
"For 40 years she has gone around Mexico, trying to be there as a nurse, a friend, as a spiritual adviser and has loved them. They lost the best," she said. "They had a petite lady who had the tenacity of a bulldog and was there for you."
Wheeler said the couple had been shot at before and knew the dangers of the border area.
Police: Nevada councilwoman died in murder-suicide
(CNN) -- An embattled Nevada councilwoman e-mailed a friend about items intended for her mother and called police shortly before they found her and her husband dead in an apparent murder-suicide, police in Mesquite said Wednesday.
"Detectives were advised that Bill Fairchild was the victim of a homicide-suicide. The crime scene and autopsy were consistent that Bill was deceased approximately an hour before Donna," said Chief Douglas L. Law in a statement after the autopsy. Each of the Fairchilds suffered a single gunshot wound.
The bodies were found Tuesday morning, hours before Donna Fairchild was to attend a City Council meeting and face possible sanctions over a travel expense voucher and public comments.
A neighbor told CNN on Wednesday she had lunch with Donna Fairchild on Monday and was the recipient of a box left by the councilwoman, apparently on the morning of the shootings.
According to police, Donna Fairchild contacted City Attorney Cheryl Truman Hunt around 8:30 p.m. Monday to discuss an opportunity to meet with the mayor and council in order to tender her resignation before the meeting. The city attorney at 10 p.m. confirmed with Fairchild a Tuesday afternoon meeting with the mayor and council.
At a news conference, police in this city along Interstate 15 near the Arizona border provided a timeline of the events that led to the shooting deaths.
Sometime late Monday or early Tuesday, Donna Fairchild dropped off a box at the friend's house, Law said.
"At 4:20 a.m., an email was sent by Donna to a friend to say she left a note with a box on her friend's porch to be sent to Donna's mother," the statement said. "At 4:33 a.m., Police Dispatch received a 911 call from Donna Fairchild which gave her address, said her door was unlocked and that she would be 'post-suicide.' "
"At 4:35 a.m., officers and detectives arrived on scene and located Donna and Bill Fairchild in the back bedroom and found each with a single gunshot wound. Both were deceased."
Toxicology tests conducted by the Clark County Coroner's Office were expected to take four to six weeks, according to the city.
The city released the audio of the 911 call, in which Donna Fairchild gave the address, said the couple was in the bedroom, the front door was unlocked and "I am post-suicide." The police dispatcher said, "And what's going on there?"
There was no audible response.
Melanie Giarratana said she had known the Fairchilds for about 10 years and enjoyed a lunch Monday with Donna Fairchild.
"It was wonderful," said Giarratana, who has been active in local issues and economic development in this resort town that features golf resorts and casinos.
Donna Fairchild had told her she had made a mistake by filing a $94.60 mileage expense form for a trip city officials said she did not make, Giarratana said. But the councilwoman said she never signed for the check.
Giarratana said she had no inkling of what was to occur the next morning.
Donna Fairchild forwarded her an e-mail joke around 8 p.m. Monday. The councilwoman sent her another e-mail around 4:20 a.m. Tuesday about the box, but Giarratana did not see the e-mail until 7 a.m., when she found the package outside her home.
According to Giarratana, Donna Fairchild wrote her, "I have left a box full of items for my Mom by your front door. Please make sure she gets it! I know this will never make sense. I am sorry. Thank you for being my BFF."
Bound in rubber bands, the box contained jewelry, cash and a note expressing apologies, Giarratana said.
Mesquite city spokesman Bryan Dangerfield said Tuesday that a note and a 9mm handgun were found at the scene.
"The content of the note will not be disclosed until the investigation is complete," Dangerfield said.
City Manager Timothy Hacker said he believed that Donna Fairchild was concerned about the agenda items, according to CNN Las Vegas affiliate KLAS.
Fairchild, who was a candidate for mayor, told the Desert Valley Times last week that she would not comment on the allegations against her but instead would talk about them Tuesday evening.
Mayor Susan Holecheck and the city had planned to ask the City Council to consider sanctioning Fairchild through possible reprimand, removal from boards or expulsion for filing the $94.60 mileage reimbursement request with the city for a January 4 Nevada Development Authority board meeting she allegedly did not attend, according to an item on the council agenda.
Fairchild allegedly violated the city's code of conduct and its personnel policy, and she allegedly presented a fraudulent claim to a public officer, Hunt wrote in a January 18 memo.
Holecheck, who is seeking re-election, and Hunt also wanted the City Council to consider removing Fairchild as the city's representative to the Nevada Development Authority board of directors.
According to a filing on the agenda, comments Fairchild made about the authority in a newspaper article "were negative towards this agency, and deemed incompatible with the mission of the agency and good working relations with other NDA board members."
A January 7 article of the Desert Valley Times includes interviews and comments from Mesquite mayoral candidates.
In the article, Fairchild said, "We just got a bill from the Nevada Development Authority: It costs $7,500 to belong. There was one thing that came out of the NDA, and that was Do It Best. That was huge for the community, but I don't think we're getting the bang for our buck."
In the article, Fairchild said that Mesquite should be doing most of its own marketing.
NDA Executive Director Somer Hollingsworth wrote Holecheck that Fairchild -- who was the city's representative to the board since July 2009 -- should have brought her concerns to him, rather than airing them publicly, especially since she was a member of the NDA executive committee, according to an e-mail attached with the filing.
According to the agenda item, Fairchild could have discussed her issues with the NDA if she had attended the January 4 board meeting.
Donna Fairchild served on the City Council from 2001 to 2007 and was re-elected in 2009. She moved to Mesquite with Bill Fairchild in 1999 after they both retired from the Denver Police Department, the city said. In Mesquite, Bill Fairchild worked at a recreation center and was a member of the Virgin Valley Honor Guard and the Veterans of Foreign War.
The Fairchilds were married for 21 years, the city said.
"They had an excellent marriage," Giarratana said.
The friend of the couple said she does not believe the issues with the city were enough to push Donna Fairchild over the edge.
"I cannot figure out what happened between 8 p.m. and 4:20 a.m.," Giarratana said.
She said Donna Fairchild wanted to continue her mayoral campaign and deal with the issues, but Giarratana was unaware that the councilwoman had apparently planned to resign Tuesday.
"The town is in total shock," Giarratana said. "The town is weeping."
Doctors: Giffords faces rocky road to recovery, normalcy
CNN) -- In the days and weeks to come, Rep. Gabrielle Giffords' recovery from a gunshot wound to the head will be a marathon, not a sprint, doctors say.
Nearly three weeks after her brain injury, there are several acute medical issues to be concerned about, according to doctors not involved with her care.
It could take months -- or longer -- for her to get back to where she was before the bullet ripped through her brain.
One immediate worry is an infection in her brain, according to Dr. Greg Zorman, chief of neurosurgery at Memorial Healthcare System in southern Florida.
"With gunshot wounds to the head, an infection can still happen, even this late," Zorman said.
Snow may continue to keep much of Northeast grounded
Check on weather and travel delays with the CNN travel tracker. Share your snow images with CNN iReport.
(CNN) -- The major snowstorm that pelted much of the Northeast will taper off Thursday but still many schools and government offices and even some airport runways could remain closed.
On Wednesday the National Weather Service issued winter storm warnings that stretched from the southern Appalachian mountains to coastal Massachusetts. All of those warnings were due to expire early Thursday morning.
Even though that storm only stayed for a day, it caused major issues in some areas. And some areas recieved record snowfall, according to the National Weather Service.
In New York's Central Park, a record 12.3 inches of snow fell Wednesday, beating a day record set in 1871, the weather service said.
Newark set a record 11 inches and Philadelphia also set a record 14.2 inches, the weather service said.
In Philadelphia, schools and administrative offices were to be closed Thursday as Mayor Michael Nutter declared a snow emergency.
Color-coded threat system to be replaced in April
Washington (CNN) -- The much-maligned, color-coded Homeland Security Advisory System is about to be consigned to the proverbial dustbin of history.Not that anyone is really paying attention.Homeland Security Secretary Janet Napolitano is expected to announce Thursday that the almost 9-year-old threat alert system will go away in April. It will be replaced by the new National Terror Advisory System that will focus on specific threats in geographical areas, a department source said Wednesday.The source did not provide details of the new system, which Napolitano will unveil at what the department is calling "the first annual 'State of America's Homeland Security' address" at George Washington University.The top Democrat and Republican on the House Homeland SecurityCommission reacted positively to the news, although committee chairman Rep. Peter King, R-New York, reserved judgment on the specifics.
"Though the system served a valuable purpose in the terrible days and months following the terrorist attacks of September 11, it was clearly time for the current color-coded system to be replaced with a more targeted system," King said. "I know they have been working on this for a long time. It sounds to me like the changes they are proposing make sense. We will have to wait and see how they implement this new, more targeted system. I expect the biggest challenge for DHS will be balancing the need to provide useful and timely information with the need to protect sensitive information."
"The old color coded system taught Americans to be scared, not prepared," said ranking member Rep. Bennie Thompson, D-Mississippi. "Each and every time the threat level was raised, very rarely did the public know the reason, how to proceed, or for how long to be on alert. I have raised concerns for years about the effectiveness of the system and have cited the need for improvements and transparency. Many in Congress felt the system was being used as a political scare tactic -- raising and lowering the threat levels when it best suited the Bush administration."
President George W. Bush established the Homeland Security Advisory System by presidential directive on March 11, 2002, just a few months after the 9/11 terrorist attacks in New York and Washington. The five levels -- green for low, blue for guarded, yellow for elevated, orange for high and red for severe -- were intended to identify the risk of terrorist attack.
The initial level was yellow, which the system retained until September 11, 2002, when it was raised to orange to cover the first anniversary of the attacks. It was lowered back to yellow on September 24.
In its lifetime, the threat level has been raised to orange/high five times, although it went to that level three other times for specific industries. The threat level was raised to red/severe once -- on August 10, 2006, and only for commercial flights from the United Kingdom to the United States -- when British authorities announced they had disrupted a major plot to blow up aircraft. The level went down to orange on August 16, 2006, where it remains.
The general threat level is yellow/elevated. The two lower levels have never been used, and task force looking at the system recommended in 2009 eliminating them altogether and making yellow the lowest threat level but renaming it "guarded."
Almost from the start, the threat level system was the butt of jokes and multiple parodies.
The "Democracy Threat Advisory Level" went from green/low ("Wow, clean money systems really work") to red/severe ("Martial law, but it's for your own good").
A "Total Headcase Advisory System" began with "George Soros is arrested" and ended with "Hillary Clinton is elected president." Still another announced that Homeland Security and Crayola had jointly revised the system, changing green to aquamarine, blue to raw umber, yellow to burnt sienna, orange to neon carrot and red to cotton candy.
The public didn't care much for the system either, with polls conducted at the time indicating most Americans found it confusing and not very useful.
More seriously, however, some critics accused the Bush administration of using using the system to generate fear at politically sensitive times, such as just before the 2004 election. And just days after his 2005 resignation, then-Homeland Security Secretary Tom Ridge told a Washington forum that he sometimes disagreed with the rationale for raising the alert but was overruled by others on the Homeland Security Advisory Council, which made the decisions.
The council included Attorney General John Ashcroft, FBI chief Robert Mueller, CIA director George Tenet, Defense Secretary Donald Rumsfeld and Secretary of State Colin Powell.
"More often than not we (the department) were the least inclined to raise it," Ridge told reporters after the forum. "Sometimes we disagreed with the intelligence assessment. Sometimes we thought even if the intelligence was good, you don't necessarily put the country on (alert). ... There were times when some people were really aggressive about raising it, and we said, 'For that?' "
And in 2009, Ridge wrote in a tell-all book that sometimes officials such as Ashcroft and Rumsfeld pressured the department to change the level, describing a 2004 event in which his arguments against raising the alert worked.
"I believe our strong interventions had pulled the 'go-up' advocates back from the brink. But I consider the episode to be not only a dramatic moment in Washington's recent history, but another illustration of the intersection of politics, fear, credibility and security," he wrote.
"After that episode, I knew I had to follow through with my plans to leave the federal government," he wrote.
Ridge announced his resignation on November 30, 2004, and left office on February 1, 2005.
The Bush administration denied Ridge's assertions, however.
"Nobody's more surprised than I am," then-Homeland Security adviser Fran Townsend told CNN's Wolf Blitzer. "Of course, Tom Ridge never expressed those concerns while he was in the administration, nor did he when I spoke to him after he left ... (He) wasn't the only one in that meeting who suggested the terror alert shouldn't be raised. At no time was there a discussion of politics in that meeting. And the president was made a consensus recommendation from the council that he accepted -- not to raise the terror alert."
Townsend is now a national security contributor for CNN.
