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WASHINGTON (AP) — North Korea is experiencing widespread Internet outages. One expert says the country's online access is "totally down." It's not immediately clear if the Internet connectivity problems were an act of retribution for a major intrusion at Sony Pictures Entertainment that the FBI last week linked to North Korea. President Barack Obama on Friday said the U.S. government would respond but didn't say how.
UNITED NATIONS (AP) — The U.N. Security Council has placed North Korea's bleak human rights situation on its agenda. And that, in itself, is a groundbreaking step toward possibly holding that country and its leader accountable for alleged crimes against humanity. This appears to be the first time that any country's human rights situation has been placed on the agenda for ongoing debate by the U.N.'s most powerful body. China and Russia protested the move. The council is unlikely to take action today.
NEW YORK (AP) — At least for now, New York's mayor says, it's time to "put aside" the protests and the political debates over police conduct. The plea from Mayor Bill de Blasio comes as the police force prepares for Christmastime burials for two officers who were shot to death in an ambush by a man who had vowed to kill officers in response to the deaths of black men in confrontations with white officers. In the aftermath of Saturday's shootings, the mayor's relations with the city's police unions have tumbled to a new low.
HAVANA (AP) — Cuba is celebrating the return of three spies who were imprisoned in the United States for more than a decade. And it's also celebrating the fact that the wife of one of the spies is expecting a baby in two weeks. The pregnancy of Adriana Perez has been the talk of Cuba since she appeared with her husband at Cuba's parliament this weekend. A top aide to Sen. Patrick Leahy confirms that the lawmaker helped arrange for Perez's artificial insemination, a procedure carried out in Panama. He says it helped improve the atmosphere for the talks that lead to the restoration of diplomatic ties between the U.S. and Cuba.
NEW YORK (AP) — Sony may have scrapped the release of the movie "The Interview," but it will be in at least at one theater in New York City — onstage, that is. Treehouse Theater says it will put on a free reading of the film's script on Saturday, giving "an opportunity for people to come together in the name of free speech, in defiance of all who have threatened it." Sony Pictures canceled the release of the movie "The Interview," a comedy that revolves around the assassination of North Korean leader Kim Jong Un, after receiving threats of terrorist attacks from hackers.
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