For there to be betrayal, there would have to have been trust first.
Suzanne Collins

North Korea's Kim Jong-un makes rare new year speech

The North Korean leader has delivered a new year's message on state TV, the first such broadcast for 19 years.

Kim Jong-un, in power since 2011, spoke of the need to improve the economy and also to reunify the Koreas, warning that confrontation only led to war.

The speech came less than a month after the conservative Park Geun-hye was elected president of South Korea.

Scores killed in Ivory Coast fireworks stampede

About 60 people have been crushed to death in a stampede outside a stadium in Ivory Coast's main city of Abidjan after a New Year's Eve fireworks display.

The incident took place near Félix Houphouët-Boigny stadium where a crowd had gathered to watch fireworks, emergency officials said.

One of the injured, speaking to Reuters at a hospital, said security forces had arrived to break up the crowd, triggering a panic in which many people fell over and were trampled.

Five female teachers among seven killed by gunmen in Pakistan

Gunmen ambushed a van in northwest Pakistan Tuesday and shot to death seven aid workers — five of whom were female teachers — in an attack that is likely to rekindle fears among Pakistanis over militant assaults on the country’s education system.

The workers, members of a Pakistani nongovernmental organization called Support With Working Solutions, were in a van leaving a community center in the outskirts of the northwest city of Swabi and on their way home when two gunmen on motorcycles forced the vehicle to stop, Swabi police and government officials said.

According to the van’s driver, Abdul Majid, the gunmen positioned their motorcycles in the middle of the road, pulled out pistols and opened fire on the van.

Key Details of the Fiscal Cliff Deal

Tax rates will permanently rise to Clinton-era levels for families with income above $450,000 and individuals above $400,000. All income below the threshold will permanently be taxed at Bush-era rates.

The tax on capital gains and dividends will be permanently set at 20 percent for those with income above the $450,000/$400,000 threshold. It will remain at 15 percent for everyone else.

The estate tax will be set at 40 percent for those at the $450,000/$400,000 threshold, with a $5 million exemption indexed to inflation.

The phase out of personal exemptions will be reinstated with a starting income threshold for those making $250,000.

The sequester will be delayed for two months, paid for half by discretionary cuts and the other half will be offset by revenue raised by the voluntary transfer of traditional IRAs to Roth IRAs.

Colorado gets members-only clubs for legal pot use

With reggae music pumping in the background and flashing disco-style lights, members of the recreational pot club lit up in celebration of the new year — and a new place to smoke legally among friends.

Club 64, in an industrial area just north of downtown Denver, opened at 4:20 p.m. on Monday, with some 200 people signed up. The opening came less than 24 hours after organizers announced they would charge a $29.99 admission price for the bring-your-own pot club.

"Look at this!" Chloe Villano exclaimed as the club she created over the weekend opened. "We were so scared because we didn't want it to be crazy. But this is crazy! People want this."

Montana minimum wage workers getting pay hike

Montana's minimum wage workers are getting a small pay raise on New Year's Day when an automatic cost-of-living increase takes effect.

SNIP

Montana's minimum wage goes up due to a ballot initiative approved by nearly three-fourth of voters in 2006. That law established the annual cost-of-living increases.

Ban on demanding Facebook passwords among new 2013 state laws

Employers in California and Illinois will be prohibited from demanding access to workers' password-protected social networking accounts and teachers in Oregon will be required to report suspected student bullies thanks to new laws taking effect in 2013.

In all, more than 400 measures were enacted at the state level during 2012 and will become law in the new year, according to the National Conference of State Legislatures (NCSL).

Some of the statutes, which deal with everything from consumer protection to gun control and healthcare, take effect at the stroke of midnight. Others will not kick in until later in the year.

Cosmic Radiation Could Cause Alzheimer's in Mars Astronauts

Space travel has always been portrayed as risky -- no air or water, extreme temperatures -- a place where even a small miscalculation can be fatal. It can also be hazardous to your brain health, particularly on a three-year-long mission to Mars, according to a study published this week in the scientific journal PLOS ONE.

The eight-year long study, conducted at the NASA Space Radiation Laboratory at Brookhaven National Laboratory on New York's Long Island, found that the cosmic radiation on such a mission could accelerate the onset of Alzheimer's disease.

NASA is working on sending astronauts to a passing asteroid in the 2020s, and talks of a trip to Mars in the 2030s. It would take three years, with current technology, to get there and back. Current spacecraft are not heavily shielded from the cosmic radiation crew members would encounter beyond Earth's protective magnetic field.

Quadrantid Meteor Shower 2013: When & Where to Watch

Quadrantid meteor showers will be the first to appear in the sky January 2013. This year, they will take place on the night January 2nd and proceed into the early morning hours of January 3rd.

SNIP

Quadrantid meteor showers are the most predictable annual meteor showers. The “Quads” are tiny particles about the size of grains of sand, coming into the atmosphere at to 90,000 miles an hour. They burn up about 50 miles above the earth.

SNIP

The maximum activity for the Quadrantids is expected to be in around 2:30 a.m. EST. The moon will set around 3:00 a.m., and the sky will stay dark for meteor viewing until the first light of dawn appears at around 6 a.m.