TV News LIES

The Pentagon will send hundreds of additional spies overseas as part of an ambitious plan to assemble an espionage network that rivals the CIA in size, U.S. officials said.

The project is aimed at transforming the Defense Intelligence Agency, which has been dominated for the past decade by the demands of two wars, into a spy service focused on emerging threats and more closely aligned with the CIA and elite military commando units

This year, Aiman Youssef is thankful to be alive.

The 42-year-old Staten Island man said he used to have a $300,000 house he could be thankful for, and a car, and two vans full of things he was going to sell on EBay. Then Superstorm Sandy ruined all that and the rest of his neighborhood too, so just being alive is the best he can ask for right now.

"It's survival — that's what it is now," said Youssef, who sleeps in a tent, where it gets cold early in the morning, around 3 or 4 a.m. especially.

But that tent is no ordinary tent; it's a full-blown Sandy relief hub, bustling with supplies and volunteers "like 24-hours-seven here," as Youssef put it in a phone interview. And on Thursday, Youssef's temporary home was just one of the many locations around the Northeast that stayed busy over Thanksgiving nourishing the thousands of Sandy survivors and volunteers whose lingering struggles know no holiday.

The US accounted for the most requests, as it has consistently since the report was launched. US authorities asked for private details of Google users on 7,969 occasions, up from 6,321 in the last reporting period. The number is more than a third of the 20,938 requests for users' details worldwide. Google fully or partially complied with 90% of those requests.

Over the six months, Google was asked to remove seven YouTube videos that criticised local and state agencies, police and other public officials. It did not comply with these requests.

Federal agents arrested dozens of members of the white supremacist Aryan Brotherhood of Texas on Friday and charged them with murder, kidnapping, racketeering and conspiracy to distribute methamphetamine and cocaine.

A 43-page federal indictment unsealed by the Justice Department names 34 members of the violent organized crime group who have been charged, including four of its senior leaders.

New York Mayor Michael Bloomberg has ordered licence plate-based petrol rationing, 10 days after Storm Sandy ravaged the city. Fuel shortages since the storm hit have led to hours-long waiting times at pumps, and traffic chaos for commuters struggling to get to work.

Similar measures were introduced in New Jersey on Saturday and will also be enforced in New York's Long Island. Only 25% of the city's petrol stations are operating, Mr Bloomberg added.

Voters for the first time approved legal gay marriage in at least two states and voted to legalize recreational pot in Washington and Colorado.

In California, voters rejected an initiative that would have required labeling of most food with genetically engineered ingredients but approved Measure B, legislation to require actors in adult films to use condoms.

The measure, which garnered more than 55 percent support from voters Tuesday, is intended to promote public health and to protect porn actors from sexually transmitted diseases, although opponents said it would force the adult film industry to relocate from the San Fernando Valley.