In the news
Beverly Perdue, the Democratic governor of North Carolina, said “We look like Mississippi” in expressing disappointment that voters in her state approved a constitutional amendment banning same-sex marriage, prompting Mississippi’s Republican governor, Phil Bryant, to label her remarks “petty.”
Eduardo Saverin, 30, who was born in Brazil and helped found Facebook, gave up his American citizenship in September for the more tax-friendly residency status of Singapore, with the news of his renunciation surfacing only days before Facebook shares are expected to be sold to the public.
Hugo Chavez, 57, Venezuela’s president, returned home after 11 days of cancer treatment in Cuba, saying his latest round of radiation therapy was successful.
Susanne Jacoby Hale, a Florida-based author whose book, Shades of Gray, is about a dropout-prevention teacher, says she has received e-mails, Facebook messages and phone calls from people thinking she wrote E L James’ chart-topping erotic work Fifty Shades of Grey.
Mariela Castro, a gayrights advocate and the daughter of Cuban President Raul Castro, said during a gay-rights march in Havana that her father advocated eliminating sexual discrimination and reiterated her own hope the country would soon legalize same-sex marriage.
Harry Rigdon, an east Tennessee man whose Model 94 Winchester .30-30 rifle was taken in a burglary 15 years ago, got it back after someone tried to sell it to a store in Clackamas County, Ore., and the store ran a check on its serial number.
Oscar Ramiro OrtegaHernandez, an Idaho man accused of shooting an assault rifle at the White House last November and charged with the attempted assassination of President Barack Obama, now faces firearms and “injury to a dwelling” charges that were added to a list of 17 charges he was already facing.
Robert Zoellick, the World Bank president who served in three Republican administrations, declined to say in an interview on CNN’S Fareed Zakaria GPS to be broadcast today whether he will advise Republican presidential hopeful Mitt Romney when his mandate ends next month.
Leon Panetta, the defense secretary, said at the Pentagon that military leaders have concluded that last year’s repeal of the ban on gays serving openly in uniform has not affected morale or readiness.