| Holiday Drinking and Driving Posted: 05 Dec 2011 04:36 AM PST  Profile America — Monday, December 5th. Americans were able to legally drink once again on this date in 1933, as Prohibition ended after 13 eventful years. While alcohol is legal, its use requires personal responsibility. The holiday season now under way is a time for more parties and more driving than usual — as well as increased hours of darkness and bad weather. This combination is why this is National Drunk and Drugged Driving Prevention Month. While the number of people killed on the nation’s highways each year is dropping, accidents still claim almost 31,000 lives. About one-third of these deaths occur in accidents where the people involved have blood alcohol levels above the legal limit. Profile America is produced by the U.S. Census Bureau: Measuring America–People, Places, and Our Economy.
Sources: Chase’s Calendar of Events 2011, p. 582, 589
Statistical Abstract of the United States 2012, t. 1105, 1110
http://www.census.gov/compendia/statab/2012edition.html  
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| Sheriff’s Detectives Have Identified a Juvenile as the Person Who EMailed Bomb Threats at Lincoln Charter School Posted: 05 Dec 2011 04:33 AM PST Denver, NC – Lincoln County Sheriff's Detectives have identified a 15 year old male juvenile as the person who emailed bomb threats to the school on November 30, 2011 and December 2, 2011. Majors Crimes Unit Detective Lt. Tim Johnson said interviews were conducted Friday and Saturday that led to identifying the individual as a suspect. Johnson said a cooperative effort by the Lincoln County Sheriff's Office, Federal authorities and local citizens helped solve the case. Officers have met with the juvenile and his parents concerning the bomb threats. They secured confirming evidence used to send the threats. Detectives will turn the information obtained during the investigation over to Juvenile Authorities and meet with the District Attorney's Office on Monday. The investigation into the incident will continue.  
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| Iran claims to have shot down U.S. drone Posted: 05 Dec 2011 01:11 AM PST TEHRAN (BNO NEWS) -- The Iranian military on Sunday claimed it has shot down a U.S. reconnaissance drone in the country's east near the border with Afghanistan, although U.S. and NATO officials believe it may have crashed by itself. Iranian state-run media quoted unnamed senior military officials as saying that its electronic warfare unit successfully targeted a U.S.-built RQ-170 Sentinel stealth aircraft after it crossed into Iranian airspace from its border with Afghanistan, although the reports did not say when the incident happened. In the Afghan capital of Kabul, the NATO-led International Security Assistance Force (ISAF) said the unmanned aircraft claimed to have been downed by the Iranian military might be a U.S. unarmed reconnaissance aircraft which had been flying a mission over western Afghanistan earlier this week. "The operators of the UAV lost control of the aircraft and had been working to determine its status," an ISAF spokesperson said. But in the United States, military officials speaking on condition of anonymity said they were skeptical about the reports saying the Iranian military had downed the drone. Instead, U.S. officials believe the drone likely crashed by itself after contact was lost. The Iranian government said it seized the drone with 'minimal damage.' (Copyright 2011 by BNO News B.V. All rights reserved. Info: sales@bnonews.com.) 
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| Majority Narrows for Putin’s Party in Russia Polls Posted: 04 Dec 2011 10:02 PM PST Russian Prime Minister Vladimir Putin's ruling party has suffered surprisingly steep losses in parliamentary elections, giving the man who has dominated politics there for more than a decade a much reduced majority.
With 96 percent of the vote counted, United Russia on Monday looked set to win 238 seats in the 450-seat State Duma, or lower house, down sharply from the 315 seats it had secured in 2007 elections.
Opponents said even this total is inflated by fraud.
The projected results show Putin's party losing the more than two-thirds parliamentary supermajority that has given United Russia the ability to change the constitution unilaterally.
The Communists, along with the nationalist Liberal Democrats and Just Russia - a social democratic party - all made strong gains, meaning that Mr. Putin's party will be forced to work with at least some of the country's newly empowered opposition.
The Central Election Commission said Monday that United Russia had garnered 49.5 percent of the ballots cast, compared with 64 percent in 2007. Gennadi Zyuganov's Communist Party is running a distant second with just under 20 percent, up from 12 percent four years ago.
Russian analysts in recent weeks predicted a sharp decline in the ruling party's popularity, with voters voicing discontent about the growing income gap between Russia's rich and poor, and allegations of official corruption.
In subdued remarks late Sunday, Putin said voters had reaffirmed United Russia as "the nation's leading political force" and that the result would "ensure [the country's] stable development."
Earlier, police detained more than 100 opposition activists during a demonstration in Moscow. Dozens more were arrested in St. Petersburg.
Also Sunday, Russia's only independent election monitor, Golos, told VOA police had blocked some of its poll watchers from their posts around the nation.
Golos and the popular Russian opposition radio station Ekho Moskvy also said their websites were hacked, making them inaccessible. Several opposition news sites also were not working.
Golos says it has compiled more than 5,300 complaints of election law violations, and it accused the ruling party of complicity in most of them.
Last week, Putin, the current prime minister, formally accepted his party's nomination to return to the presidency - a post that analysts say he is certain to win. He announced his intentions in September, confirming a deal under which he would appoint current President Dmitry Medvedev as his prime minister.
The planned job swap has angered many in Russia, who said it would strengthen authoritarian rule and clear the way for Mr. Putin to become Russia's longest-serving leader since communist times.
If he regains the presidency, the 59-year-old Putin could serve two more 6-year terms and remain in power until 2024. He was first elected president in 2000. Some information for this report provided by AP, AFP and Reuters. 
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| Putin’s Party Losing Support in Russian Election Posted: 04 Dec 2011 10:02 PM PST Russian Prime Minister Vladimir Putin's ruling party has suffered surprisingly steep losses in Russia's parliamentary elections, polling just under a 50 percent majority with 92 percent of the vote counted.
The Central Election Commission said early Monday that United Russia had garnered 49.8 percent of the ballots cast Sunday, compared with 64 percent in 2007.
The Communist Party was running a distant second with just under 20 percent, up from 12 percent four years ago. The Communists, along with the nationalist Liberal Democrats and Just Russia - a social democratic party - all made strong gains, meaning that United Russia will be forced to work with at least some of the country's newly empowered opposition.
Russian analysts in recent weeks predicted a sharp decline in the ruling party's popularity, with voters voicing discontent about the growing income gap between Russia's rich and poor, and allegations of official corruption.
In 2007, United Russia held a two-thirds majority in the State Duma (lower house of parliament), which allowed it to change the constitution unchallenged.
Earlier in the day, police detained more than 100 opposition activists during a demonstration in Moscow. Dozens more were detained in St. Petersburg. Also Sunday, a leading independent Russian vote monitoring organization, Golos, told VOA that Russian police blocked some of its poll watchers from their monitoring posts around the nation.
Golos and the popular Russian opposition radio station Echo of Moscow (Ekho Moskvy) also said their websites were hacked, making them inaccessible. Several opposition news sites also were not working.
Golos says it has compiled more than 5,300 complaints of election law violations, and it accused the ruling party of complicity in most of them.
Last week, Mr. Putin, the current prime minister, formally accepted his party's nomination to return to the presidency - a post that analysts say he is certain to win. He announced his intentions in September, confirming a deal under which he would appoint current President Dmitry Medvedev as his prime minister.
The planned job swap has angered many in Russia, who said it would strengthen authoritarian rule and clear the way for Mr. Putin to become Russia's longest-serving leader since communist times.
If he regains the presidency, the 59-year-old Mr. Putin could serve two more 6-year terms and remain in power until 2024. He was first elected president in 2000. Some information for this report provided by AP, AFP and Reuters. 
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