USA - Representative Ron Paul, whose maverick presidential bids shook the GOP [‘Grand Old Party’ - Republicans], said in the wake of this week's elections that the country has already veered over the fiscal cliff and he sees no chance of righting the ship in a country where too many people are dependent on government.

USA - In the 2008 final exit polls, the electorate was 75 percent white, 12.2 percent African-American, 8.4 percent Latino, with 4.5 percent distributed to other ethnicities. Right now it appears to be pegged at about 72 percent white, 13 percent black, 10 percent Latino and 5 percent “other.” Obviously, this surge in the non-white vote is troubling to Republicans, who are increasingly almost as reliant upon the white vote to win as Democrats are on the non-white vote. With the white vote decreasing as a share of the electorate over time, it becomes harder and harder for Republicans to prevail.

MIDDLE EAST - Iranian warplanes fired at an unarmed US drone in international airspace last week but did not hit the aircraft, the Pentagon said on Thursday, disclosing details of an unprecedented incident that triggered a formal warning to Tehran through diplomatic channels. The November 1 intercept was the first time Tehran had fired at an unmanned American aircraft, in a stark reminder of how tensions between the United States and Iran could escalate quickly into violence. If Iran had hit the drone, as the Pentagon believes it was trying to do, it could have forced American retaliation - with the potential consequences that entails.

UK - MPs say the UK Border Agency's attempts to clear a massive backlog of cases could become an amnesty for immigrants with no right to be in the UK. Keith Vaz, who chairs the Home Affairs Committee, said the backlog was almost equivalent to Iceland's population and spiralling out of control.

USA - When Barack Obama signed the Lily Ledbetter fair pay act, which supported equal pay for women, his detractors called it pandering. When Republican candidates were caught making clumsy statements about rape and abortion, their supporters called the ensuing uproar a "distraction" from the real issues.

USA - President Obama wasn’t the only big winner on Tuesday: the Monsanto Co and the billion-dollar business behind genetically modified foods were victorious in California, where a measure that would've required the labeling of GMOs lost at the polls.

NEW YORK, USA - In the wake of superstorm Sandy, reports of lootings across the Tri-State have been widespread. Areas hit especially hard by Sandy continue to deal with dealing with lawlessness. Rockaways residents told 1010 WINS reporter Gary Baumgarten that looting and thievery have become such serious threats that taking up arms and fleeing town are the best options for staying safe.

NEW YORK, USA - The nor'easter that interrupted recovery efforts from Superstorm Sandy is pulling away from New York and New Jersey, and is making its way into New England. In its wake is a blanket of thick, wet snow that snapped storm-weakened trees and downed power lines from Brooklyn to storm-battered sections of the Jersey shore and Connecticut. Households that waited for days without power because of Sandy were plunged back into darkness in temperatures near freezing.

GREECE - Greece continues to be one of the world’s biggest arms importers, despite having little chance of meeting the deficit reduction targets pegged to its International Monetary Fund (IMF) bailout loan, according to a preliminary report by the organization’s debt inspectors. The IMF report will likely recommend more austerity in Greece, in addition to 89 other stalled reforms Athens has failed to enact. Despite the push for cuts in other spheres, the Greek government continues to spend a considerable portion of its budget on arms, amounting to 7 billion euros in 2011. From 2002 through 2006, Greece was the world's fourth-largest importer of weapons. Despite the country’s ongoing debt crisis, it remains the tenth-largest military importer.

GREECE - Greece risks sliding into a civil war, unless officials in Athens follow Iceland’s example and default on the country's loans, journalist Charlie McGrath told RT. Charlie McGrath from Wide Awake News says Greece needs to admit to bankruptcy and start fresh from scratch. “The financial health is not going to change in the country until they realize that they are in default – that they are bankrupt – and tell the banks that are holding their debt, and the European Union and the ECB, that they’re going to default,” he stressed.

EUROPE - Stock markets skidded across the world and investors retreated to safe-haven assets on fears that Europe’s festering crisis has spread to Germany and a bitterly-divided Washington may struggle to avert a fiscal crisis. Mario Draghi, the European Central Bank’s president, warned that Germany is no longer insulated from the slump in southern Europe. "The latest data suggest that these developments are now starting to affect the German economy," he said, triggering an immediate sell-off on Europe’s bourses and pushing the euro down to almost $1.27 against the dollar.

USA - Superstorm Sandy may consign as many as a quarter of a million new and used cars and trucks to the scrap heap, a loss that could eventually lead to a spike in new auto sales, automakers and dealers said. So far, automakers have reported that some 16,000 brand new vehicles will have to be scrapped due to the killer storm that flooded coastal areas in New Jersey and New York. Many of them were stored at the port of Newark when Sandy hit. At least 121 people were killed in the storm's rampage through the Northeast, including 80 in New York and New Jersey.

USA - Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid (Democrat for Nevada) said on Wednesday that if the $16.394 current legal limit on the federal government's debt must be raised in the next few months by another $2.4 trillion, “We’ll raise it.” That would set the debt limit at $18.794 trillion ... CNSNews.com reported that the Treasury quietly announced a week ago that it expects the federal government to hit its legal debt limit before the end of this year.

GUATEMALA - A strong earthquake off the coast of Guatemala shook buildings in the capital and killed at least 39 people on Wednesday, trapping others under rubble and triggering evacuations as far away as Mexico City. The 7.4 magnitude quake hit at 10:35am local time (11:35 EDT). A local fire chief said at least some of the dead were buried under debris in a mountainous region near the Mexican border. Landslides blocked roads in some areas, authorities said, and about 40 houses were severely damaged.

USA - The Dow industrials lost more than 300 points in a sell-off on Wednesday that drove all major stock indexes down over 2 percent in the wake of the presidential election as investors' focus shifted to the looming "fiscal cliff" debate and Europe's economic troubles. The Standard & Poor's 500 Index posted its biggest daily percentage drop since June, with all 10 S&P sectors solidly lower and about 80 percent of stocks on both the New York Stock Exchange and the Nasdaq ending in negative territory. The focus turns to the fiscal cliff, with investors worrying that if no deal is reached over some $600 billion in spending cuts and tax increases due to kick in early next year, it could derail the economic recovery.