Cnn – Page 24 – 4VF News – Daily News Channel

Travel leaders, lawmakers rally behind ‘blacklisted’ cities

Business isn’t the first thing that comes to mind when thinking about Las Vegas, Nevada, or Orlando, Florida, but these two entertainment capitals are also the top business meeting and convention destinations in the United States. One of the nation’s largest employers has discouraged its employees from booking meetings and conventions in the cities where Mickey Mouse lives and Wayne Newton sings. In an e-mail between a Federal Bureau of Investigation employee and a Las Vegas hotel, the FBI employee explained why the agency would not hold an upcoming business meeting in the city

Florida couple’s slaying was a contract hit, source says

A source with knowledge of the investigation told CNN the state attorney’s office believes there were two motives in the home invasion murder of Florida couple Byrd and Melanie Billings — robbery and a contracted hit. The Escambia County Sheriff’s Office had said it believed robbery was the prime motive, but that it would explore all avenues

Obama and Cabinet to assess performance at 6-month mark

Halfway through the first year of his historic administration, President Obama will give himself an early report card this weekend, assembling his Cabinet officials to review their performance and set new goals for the months ahead. All 22 Cabinet-rank officials will meet to discuss “priorities for the administration’s agenda moving forward,” a White House official said. Obama and Vice President Joe Biden will kick off the two-day assessment with a dinner for the Cabinet on Friday evening at Blair House, the building across the street from the White House that hosts many foreign dignitaries when they visit Washington.

The Scene: ‘Funny’s’ Sandler goes to the doctor

A lot of people like Adam Sandler. The box office earnings for many of his films are testament to his drawing power. Sandler’s biggest comedic blockbusters include “Big Daddy,” “The Waterboy” and “The Longest Yard,” each of which has earned well over $150 million domestically

European gang trained for terror

An American who says he went to fight U.S. forces in Afghanistan told interrogators that about the time he became an al Qaeda member he came across several Belgian and French militants.

American’s odyssey to al Qaeda’s heart

On September 10, 2007, almost exactly six years after al Qaeda attacked the United States, Bryant Neal Vinas, a 24-year-old American citizen born in Queens, New York, boarded a flight from the city en route to Lahore, in eastern Pakistan, determined to fight jihad in neighboring Afghanistan. Brought up a Catholic by his Latin American immigrant parents, who divorced when he was young, Vinas tried to join the U.S. army in 2002 but dropped out after just a few weeks

Al Qaeda changing, training, plotting

When Bryant Neal Vinas spoke at length with Belgian prosecutors last March, he provided a fascinating and sometimes frightening insight into al Qaeda’s training — and its agenda.

Recession reality bites Japan’s anime industry

Given the magnitude of Japan’s recession, it should perhaps come as little surprise that the fantasy-obsessed animation industry has received a hard dose of reality. Yasuo Yamaguchi, executive director of the Association of Japanese Animators, said the industry has been rocked by the country’s deepest recession since World War II.

Malawi halts nursing brain drain

Like most African countries, Malawi has suffered from a severe shortage of nurses and key health workers. In the past, workers in the tiny southeast African nation of just 13 million inhabitants have been lured abroad by the promise of higher wages and better working conditions. But, the country best-known as the homeland of Madonna’s adopted children now has another claim to fame: It has succeeding in halting — at least for now — its crippling brain drain of nurses.

New Taliban rule book calls for fewer suicide attacks

A new Taliban military "code of conduct" calls for restrictions on suicide attacks aimed at avoiding the killing of civilians, but U.S. and Afghan military officials dismissed the document as propaganda, calling it hypocritical. The booklet, obtained by CNN in northwestern Pakistan, has emerged during a crucial moment in the fight between troops and militants in Afghanistan, where battles are raging in the country’s Helmand province and troops work to establish stability for the upcoming presidential elections.