Passenger tossed after flipping out over staff's ‘Merry Christmas’  —  Bah, humbug!  —  A passenger was tossed off a plane at La Guardia Airport on Tuesday after flipping out — because airline workers wished him a merry Christmas.  —  The man was waiting to board American Airlines Flight 1140 …

Can GOP shatter ‘Obama coalition’ in 2016?  —  ATLANTA (AP) — Republicans crowed in 2004 that freshly re-elected President George W. Bush had established a “permanent governing majority” for the GOP.  Eight years later, Democrats were touting the enduring power of the “Obama coalition” to keep their party in the White House.

Obama 's Christmas in Hawaii: Carols, relax on the beach  —  KAILUA, Hawaii (AP) — President Barack Obama celebrated Christmas in Hawaii by singing carols at home before spending the afternoon on the beach.  —  Obama, his wife and two daughters pulled up midday in their motorcade …

JetBlue offering police free flights to slain NYPD cops' funerals  —  Police officers watch over a makeshift memorial in remembrance of the two NYPD cops who were slain over the weekend.  —  JetBlue airlines said Wednesday it will be offering free flights to police officers from around …

Israeli serviceman shoots 5yo Palestinian in the face (GRAPHIC IMAGES)  —  Israeli police have fired a rubber bullet at a five-year-old Palestinian boy's face as he was getting out of a school bus on his way home, the child's family told Palestinian media.  He sustained a skull fracture under his eye.

Alleged Hacker Threatens Albuquerque Residents: “i love you isis”  —  Employees at the Albuquerque Journal are still trying to figure out how ISIS propaganda threatening local residents got posted on the paper's website Thursday.  —  The paper's top online story, a piece on a 1971 police shooting …

Father asks Islamic State to treat captured pilot son as ‘guest’  —  (Reuters) - The father of a Jordanian pilot captured by Islamic State fighters after his plane crashed in Syria said he did not consider his son a hostage and called on his captors to treat him as a “guest”.

Raid on Peru village by uncontacted tribe may be related to climate change  —  A Peruvian official said climate change has triggered temperature drops which may have disrupted the uncontacted tribe  —  Climate change may be forcing increasingly large groups of uncontacted tribes out of Peru's Amazon …

Oh come all ye faithful?  —  Obama rarely seen in church, but advisers say his beliefs remain strong.  —  President Barack Obama rarely goes to church and has spent just one Christmas morning of his presidency in the pews.  —  But that's not for lack of faith, members of his small circle of religious confidants say.