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President Barack Obama does not believe the recently disclosed top-secret National Security Agency surveillance of phone records and Internet data has violated Americans' privacy rights, his chief of staff said on Sunday. _0"> Denis McDonough, appearing on CBS's "Face the Nation" program, also said he did not know the whereabouts of Edward Snowden, the former NSA contractor who said he was the source of reports in Britain's Guardian newspaper and The Washington Post about the agency's monitoring of phone and Internet data at big companies such as Verizon Communications Inc, Google Inc and Facebook Inc.   The administration has said the top-secret collection of massive amounts of "metadata" from phone calls - raw information that does not identify individual telephone subscribers, was legal and authorized by Congress in the interests of thwarting militant attacks. It has said the agencies did not monitor calls. Asked whether Obama feels h

North Korea on Sunday proposed high-level talks with the United States to ease tensions on the Korean peninsula, a week after it scrappped planned official talks with South Korea for the first time in over two years. _0"> North Korea National Defence Commission in a statement carried by KCNA news agency said Washington can pick a date and place for talks and the two sides can discuss a range of issues but no preconditions should be attached.   Earlier this year, North Korea threatened nuclear and missile strikes against South Korea and the United States after it was hit with U.N. sanctions for its February nuclear weapons test. (Reporting By Jane Chung, Editing by Jack Kim, Michael Perry)

A fire at a sprawling downtown Indianapolis recycling plant, fueled by propane tanks and a massive stockpile of rubber tires, forced the evacuation of homes and businesses within a five-block radius on Saturday, officials said. The fire started Saturday afternoon at the two-story, three-block-long brick warehouse that houses Nationwide OTR Recyclers, police and fire officials said. The blaze caused more than half the building to collapse, said Indianapolis Metropolitan Police Department spokesman Christopher Wilburn.   The building has a number of businesses, including the recycling plant, which houses 85,000 square feet (7,900 square meters) of rubber tires and 60,000 square feet (5,570 square meters) of wood palettes, as well a 500-gallon (1,900-liter) propane tank and a number of smaller tanks, Wilburn said. By Saturday night, the fire was contained to the south side of the building, and firefighters were working to keep the large propane tank cool so it would not explode, Indi

Power outages hit the Mexican capital of Mexico City on Sunday after an earthquake struck the center of the country, and officials said there was no other damage reported. _0"> Some restaurants and residential buildings in the capital were evacuated as a precautionary measure, they said. Buildings shuddered in the city, a Reuters witness said. The U.S. Geological Survey (USGS) downgraded its initial measurement of the quake to magnitude 5.8 from 6.0. No one at state oil company Pemex was immediately available to comment but the group has no major installations near the epicenter of the quake, 14 miles west of Jolalpan in southwest Mexico, 76 miles south of Mexico City. (Reporting by Simon Gardner; Editing by Louise Ireland and Robert Birsel)  

Paul Soros, a shipping magnate, philanthropist and older brother of billionaire investor George Soros, died on Saturday at age 87, his son said. _0"> Paul Soros passed away at his New York City home, his son, Jeffrey Soros, said. The New York Times said Soros had been treated for Parkinson's disease, cancer, renal failure and diabetes. "Through his engineering innovations, philanthropy and personal relationships, he profoundly impacted many lives," Jeffrey Soros said in a statement. "He was loved dearly and will be sorely missed." Soros was born in Hungary in 1926, according to the Paul and Daisy Soros Foundation for New Americans, a $50 million philanthropic organization he founded with his wife to assist struggling new immigrants in the United States. He studied mechanical engineering in Budapest and defected from Hungary in 1948 when the country was under Communist rule. Soros later found his way to the United States.   In 1956, he founded Soro

A few hundred rights advocates and political activists marched through Hong Kong on Saturday to demand protection for Edward Snowden, who leaked revelations of U.S. electronic surveillance and is now believed to be holed up in the former British colony. Marchers gathered outside the U.S. consulate shouting slogans denouncing alleged spying operations aimed at China and Hong Kong, but the numbers were modest compared to rallies over other rights and political issues.   "Arrest Obama, free Snowden," protesters shouted outside the slate grey building as police looked on. Many waved banners that said: "Betray Snowden, betray freedom", "Big brother is watching you" and "Obama is checking your email". In his first comments on Snowden's case, Hong Kong leader Leung Chun-ying said late on Saturday that the government would handle it in accordance with established laws. "When the relevant mechanism is activated, the Hong Kong SAR Governmen

In the final months leading up to the launch of the key piece of President Barack Obama's healthcare reforms, the administration is preparing a public-education campaign designed to connect directly with the audience most critical for the law's success. The effort will focus on selling the merits of the Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act to 2.7 million Americans with little or no health coverage, who are 18-to-35 years old, mostly male, and largely nonwhite, including many who are black or Hispanic, officials involved in the planning told Reuters.   The idea is to get them enrolled in private health plans through online marketplaces that will offer coverage in all 50 states at prices defrayed by federal subsidies, which many should qualify for because of their lower incomes and lack of adequate insurance. Participation of young consumers is central to the success of the new state healthcare exchanges, and Obama's reform law, because the young tend to have little