$587.5M jackpot tickets sold in Mo., Ariz.
URBANDALE, Iowa, Nov. 29 (UPI) -- Attention Powerball ticketholders who took a chance on a $587 million dream: Winning tickets were sold in Arizona and Missouri, officials said.
The winning numbers for a share of the jackpot were 5-16-22-23-29 and the Powerball was 6.
"There were two jackpot winners (one in Arizona and one in Missouri)," the crawl across the Powerball website read.
The $587.5 million pot in Wednesday's drawing is the largest in Powerball history, CNN said. The prize for the lottery, conducted in 42 states, the U.S. Virgin Islands and the District of Columbia, grew to historic proportions after 16 drawings of the jackpot rolling over because of no winners.
The U.S. record payout is $656 million, set in March by a Mega Millions jackpot that was split among three winners.
The Powerball lottery is one of several run by Multi-State Lottery Association in Urbandale, Iowa.
White House: Obama flexible on tax rates
WASHINGTON, Nov. 29 (UPI) -- The White House won't require tax rates on upper-income Americans to rise to Clinton-era levels in a deficit deal to avoid the "fiscal cliff," officials said.
"The president is willing to look at anything that's sensible and realistic and that is mathematically sound," White House spokesman Jay Carney told reporters after being asked if the top rates needed to go to 39.6 percent from 35 percent as President Barack Obama has maintained was needed to reach his target of an additional $1.6 trillion in revenue over 10 years.
"But our point on rates is that they are the sensible, clean, simple way and proven way to achieve the kind of revenue target that we've talked about, as you've seen in the president's proposal, a proposal which includes loophole closures and deduction caps, as well, but ones that are realistic," Carney said.
Erskine Bowles, a chief of staff in Bill Clinton's presidency and the Democratic co-chairman of Obama's 2010 deficit-reduction panel, first described the White House's flexibility.
He said Obama was willing to consider limiting high-income tax deductions in exchange for not insisting tax rates above $250,000 a year rise. Republican leaders have said they were open to considering an end to some deductions.
Bowles also expressed pessimism a deal could be reached in Washington's current partisan climate, divided Congress and dwindling legislative calendar.
Morsi speech on Egypt Constitution crisis
CAIRO, Nov. 29 (UPI) -- A panel vowed to have a new Egyptian Constitution drafted Thursday as a political crisis grew since President Mohamed Morsi declared his rule above the law.
This will be followed Thursday evening with Morsi addressing the nation about the constitutional crisis, Voice of America reported. Government officials offered no immediate details.
The Constitution-writing Constituent Assembly of Egypt, led by Morsi's fellow Islamists of the Muslim Brotherhood's Freedom and Justice Party, said it intended to wrap up the draft constitution Thursday morning.
"The discussions over the draft of the Constitution will be finished today, to be followed by voting," Assembly Secretary-General Amr Darrag said in remarks carried by Egypt's official MENA news agency.
Completing the Constitution could make the power struggle between Morsi and the courts moot, The New York Times said, because Morsi said his decree, known as a constitutional declaration, giving him expanded powers would be lifted once the charter was in place.
Netanyahu: U.N. vote won't give statehood
UNITED NATIONS, Nov. 29 (UPI) -- Israeli Prime Minister Binyamin Netanyahu said the Palestinians' move to upgrade their status to a non-member U.N. state, will distance them from statehood.
Speaking in Jerusalem Thursday, just hours from a U.N. General Assembly vote to enhance Palestinian status, Netanyahu said, "Israel's hand is always extended in peace but a Palestinian state will not be established without recognition of the state of Israel as the state of the Jewish people, without an end-of-conflict declaration and without true security arrangements that will protect Israel and its citizens," The Jerusalem Post said.
"It does not matter how many will vote against us, there is no force in the world that will cause me to compromise on Israeli security and there is no force in the world able to sever the thousands year connection between the people of Israel and the Land of Israel," Netanyahu said.
The United States failed to get Palestinian leaders to change a motion for enhanced U.N. status and the General Assembly vote was expected to pass by a wide margin.
Lohan arrested after N.Y. club fight
NEW YORK, Nov. 29 (UPI) -- Troubled actress Lindsay Lohan was arrested Thursday morning after a fight with a woman at a New York City nightclub, police said.
ABC News reported Lohan is in police custody and assault charges are pending against the 26-year-old "Liz & Dick" star, who allegedly punched a woman during an altercation at downtown Manhattan's Club Avenue at around 4 a.m.
It was unclear whether alcohol was involved.
Lohan starred in a string of hit films such as "The Parent Trap" and "Mean Girls," but in recent years has seen her career eclipsed by her legal woes, family dramas, and battles with drugs and alcohol.
