Report: Fox News reduces Rove's role
NEW YORK, Dec. 4 (UPI) -- Fox News chief Roger Ailes has directed the U.S. broadcasting outlet to limit Republican strategist Karl Rove's on-air appearances, New York magazine reported.
Citing multiple Fox sources, the magazine said Tuesday Ailes has been taking steps to reposition Fox News following President Barack Obama's re-election victory over Republican nominee Mitt Romney.
A representative for Fox News confirmed the cable channel is changing its customary booking practices, and the magazine said multiple sources confirmed Ailes has directed that faces associated with Fox's election coverage -- including Rove and pundit Dick Morris -- be given less air time.
Fox News Senior Vice President of Programming Bill Shine issued an order requiring producers and bookers not to book appearances by Rove or Morris with getting permission, the report said.
Senate rejects U.N. treaty on disabled
UNITED NATIONS, Dec. 4 (UPI) -- The Senate voted Tuesday to reject a U.N. treaty protecting rights of disabled people, with opponents warning its terms "would be forced on" the United States.
Six Republicans voted with Democrats in favor of ratifying the Convention on the Rights of Persons with Disabilities, but the final vote -- 61-38 in favor -- was five votes short of the two-thirds necessary to join more than 150 other countries that have ratified the treaty.
Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid, D-Nev., said the treaty was modeled on U.S. law and he will bring it up for another vote in the next Congress.
In a statement, Reid said the U.N. treaty "simply brings the world up to the American standard for protecting people with disabilities" and said the Senate rejected it "because the Republican Party is in thrall to extremists and ideologues" and "a small group of Republican senators fear the Tea Party more than they care about equality for people with disabilities."
"Their arguments against the treaty had no basis in fact -- the treaty does not change United States law," Reid said.
In a statement late Tuesday, the White House expressed disappointment "that the overwhelming majority of Senate Republicans today blocked the Convention on the Rights of Persons with Disabilities, which would enshrine American standards that have been developed through decades of bipartisan cooperation."
The White House said it hoped the Senate will reconsider the treaty in the next Congress and noted ratification would not result in any change to U.S. law but "would position the United States to support extending across the globe the rights that Americans already enjoy at home."
"This in turn would improve the lives of Americans with disabilities -- including our wounded service members -- who wish to live, work, and travel abroad. It would also allow our businesses to operate on a more level playing field and reaffirm American leadership on disability rights."
President Barack Obama and former Senate Majority Leader Bob Dole, R-Kan., supported ratification of the treaty, which was negotiated and signed by President George W. Bush.
Police hit huge Cairo rally with tear gas
CAIRO, Dec. 4 (UPI) -- Police fired tear gas on crowds as tens of thousands gathered at the presidential palace in Cairo Tuesday to protest Egypt's new draft Constitution.
Police fired one round of tear gas before taking cover inside the palace grounds, The New York Times reported.
The march came after an Egyptian judicial council agreed to oversee a vote on the document. The decision by the Supreme Judicial Council -- which last month condemned a power grab by President Mohamed Morsi as an "unprecedented attack" on the courts -- suggests the influential judicial organization is looking to contain Egypt's political unrest, the Los Angeles Times said.
The Muslim Brotherhood, with which Morsi is affiliated, quickly endorsed the council's move.
Many judges are on strike and vowed to boycott the referendum, scheduled for Dec. 15.
The demonstration by Morsi's political opponents was intended to pressure him to rescind a Nov. 22 decree that gave him immunity from judicial oversight. Morsi has said he needs near-absolute power to speed up Egypt's democratic transition. He has said the decree will be nullified when the charter is adopted.
The biggest march Tuesday -- led by leading dissidents, including Nobel laureate Mohamed ElBaradei -- was dubbed "The Final Warning." It was also intended to protest the charter itself, which the April 6 youth movement said "threatens the freedoms and rights of Egyptians."
Man shoved in front of NYC subway, crushed
NEW YORK, Dec. 4 (UPI) -- A New York City man was killed after an apparently deranged panhandler shoved him into the path of an oncoming subway train.
Ki Suk Han, 58, of Queens, was on the southbound Q train platform at the 49th Street Station in Times Square in Manhattan when he began to quarrel with a man witnesses described as screaming and making a scene while also begging for money about 12:30 p.m. Tuesday. Han told the man to leave the subway station and the two began arguing. Then the man grabbed Han and threw him onto the tracks. As the train approached horrified onlookers tried in vain to get the conductor to stop.
Han scrambled to his feet but couldn't get out of the deep train recess. As the train screeched into the station the conductor was unable to stop and Han was pinned between the train and the platform, The New York Post said Tuesday. A second-year resident at a local hospital was among those in the station and rushed to Han's care, but she said his position made it impossible to administer CPR. He died a short time later.
