WASHINGTON

New faces expected to join White House leadership team

Retooling for a re-election run, President Obama is shaking up his senior leadership team to deal with the new realities of his term: The era of big legislation is over, a massive campaign effort needs energy and people and the White House is taking a toll on those who run it.

Obama’s press secretary, Robert Gibbs, is likely to leave that job, and his interim chief of staff, Pete Rouse, may go, too. Those departures would significantly alter the management of the White House and the way it explains itself to the world.

In the coming days and weeks, Obama is also expected to have a new chief economic adviser, a new senior political counselor and two new deputy chiefs of staff.

Collectively, the moves reflect that change is coming to the White House in ways that will alter the dynamic of the place –and, in turn, will influence the agenda affecting the nation. The vice president’s office is in for its own new leadership, with its chief of staff, Ron Klain, leaving to run an investment company.

 

Leaked cable may cost U.S. ambassador his job

In what appears to be the first diplomatic casualty from the latest WikiLeaks revelations, the U.S. ambassador to Libya has returned to Washington and is likely to leave his post, U.S. officials said Tuesday.

Ambassador Gene Cretz, a veteran American diplomat, authored several secret cables to Washington that speculated on longtime Libyan leader Moammar Gadhafi’s health, and described his personal proclivities, including his reliance on a “voluptuous” Ukrainian nurse.

The documents are among about 2,000 that have been publicly released from a cache of more than 250,000 State Department cables obtained by WikiLeaks.

PHOENIX

Thousands flock to buy Mega Millions tickets

Thousands of people lined up in 41 states and Washington, D.C., ahead of the Mega Millions drawing on Tuesday in hopes of buying the winning ticket for the lottery game’s $355 million jackpot.

The prize is the fourth largest in U.S. history and the second largest in Mega Millions history, said Arizona Lottery spokeswoman Cindy Esquer. The lottery’s prize of $390 million in March 2007 remains the nation’s richest on record.

ISLAMABAD, Pakistan

Governor who opposed blasphemy laws is killed

The governor of Pakistan’s most dominant province was shot and killed Tuesday by a bodyguard who authorities said was angry about his opposition to blasphemy laws carrying the death sentence for insulting the Muslim faith.

Punjab Gov. Salman Taseer, regarded as a moderate voice in a country increasingly beset by zealotry, was a close ally of U.S.-backed President Asif Ali Zardari. He is the highest-profile Pakistani political figure to be assassinated since former Prime Minister Benazir Bhutto three years ago, and his death underscores the growing danger in this country to those who dare challenge the demands of Islamist extremists.

Taseer was riddled by gunshots while walking to his car after an afternoon meal at Kohsar Market, a shopping center in Islamabad popular with Westerners and wealthy Pakistanis. He was shot in the back, said Shaukat Kayani, a doctor at Poly Clinic Hospital.

GENEVA

Partial solar eclipse visible over Mideast, most of Europe

Wintry skies darkened over Switzerland on Tuesday morning, but Romanians were treated to a pinkish ethereal light and Swedes to a beautiful sunrise, as a partial solar eclipse that began over the Mideast extended across much of Europe.

In Switzerland, the pall of clouds and light snow seemed like dusk with lights twinkling in cities – time in reverse just as people streamed off trains and buses to arrive at work. The solar occurrence was at its height over Geneva, Bern and other Swiss cities in the midmorning, then the grayness at the lower altitudes began to brighten a bit.

As much as two-thirds of the sun slipped from view behind the moon, something that hasn’t occurred in Switzerland since August 1999. A more minor eclipse happened in August 2008.

NEW ORLEANS

Southern bird deaths likely just a strange coincidence

It isn’t easy being a blackbird in the South.

First, New Year’s Eve fireworks were blamed in central Arkansas for confusing thousands of blackbirds, which crashed into homes, cars and each other. Then, in Louisiana, power lines likely killed about 450 birds, littering a highway near Baton Rouge.

It’s almost certainly a coincidence the events happened within days of each other, Louisiana’s state wildlife veterinarian Jim LaCour said Tuesday. “I haven’t found anything to link the two at this point.”

Mass bird deaths aren’t uncommon. The U.S. Geological Service’s website listed about 90 mass deaths of birds and other wildlife from June through Dec. 12. There were five deaths of at least 1,000 birds, with the largest near Houston, Minn., where parasite infestations killed about 4,000 water birds between Sept. 6 and Nov. 26.

In Louisiana, the birds died sometime late Sunday or early Monday in the rural community of Labarre, about 30 miles northwest of Baton Rouge.

The birds – a mixed flock – may have hit a power line or vehicles in the dark, LaCour said.