2015 Year

Communal tensions flaring among indigenous groups from Mexico to the Amazon. Dozens of Chinese nuclear warheads aimed at the United States. Russia's power in serious decline, its population diminished by 16 million. A cold peace in the Mideast, but transcontinental terrorists attempting devastating attacks with weapons of mass destruction. Welcome to the year 2015, as characterized in chilling detail by a sweeping new U.S. intelligence report to be released today. As President-elect George W.

Communal tensions flaring among indigenous groups from Mexico to the Amazon. Dozens of Chinese nuclear warheads aimed at the United States. Russia's power in serious decline, its population diminished by 16 million. A cold peace in the Mideast, but transcontinental terrorists attempting devastating attacks with weapons of mass destruction. Welcome to the year 2015, as characterized in chilling detail by a sweeping new U.S. intelligence report to be released today. As President-elect George W.

The Musee du Louvre -- the world's most-attended art museum -- has named Jean-Luc Martinez as its new director. Martinez has most recently served as the head of the museum's department of Greek, Etruscan and Roman antiquities. He is expected to succeed Henri Loyrette starting April 15. Martinez's appointment, which the Paris museum announced this week, was made by French President Francois Hollande. He beat out two other candidates -- Sylvie Ramond, director of the Musee des beaux-arts de Lyon, and Laurent le Bon, president of the Centre Pompidou Metz.  FULL COVERAGE: 2013 Spring arts preview The internal hire signals a search for continuity for the famed art institution.

WASHINGTON - On a chaparral-covered hillside 40 miles north of Los Angeles in June 2010, researchers from the Department of Homeland Security hid a device the size of a pack of cigarettes that emitted a safe pulse of low-grade radiation. It was a stand-in for a dirty bomb, or fallout from a nuclear meltdown. Nearby, a pilot toggled a joystick, and a gray drone with the wingspan of a California condor banked through the sky. As the plane's sensor sniffed for radioactive isotopes, law enforcement officers and firefighters watched a portable controller that looked like an oversized Game Boy. In minutes, a warning signal glowed on the screen.

Twenty-one-year-old Taylor Dankel darts around a quick corner of the racetrack and buries the throttle. The supercharged, 650-horsepower V-8 in his father's modified 2008 Shelby Mustang GT500KR lets out a guttural roar. It's a scene that would have put a smile on the face of Shelby American's founder, Carroll Shelby. An automotive icon whose career evolved from chicken farmer to world-class racer, engineer and businessman, Shelby died in May 2012 at the age of 89. Photos: Shelby after Shelby But his legacy is everywhere on this windy day in Pahrump, Nev., about an hour outside of Las Vegas.

LAS VEGAS - With the prospect of thousands of unmanned aircraft flying around U.S. airspace beginning in 2015, the head of the Federal Aviation Administration pledged that new regulations are in the works to keep skies safe and protect people's privacy. Speaking before hundreds of drone makers, potential buyers and government officials at a drone expo Tuesday, acting FAA Administrator Michael Huerta said the integration of unmanned aircraft in U.S. skies is a daunting challenge. "There's a lot of work that needs to be done to move [drone]

FIRST HALF FIRST QUARTER Woodbridge 7, Santa Margarita 0 Grijalva, 25-yard fumble return at 11:46. PAT--Terwiske (kick). Woodbridge 7, Santa Margarita 3 Froehlich, 33-yard field goal at 3:18. 64-yard drive, 19 plays. Key play--Thompson 12-yard pass from Orlando to Woodbridge 49 on third and 13. Key gain--McCroskey 10 run. Woodbridge 14, Santa Margarita 3 Rommelfanger, 24-yard pass from Barlow at 1:04. 83-yard drive, seven plays.

Japan and the United States announced plans Friday to return a major military air base on the southern island of Okinawa to local landowners, easing the most troubling issue in the two countries' security ties before President Clinton arrives here next week. Japanese Prime Minister Ryutaro Hashimoto and U.S. Ambassador Walter F.

Calorie counts will be posted alongside images of juicy burgers on McDonald's menu boards nationwide starting next week, much as they have been in California for more than a year. Yielding to growing customer demand and acting ahead of pending federal rules, the fast-food giant said it would replace all inside and drive-through menus at its more than 14,000 U.S. locations with new signs with nutritional details. Analysts said they expect other major chains to follow suit soon.

In a last-minute turn in global climate talks, international negotiators agreed over the weekend to adopt more ambitious plans than expected to trim government subsidies to oil companies worldwide, part of a broader effort to reduce greenhouse-gas emissions. Earlier this week, negotiators were hammering out an agreement among the top 20 industrialized and emerging nations that called for each to take "voluntary" measures to cut production and consumption incentives. But privately under pressure from the Obama administration over the last two days, the group now is preparing to sign an agreement that omits the word "voluntary."

Lawmakers often try to create jobs by offering tax breaks to employers, but it's hard to tell whether those breaks actually lead to more hiring or whether they merely reward companies that were going to hire anyway. That's one of the challenges facing Gov. Jerry Brown, who's calling for $1 billion worth of broad new tax breaks for businesses, and for advocates of more subsidies for film production. In both cases, the goals are commendable but the methods are open to question. Brown's tax proposal starts by eliminating an ill-conceived corporate tax break that gives multi-state businesses two options for calculating how much they owe California: one that favors companies with little investment but high sales here, and one that favors companies with extensive investment but low sales.