The National Weather Service calls this storm system multifaceted. That put in mildly and the ice storm is bearing down on northern New York State from Vermont to New Hampshire, while Michigan is coping with power outages due to a frozen rain. At the same time, New York City, Philadelphiaand Washington D.C. are experiencing a heat wave with a height in the 70c. Pre-Christmas travellers may need to change their plans as hundreds of flights have been cancelled at airport hubs in Chicago, Dallas and Huston. Martin Kaste, NPR News.

 

The International Monetary Fund is predicting the US economy will expand at a fast pace in next year. IMF manager director Christine Lagarde told the NBC Meet the Press today that positive economic data and some signs of compromising Congress are the driving factors. 

“Seeing a budget deal, seeing tapering by the Fed, which is a sign of confidence in the real economy, should lead them to invest, to hire and to be more confident.”

Lagarde also praised the US Federal Reserve’s communication up its decision last week to start scale back its massive monetary stimulus. 

 

The average US price of gasoline has dipped 0.2 a gallon in the past 2 weeks after a monthly increase, the latest Lambert Survey says the average price for a gallon at regular is now $3.26. 

 

Israeli politicians say they’re surprised by documents released by Edward Snowden, showing that US spied on Israel. As NPR’s Emily Harris reports, much reaction in Israel is focusing on a spy in a US prison. 

New documents released by Snowden showed the UK and US spy agencies targeted at certain E-mails used by top Israeli leaders between 2008 and 2011. Several Israeli ministers are demanding that spy stop, but others said they have long assumed that their communications are intercepted. Many here say this new leaks strengthen Israel government that a spy in US prison should be freed. Jonathan Pollard was sentenced to life in prison in 1987 for passing Americans secretly to Israel. He has become an Israel cause as successive Israeli government has lobbied for his freedom. Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu told his cabinet Sunday he constantly raises Pollard’s case with the White House. Emily Harris, NPR News, Jerusalem.

 

President Obama says he may take a further military action to protect Americans in violence-plagued South Sudan. US troops have safely evacuated Americans from the area. 

 

This is NPR. 

 

Authorities in Bangladesh have charged the owner of a garment factory that caught fire in last year with homicide. 112 workers were killed, 11 others employees also face charges. Police say when the fire alarm sounded, the managers and security guards told workers that was a routine fire drill and they went back to work. The factory also has no emergence access. Those charges could be sentenced to life in prison if convicted. 

 

Former Russian oil tycoon Mikhail Khodorkovsky says he would stand off politics as he’s free. He was released last week after serving 10 years in prison. NPR’s Soraya Sarhaddi Nelson reports from Berlin where he met today with reporters. 

Unemotional Khodorkovsky thanked German Chancellor Angela Merkel and others for his release Friday. He didn’t include Russian leader Vladimir Putin, who pardoned him. Khodorkovsky told reporters that he will continue to work to bring attention to other Russian political prisoners. But he said through an interpreter that he will not return to Russia for now because he fears he’ll be arrested again.

“I thought that doubtable president Putin said in @@ his press conferences. The third case against me would disappear but sadly not everybody in Russia in view of Russian security. I probably believe that.”

He was convicted twice before a financial crime which many observers see were political motivated cases. Soraya Sarhaddi Nelson, NPR News, Berlin.

 

Several people were injured after a freight train derailment in the Nairobi slum of Kibera, Kenya officials say many people were not in their homes at the time of the crash. The train was on its way to Uganda.