BC-AP News Digest 6:10 pm

At the Nerve Center, Suzanne Boyle McCrory, Stephanie Siek, Richard Somma and Mike Stewart can be reached at 800-845-8450 (ext. 1600). For photos, Dan Goodman (ext. 1900). For interactives and graphics, ext. 7636. Expanded AP content can be obtained from http://www.apexchange.com. For access to AP Exchange and other technical issues, contact [email protected] or call 877-836-9477.

NEW & DEVELOPING

— Adds ISRAEL-US-AL-QAIDA.

— TEXAS EXECUTION — Execution scheduled for 7 p.m.

— ARGENTINA-PRESIDENT — Argentine President Cristina Fernandez speaks in public for first time since Dec. 10. SENT: 100 words, photo. UPCOMING: 500 words by 6:30 p.m.

— UNITED STATES-IRAN — AP sources: Aides say US expects talks on comprehensive Iran nuclear deal to start next month. SENT: 140 words.

— LEW-DEBT LIMIT — Lew warns Congress he will run out of maneuvering room on US debt ceiling by late February. SENT: 250 words.

— CANADA-FORD TAPE — Toronto Mayor Rob Ford addresses his behavior in new video, calls it a ‘minor setback.’ SENT: 130 words.

— FATAL FIRE-MOBILE HOME — NY boy who died trying to save grandfather is hailed as hero for rescuing 6 others from fire. SENT: 440 words.

— IDENTICAL TRIPLETS — Southern California couple welcomes rare identical triplets. SENT: 280 words, photo.

— SUPER BOWL-SHERMAN SPEAKS — Seattle’s Richard Sherman surprised by reaction to interview after NFC championship game. SENT: 140 words. UPCOMING: 700 words by 7 p.m.

— AP VIDEO us_plane_cfrash — The moment of impact as a private jet crashes nose-first into a runway in Colorado (http://apne.ws/1biQkDU)

TOP STORIES

SYRIA-PEACE TALKS

MONTREUX, Switzerland — Furiously divided from the start, representatives of Syrian President Bashar Assad and the rebellion against him threaten to collapse a peace conference intended to lead them out of civil war. Assad’s future in the country devastated by three years of bloodshed is at the heart of the sparring, which takes place against a pristine Alpine backdrop as Syrian forces and rebel fighters clash across a wide area from Aleppo and Idlib in the north to Daraa in the south. By Lori Hinnant and Matthew Lee. SENT: 830 words, photos, video.

— SYRIA-PEACE TALKS-TENSE EXCHANGE — Syrian foreign minister, UN chief in verbal clash at Syrian peace conference in Switzerland. SENT: 280 words.

— AP VIDEO DV Geneva Syria Wrap — Syrian government representatives refuse to consider an end to the Assad government while the international community demands a transitional government to end the civil war.

UN-BAN’S DIPLOMACY

UNITED NATIONS — Ban Ki-moon made a rare effort at solo diplomacy when he invited Iran to join this week’s Syria peace talks, but it backfired, raising questions about the effectiveness of a U.N. secretary-general better known — and often criticized — for his reserved and scripted style. By Cara Anna. SENT: 1,000 words, photos.

ISRAEL-US-AL-QAIDA

JERUSALEM — Israel says it foiled an “advanced” al-Qaida plan to carry out a suicide bombing on the U.S. Embassy in Tel Aviv and bomb other targets, in what analysts say was the first time the global terror network’s leadership has been directly involved in plotting an attack inside Israel. The Shin Bet intelligence agency says it has arrested three Palestinians who allegedly plotted bombings, shootings, kidnappings and other attacks. By Ian Deitch. SENT: 550 words, photo, graphic.

UKRAINE-PROTESTS

KIEV, Ukraine — Ukrainian opposition leaders issue a stark ultimatum to President Viktor Yanukovych to call early elections within 24 hours or face more popular rage, after at least two protesters are killed in confrontations with police in a grim escalation of a two-monthlong political crisis. The protesters’ deaths fuel fears that the daily demonstrations aimed at bringing down the government over its decision to shun the European Union for closer ties to Moscow and over human rights violations could turn more violent. By Yuras Karmanau and Maria Danilova. SENT: 1,000 words, photos, video.

— AP VIDEO ukraine_wrap — At least three people have been killed, two of them shot to death, in violent clashes between anti-government protesters and riot police.

— UKRAINE PROTESTS-PHOTO GALLERY — Tires burn in the street in Kiev as protesters clash with police who tore down barricades and chased demonstrators away.

SUPREME COURT-CHILD PORN-PAYING VICTIMS

WASHINGTON — The Supreme Court lends a sympathetic ear to a victim of child pornography who seeks to make it easier for victims to collect money from people convicted of downloading their images. “Amy” is trying to persuade the court that those who possess child pornography should be liable for the entire cost of the harms their victims suffer. By Mark Sherman. SENT: 580 words, photo.

AFGHANISTAN-DEATH ROAD

MAIDAN SHAHR, Afghanistan — Maps refer to it as part of the Kabul-Behsud Highway. Motorists call it Death Road. A 20-mile stretch of a two-lane road in central Afghanistan has seen many beheadings, kidnappings and other Taliban attacks in recent years against members of the minority ethnic Hazara community. The situation is a reminder of how fragile Afghanistan’s ethnic and sectarian balance remains less than a year before all foreign forces are to leave the country. By Greg Keller. SENT: 1,080 words, photos.

SOCHI-TERRORIST THREAT

BUDAPEST, Hungary — Threats to a string of European Olympic offices are reviving a question that has haunted preparations for the Winter Games next month: Is it safe to go to Sochi? Members of the U.S. Congress aren’t so sure, since the games are around the corner from an Islamic insurgency that Russia’s huge security apparatus has struggled to quell. Yet European sports authorities are shrugging off the recent menacing messages as marginal and common ahead of big events. By Angela Charlton and Pablo Gorondi. SENT: 870 words, photos.

MORE ON SYRIA

SYRIA-DIVIDED CITY

BANIAS, Syria — The sectarian divisions burning across the rest of Syria have become physical barriers in this town on the Mediterranean coast, with soldiers manning sandbagged checkpoints dividing its Sunni Muslim southern neighborhoods from those of the Alawites and Christians in the north. Yet even after a mass killing of Sunnis in a village outside Banias in May, a tenuous truce keeps this town of 50,000 people locked in a frigid, divided peace in hopes the chaos engulfing the rest of the country will pass them by. By Yasmine Saker. SENT: 850 words, photos.

— SYRIA — Activists and state media report fighting across Syria as Switzerland peace conference begins. SENT: 590 words, photos.

— SYRIA-MILITARY PLAYERS-GLANCE — A look at key military players on the government and rebel sides of Syria’s civil war. SENT: 760 words, photos.

— SYRIA-PEACE TALKS-KERRY — Kerry says Syrian peace talks cannot be about Assad clinging to power. SENT: 130 words.

— SYRIA-PEACE TALKS-QUOTES — Quotes from a tense first day at the Syrian peace conference in Switzerland. SENT: 410 words.

WASHINGTON

CAR SEAT SAFETY

WASHINGTON — Child car seats would have to protect against side-impact crashes — the kind implicated in many child deaths and injuries — under proposed new government rules. Manufacturers would get three years to comply after the rules are final. By Joan Lowy. SENT: 620 words, photos.

OBAMA-COLLEGE SEXUAL ASSAULTS

WASHINGTON — President Barack Obama shines a light on a college sexual assault epidemic that is often shrouded in secrecy, with victims fearing stigma, police poorly trained to investigate and universities reluctant to disclose the violence. A new White House report says no one in America is more at risk of being a victim than college women, with one in five having been attacked while pursuing their degree. By Nedra Pickler. SENT: 870 words, photos, audio, video.

OBAMA-STATE OF UNION

WASHINGTON — Here’s a little secret about the State of the Union address that President Obama will deliver next week: He’ll give Congress a long list of requests but few will be approved. That’s just the reality of a politically divided government. A subject-by-subject look at how some of Obama’s past proposals fared. By Jim Kuhnhenn. SENT: 1,200 words, photo.

— OBAMA-ELECTIONS — Responding to long lines in the last national election, a presidential commission wants expansion of early voting and says no one should have to wait more than 30 minutes. SENT: 670 words, photo.

POLITICS

SENATE-FEMALE SOLIDARITY

WASHINGTON — Rep. Shelley Moore Capito’s responsibilities are familiar to many women: planning her daughter’s wedding, looking out for her elderly parents, concentrating on her day job. The Republican House member from West Virginia is also running for the U.S. Senate. The Senate’s 20 women are providing campaign and fundraising help to swell their ranks this November. By Donna Cassata. SENT: 1,000 words, photos.

NATIONAL

WINTER WEATHER

NEW YORK — Northeasterners scrape and shovel after a snowstorm grounds flights, closes schools and buries roads with a surprising amount of snow, leaving biting cold in its wake. But the political atmosphere is particularly frosty in New York, where residents complain of spotty plowing and open schools while children elsewhere in the region stay home. New Mayor Bill De Blasio, in an early political test, defends the response to a storm he says caused a worse-than-expected headache when it ramped up at the evening rush hour. By Jonathan Lemire and Verena Dobnik. SENT: 920 words, photos, graphic, video.

— SNOW ENVY — Vermonters, lovers of snow, get little and bemoan storms coating other regions. SENT: 620 words, photos.

— GO FIGURE-UPSIDED DOWN WEATHER — The average temperature for the Lower 48 US Wednesday morning was 22. The average Alaska temperature at the same time was 24. GO FIGURE, an occasional feature from The Associated Press, explores the news through numbers and what they mean. SENT: 300 words, photo.

GENETICALLY MODIFIED FOOD

PROVIDENCE, R.I. — In the absence of federal action, states from Rhode Island to Hawaii are looking at requiring food producers to label any products with genetically modified ingredients. Supporters say consumers have a right to know if they’re eating something that’s been genetically altered, but biotech and agricultural companies insist GMO food — which makes up as much as 75 percent of what Americans eat — is safe. Connecticut and Maine already require labels on GMO food — but the rules won’t take effect until other nearby states join in. In the meantime, opponents are hoping Congress blocks these state laws by making GMO labels voluntary. By David Klepper. SENT: 700 words.

FORMER GOVERNOR INDICTED

RICHMOND, Va. — Proving that former Virginia Gov. Bob McDonnell and his wife broke the law by accepting luxurious gifts and loans from a businessman may be difficult because the alleged quid-pro-quo is hardly cut and dry. McDonnell and his wife, Maureen, are charged with corruption and lying to investigators in a 14-count indictment accusing them of promoting the businessman’s dietary supplement company in exchange for the gifts and loans. But legal experts say the accusations doesn’t specifically spell out what the McDonnells did to receive each gift and loan, and prosecutors may have an easier time getting convictions for lesser charges of obstruction and false statements. By Eric Tucker and Alan Suderman. SENT: 1,300 words, photos, video.

AP EXCLUSIVE: LAX SHOOTING

LOS ANGELES — Minutes before gunfire erupted at a Los Angeles airport terminal, two armed police officers went on break. Neither followed protocol requiring them to tell supervisors they were leaving. Then, as terrified travelers dived for cover, TSA officers fled the screening area without hitting a panic button or using the landline to call for help. The new details, from officials who spoke to The Associated Press on condition of anonymity, reveal a lapse in security that slowed the police response in the attack that killed a security screener and wounded three other people. By Tami Abdollah. SENT: 800 words, photos.

PETS-TREASURE MAP

LOS ANGELES — The X on this dog lover’s treasure map could be Spot or Rex or Rover. Showing animal shelters that need more dogs and shelters that have too many dogs, the map was introduced by the American Society for the Prevention of Cruelty to Animals in July. Since then, 347 shelters in 47 states and Puerto Rico have signed on. The first national program of its kind, it is called MAP, which stands for Moving Animals Places. By Sue Manning. SENT: 850 words, photos.

INTERNATIONAL

KENYA-GAY AND OUT

NAIROBI — Kenyan author Binyavanga Wainaina says he’s known he was gay since he was 5 but did not have a homosexual encounter until he was 39. On his 43rd birthday he tells the world in an online story what he wishes he had told his mother before she died: “I am a homosexual, mum.” His story is a protest against laws that seek to further criminalize homosexuality in Africa. By Kazziha Khaled. SENT: 610 words, photos.

SOUTH AFRICA-MANDELA STATUE

JOHANNESBURG — South African officials want a quirky bronze rabbit removed from the 9-meter (29.5-foot) sculpture of Nelson Mandela, even though it is barely visible, tucked inside one of the great man’s ears. By Christopher Torchia. SENT: 480 words, photos.

BUSINESS

EUROPE-IRAN-SANCTIONS

BRUSSELS — France is sending business executives by the planeload to Iran. Turkish and Austrian airlines are adding new flights to Tehran, and carmakers and oil companies are drawing up plans for investment. Europe’s business community is abuzz with preparations to rush back into Iran, one of the largest economies in the Middle East, as sanctions are lifted. By Juergen Baetz. SENT: 1,250 words, photos.

ENTERTAINMENT

GRAMMYWATCH-WHAT TO WATCH FOR

Let’s admit it: Almost no one watches the Grammy Awards to find out who wins. It’s really about the performances, and predicting who will come up with the next morning’s water-cooler moment is just as difficult as who wins album of the year. By Music Writer Chris Talbott. SENT: 590 words, photos.

GETTING ATTENTION

— TEXAS EXECUTION — US appeals court won’t halt execution of Mexican man in Texas; lawyers to ask Supreme Court. SENT: 800 words, photos. UPCOMING: Updates from Supreme Court and from execution, scheduled for 7 p.m.

— PURDUE SHOOTING — Conflicting views of Purdue University shooting suspect emerge ahead of planned court hearing. SENT: 130 words. UPCOMING: 500 words by 6:30 p.m.

— DAVOS FORUM — At Davos forum, political and business leaders push for cleaner energy to limit climate change. SENT: 580 words, photos.

— ASTEROID-MISSION — Space telescope spies water plumes on dwarf planet Ceres, target of NASA’s Dawn spacecraft. SENT: 410 words.

— NSA SURVEILLANCE-VERIZON — Verizon reports 1,000 to 1,999 national security-related requests for customer data in 2013. SENT: 440 words.

— FILM-SUNDANCE-HAPPY VALLEY — The filmmaker behind the new documentary about the Penn State sexual-abuse scandal says that both the family of Joe Paterno and the lawyer for the victims, Tom Kline, expressed satisfaction for the film. SENT: 750 words, photos.

— PEOPLE-ELTON JOHN — Elton John challenges Russian anti-gay law while declaring support for Russian people. SENT: 130 words.

— TV-BILL COSBY — Bill Cosby developing a script for a possible new NBC comedy to star himself. SENT: 140 words, photos.

— YANKEES-TANAKA — Yankees, prized Japanese pitcher Masahiro Tanaka agree to a $155 million, seven-year contract. SENT: 800 words, photos.

— COWBOYS-BRENT — Former Cowboys player convicted of intoxication manslaughter in deadly 2012 crash. SENT: 530 words, photos.

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