■ UNITED STATES
US revising `no match' rules
The federal government says it will rewrite rules for penalizing employers of illegal immigrants to try to satisfy a federal judge in San Francisco who put the crackdown on hold. US District Judge Charles Breyer stopped the Bush administration last month from going ahead with enforcement of regulations requiring employers to fire workers if their Social Security identification numbers did not match records and the discrepancies could not be addressed in 90 days. Late on Friday, Breyer agreed to a request from the administration to put the case on hold while it reworks the regulations -- a process bound to put off enforcement until the spring.
■ UNITED STATES
Afghanistan goals not met
The White House concluded in a recent secret report that the war effort in Afghanistan has not met strategic goals set this year, the Washington Post reported yesterday. The report was prepared earlier this month by the National Security Council. Its main conclusion was that while individual military battles have been successful, other areas remain wanting, the report said. "One can point to a lot of indicators that are positive," a senior US intelligence official was quoted as saying. "We go out there and achieve our objectives and kill bad guys." But the extremists, he said, seem to have little trouble finding replacements. "There doesn't seem to be a lot of progress being made ... I would think that from [the Taliban] standpoint, things are looking decent," he said.
■ UNITED STATES
Wild turkeys on parade
Fifteen wild turkeys strutted into the suburban hamlet of Greenlawn, New York, on Thanksgiving Day and then left just in time to avoid becoming the traditional holiday dinner. The turkeys showed up on Thursday morning, drawing crowds of spectators, but left -- marching in single file -- at about 1pm. The birds kept walking and had not been seen or heard from since. Resident Joyce Logan said there was no practical joke involved and the turkeys could have wandered from a nearby wooded area, where she had been hearing gobbles since summer. Unlike some neighbors, Logan said, she never had thoughts of catching one of the turkeys in her yard and turning it into dinner. "I can't eat something that I've met," she said.
■ CHILE
Aftershock rattles north
A 5.7 magnitude earthquake rattled northern Chile, which has been rocked by a series of aftershocks over the last 10 days, the US Geological Survey (USGS) said on Saturday. The quake was centered 145km south of Calama, and was 93km deep, the USGS said. There were no initial reports of deaths or damage. On Nov. 14, a 7.7 magnitude quake near Antofagasta collapsed homes and buildings, killing two people and injuring 115, and there have been a number of aftershocks since then.
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