SEOUL (Reuters) - North Korean leaderKim Jong-un called for an end to confrontation between the two Koreas, technically still at war in the absence of a peace treaty to end their 1950-53 conflict, in a surprise New Year speech broadcast on state media.
The address by Kim, who took over power in the reclusive state after his father, Kim Jong-il, died in 2011, appeared to take the place of the policy-setting New Year editorial published in leading state newspapers.
Impoverished North Korea raised tensions in the region by launching a long-range rocket in December that it said was aimed at putting a scientific satellite in orbit, drawing international condemnation.
North Korea, which considers North and South as one country, the Democratic People's Republic of Korea, is banned from testing missile or nuclear technology under U.N. sanctions imposed after its 2006 and 2009 nuclear weapons tests.
"An important issue in putting an end to the division of the country and achieving its reunification is to remove confrontation between the north and the south," Kim said in the address that appeared to be pre-recorded and was made at an undisclosed location.
"The past records of inter-Korean relations show that confrontation between fellow countrymen leads to nothing but war."
The New Year address was the first in 19 years by a North Korean leader after the death of Kim Il-sung, Kim Jong-un's grandfather. Kim Jong-il rarely spoke in public and disclosed his national policy agenda in editorials in state newspapers.
The two Koreas have seen tensions rise to the highest level in decades after the North bombed a Southern island in 2010 killing two civilians and two soldiers.
The sinking of a South Korean navy ship earlier that year was blamed on the North but Pyongyang has denied it and accused Seoul of waging a smear campaign against its leadership.
Last month, South Korea elected as president Park Geun-hye, a conservative daughter of assassinated military ruler Park Chung-hee whom Kim Il-sung had tried to kill at the height of their Cold War confrontation.
Park has vowed to pursue engagement with the North and called for dialogue to build confidence but has demanded that Pyongyang abandon its nuclear weapons ambitions, something it is unlikely to do.
Conspicuously absent from Kim's speech was any mention of the nuclear arms program.
SEOUL: North Korea's young leader Kim Jong-Un called for a "radical turnabout" in the impoverished country's economy in a rare New Year's address Tuesday that also urged improved relations with the South.
While the heart of his lengthy speech was devoted to turning the North into an "economic giant" and raising living standards, Kim stressed that military power remained a national priority.
"The military might of a country represents its national strength. Only when it builds up its military might in every way can it develop into a thriving country," he said in a voiced message broadcast on state television.
The address will be closely parsed for meaning in South Korea which just elected its first woman president, the conservative Park Geun-Hye, who has signalled a willingness for greater engagement with Pyongyang.
The voiced message was the first of its kind since Kim's grandfather, the North's founding president Kim Il-Sung, delivered one in 1994, the year of his death.
Kim's comments on the economy are likely to fuel speculation that he might be set to implement economic reforms that observers have been predicting since he came to power a year ago after the death of his father Kim Jong-Il.
The year 2013 will be a year of "great creations and changes in which a radical turnabout will be effected," Kim said, adding that "the building of an economic giant is the most important task" facing the country.
Praising the success of the North's space scientists in launching a long-range rocket last month, Kim said a similar national effort was required on the economic front.
"The entire Party, the whole country and all the people should wage an all-out struggle this year to effect a turnaround in building an economic giant and improving the people's standard of living," he said.
When Kim Jong-Il died, he left a country in dire economic straits -- the result of a "military first" policy that fed an ambitious missile and nuclear programme at the expense of a malnourished population.
Despite a rise in staple food output, daily life for millions of Koreans is an ongoing struggle with under-nutrition and a lack of vital protein and fat, according to a recent World Food Programme report.
Some observers had seen a glimmer of reformist hope in the handover of power to the Swiss-educated Kim Jong-Un, only in his late 20s.
Instead, Kim focused on consolidating his power base with a series of high-profile personnel changes, notably within the military elite, while at the same time pursuing Kim Jong-Il's missile programme.
Tuesday's address called for a "radical" increase in output across the board, from light and heavy industry to agriculture, as well as an improved transport infrastructure.
But it offered no specific policy directives for how this might be achieved by the isolated state which relies on its sole major ally China for 70 per cent of its foreign trade.
Kim's address came as the UN Security Council is still considering how to punish Pyongyang for its recent rocket launch, which most of the world saw as a disguised ballistic missile test.
The speech lauded the launch as a historic national achievement and stressed the need to develop more "sophisticated military hardware" in order to bring about a "fundamental change" in combat preparedness.
On South Korea, Kim sounded a conciliatory note and urged a scaling down of tensions on the Korean peninsula.
"An important issue in putting an end to the division of the country and achieving its reunification is to remove confrontation between the North and the South," Kim said.
"The past records of inter-Korean relations show that confrontation between fellow countrymen leads to nothing but war," he said.
South Korean president-elect Park Geun-Hye has distanced herself from outgoing President Lee Myung-Bak's hardline policy towards Pyongyang and spoken of the need for greater engagement with the North.
But in her first post-election victory policy statement, Park made it clear she still viewed Pyongyang as a serious threat and would put the South's national security before any trust-building programme.
Whether readers want to learn the complexities of how the Mars Curiosity rover was able to enter the Red Planet's atmosphere or just see photos of cats being weird, they can go to Reddit. The social news site announced today its end-of-year stats and it appears that users are frequenting the site at an ever-increasing rate.
Reddit revealed that in 2012 it received 37 billion page views, 400 million unique visitors, and 30 million posts -- not bad for one of the most simple Web sites on the Internet.
The site's user population has skyrocketed since its inception. According to The Next Web, Reddit achieved 1 billion monthly page views in February 2011 and by December of that year it more than doubled that number. By October 2012, the site recorded more than 3.8 billion monthly page views and more than 46 million unique visitors.
The huge increase in traffic means Reddit has had to add more servers and other equipment and bring in more staff to maintain its site. This growth has forced it to spend money to keep up with the flow, while also promoting paid subscriptions and advertising.
One of the ways Reddit has driven more traffic to its site this past year is by hosting high-level AMAs, or "ask me anything" sessions. In August, Reddit hosted President Barack Obama, whose impromptu hour-long interview crippled the site's servers. Reddit has also done AMAs with the Mars Curiosity rover team, Gangnam Style's PSY, and U.S. Rep. Zoe Lofgren who asked users for ideas on a bill to protect Web sites accused of copyright violations.
Here are Reddit's top 10 posts of 2012 by page view:
I am Barack Obama, President of the United States -- AMA (5,598,171 page views)
What's your "picture you can't see without laughing"? (2,450,140 page views)
What's your favorite picture on the whole Internet? (2,148,400 page views)
Reddit, what do you look like before and after makeup? Is there a real difference? (2,142,071 page views)
Today, a homeless looking man handed me $50 and this note. Do any of you have any idea what it means? (1,756,748 page views)
What GIF makes you laugh every single time? (1,749,185 page views)
I've been playing the same game of Civilization II for almost 10 years. This is the result. (1,651,956 page views)
I am South Korean Singer, Rapper, Composer, Dancer and Creator of Gangnam Style PSY. AMA (1,514,034 page views)
What's your secret that could literally ruin your life if it came out? (1,482,935 page views)
I'm Snoop Lion! Ask me anything!! (1,467,071 page views)
Update: 10:20 P.M. EST -- Secretary of State Hillary Clinton's physicians released more information about her condition in a statement Monday afternoon:
"In the course of a routine follow-up MRI on Sunday, the scan revealed that a right transverse sinus venous thrombosis had formed. This is a clot in the vein that is situated in the space between the brain and the skull behind the right ear," Clinton's doctors Dr. Lisa Bardack of Mt. Kisco Medical Group, and Dr. Gigi El-Bayoumi of George Washington University, said in a statement. "It did not result in a stroke, or neurological damage. To help dissolve this clot, her medical team began treating the Secretary with blood thinners. She will be released once the medication dose has been established. In all other aspects of her recovery, the Secretary is making excellent progress and we are confident she will make a full recovery. She is in good spirits, engaging with her doctors, her family, and her staff."
Secretary of State Hillary Clinton remains hospitalized at New York-Presbyterian Hospital in Manhattan on Monday for a blood clot.
Clinton reportedly suffered a concussion Dec. 13 after falling and hitting her head after fainting from a stomach virus that caused serious dehydration. She hasn't been seen in public since, but was expected to return to work this week before being hospitalized for the blood clot.
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How serious is Hillary Clinton's condition?
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Hillary Clinton has blood clot in her head
"She is being treated with anti-coagulants and is at New York-Presbyterian Hospital so that they can monitor the medication over the next 48 hours," Spokesperson Philippe Reines said in a statement. There has been no announcement on the location of the clot, which was discovered during the course of a follow-up exam.
Doctors are expected to decide soon whether any further action is required, Reines said, adding that they will continue to assess Clinton's condition, "including other issues associated with her concussion."
A blood clot is a clump that occurs when blood hardens from a liquid to a solid.
Dr. Jack Ansell, chairman of the department of medicine at Lenox Hill Hospital in New York, who has no special knowledge of the secretary's case, tells CBSNews.com he suspects Clinton is either experiencing a clot that originated in a blood vessel in the brain, called cerebral venous thrombosis, or one that could have occurred in one of the veins in the leg, called deep venous thrombosis (DVT).
Ansell's field of study is thrombosis, which is the formation of a blood clot inside a vessel.
Where does Clinton's concussion come in?
Ansell said the brain is rich in substances that stimulate clotting, so in general, people with a brain injury may face a higher risk for having a blood clot. Therefore it's possible a clot could have originated in a nearby vessel in the brain. However, if someone is lying around recuperating following a concussion or stomach virus, that increase in inactivity could also raise risk for DVT, he said. A person who experiences this dangerous blood clot deep in the leg could be at risk if the clot travels to the lung, becoming what's called a pulmonary embolism.
Dr. Richard Figler, a primary care sports medicine specialist at the Cleveland Clinic, told CBSNews.com that he doesn't believe Clinton's head injury was a direct cause of the blood clot, but said timing and other factors could have contributed. He also suspects that Clinton may have rested more following the stomach virus and concussion than she typically does, and going from an active to sedentary lifestyle may have combined with other factors that can influence blood clotting, like age and genetics.
"I'd have a hard time blaming the concussion for the clot itself," he said.
Ansell said these types of clots are easily treatable and respond well to therapy, so while there is potential harm from complications, he would give the secretary a good prognosis. Patients typically receive anti-coagulant therapy for three to six months, he said, and are monitored up to every week with a blood test to ensure they aren't having any blood flow irregularities.
"I would expect her to recover and not have a problem," he said.
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How serious is Secretary Clinton's condition?
One potential complication from treatment with an anti-coagulant, such as Coumadin (warfarin), is an increased risk for bleeding. That presents a problem for head injury suffers, according to CBS News medical correspondent Dr. Jon LaPook, who is affiliated with the hospital where Clinton is receiving care but has no knowledge of her case.
LaPook says that it is unusual for someone to be given blood thinners after suffering a head injury, because more bleeding in the brain can be deadly.
"The reason is when somebody falls and hits their head, you're worried about bleeding into the skull, into the brain, like Natasha Richardson had, so the last thing you would want to do is thin their blood," he said. "At this point the reason to give anti-coagulation, blood thinner, would be to prevent another clot from forming," he said.
Actress Natasha Richardson hit her head while skiing in Quebec in 2009 and later died from bleeding underneath the skull. That type of clot in the brain is called a subdural hematoma.
LaPook said the doctors treating Clinton may be between a rock and a hard place.
"They want to thin her blood to prevent a further clot, on the other hand they're afraid to give her blood thinners because that could increase bleeding in somebody who's smacked their head recently, so they're going to observe her very closely in the hospital," he said. That observation could also rule out other potential causes for the blood clot, such as heart problems.
Figler said a brain bleed from a head injury is only a major risk within 48 hours of the initial injury, and if the blood clot originated in the secretary's leg, as some suspect, the anti-coagulant therapy shouldn't present a major risk.
Ansell said that while doctors may have balanced Clinton's underlying head injury initially, such as by waiting a few days to make sure brain tissues healed, he also said it's likely safe to treat her with anti-coagulants, adding that many patients with brain injuries or strokes take these types of medication and it's not even certain if the secretary's concussion caused bleeding in the brain.
"I don't think there's any concern for any special risks for bleeding in the brain," he said.
Both doctors also said that anti-coagulants are not typically prescribed for brain bleeds caused by head injuries.
To Figler, the fact that doctors separately diagnosed a clot in addition to the secretary's other recent health woes, speaks to the doctors' ability to find other potential symptoms of a blood clot, such as leg swelling or calf soreness.
"Some docs may say don't worry about it, it could be soreness," he said, noting that a leg ultrasound isn't a typical test given following a concussion. "To be honest, it takes an astute physician to figure those things out."
The so-called "fiscal cliff" came tonight -- but now there is a specific deal on the table to try to soften it after the fact, according to congressional sources.
Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid said the deal would get a vote in the Senate tonight. The House would not vote before Tuesday, having adjourned for the evening before word of the agreement spread.
"It is a compromise, so we don't love it," said a senior White House official. "But it is the right thing to do for the economy."
Vice President Joe Biden met this evening with Senate Democrats in order to convince them to support the proposal, which would extend Bush-era tax cuts permanently for people making less than $400,000 per year and households making less than $450,000, the sources said.
The steep "sequester" budget cuts scheduled to go into effect with the new year would be postponed two months, said sources. They said half the money would come from cuts elsewhere, and the other half from new revenue.
The deal also would affect taxes on investment income and estates, and extend unemployment benefits for a year, the congressional sources added.
Biden was asked to confirm the deal as he entered a meeting with Senate Democrats tonight, but only smiled and said, "Happy New Year." Senators later were seen leaving the meeting later, but made few comments.
"We're waiting to see how the vice president brings his party along," a McConnell aide said.
"The end is in sight," said a Democratic aide with the office of Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid, D-Nev. "If everyone cooperates, it's possible things can move pretty quickly."
After the midnight deadline passes, lawmakers could still prevent a tax hike by making retroactive any legislation that passes in the weeks ahead, experts said. The IRS said it has not yet advised employers to withhold more from their employees' paychecks, pending a deal.
Chip Somodevilla/Getty Images
'Fiscal Cliff': Lawmakers Scramble for Last-Minute Deal Watch Video
But the deal, if it can pass through Congress, does not entirely solve the problem of the "fiscal cliff." In fact, it could set up a new showdown over the same spending cuts in just two months that would be amplified by a brewing fight over how to raise the debt ceiling beyond $16.4 trillion. That new fiscal battle has the potential to eclipse the "fiscal cliff" in short order.
Earlier, during a midday news conference, Obama said he was optimistic about compromise.
"It appears that an agreement to prevent this New Year's tax hike is within sight, but it's not done," he said. "There are still issues left to resolve, but we're hopeful that Congress can get it done."
Congressional and White House negotiators worked out a tentative plan that, in addition to extending current tax rates for households making $450,000 or less, would raise the estate tax from 35 to 40 percent for estates larger than $5 million; and prevent the alternative minimum tax from hammering millions of middle-class workers, according to sources familiar with the talks.
Capital gains taxes would rise to 20 percent from 15, according to a senior White House official.
The deal would also extend for one year unemployment insurance benefits set to expire Tuesday, and avert a steep cut to Medicare payments for doctors, congressional sources said.
"I can report that we've reached an agreement on the all the tax issues," said Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell in an afternoon speech on the Senate floor.
At the time, McConnell said that federal spending cuts remained a sticking point. That hurdle later appeared to be cleared by postponing the debate two more months.
The White House had proposed a three-month delay of the cuts to allow more time to hash out details for deficit reduction, while many Senate Democrats wanted a flat one-year delay. Republicans insisted that some spending cuts should be implemented now as part of any deal.
"In order to get the sequester moved, you're going to have to have real, concrete spending cuts," said Rep. Mike Rogers, R-Mich. Without that, he said, "I don't know how it passes the House."
Some Republicans also said Obama unduly complicated progress toward an agreement by seeming to take a victory lap on taxes at his campaign-style event at the White House.
"Keep in mind that just last month Republicans in Congress said they would never agree to raise tax rates on the wealthiest Americans," Obama said, raising the ire of several Republicans. "Obviously, the agreement that's currently discussed would raise those rates, and raise them permanently."
Those words drew a sharp retort from Republican Sen. John McCain.
Rather than staging a "cheerleading rally," McCain said, the president should have been negotiating the finishing touches of the deal.
"He comes out and calls people together and has a group standing behind him, laughs and jokes and ridicules Republicans. Why?" said McCain.
Several Democrats also voiced disappointment with the president and the emerging deal.
CARACAS (Reuters) - Venezuelan President Hugo Chavez is suffering more complications linked to a respiratory infection that hit him after his fourth cancer operation in Cuba, his vice president said in a somber broadcast on Sunday.
Vice President Nicolas Maduro flew to Cuba to visit Chavez in the hospital as supporters' fears grew for the ailing 58-year-old socialist leader, who has not been seen in public nor heard from in three weeks.
Chavez had already suffered unexpected bleeding caused by the six-hour operation on December 11 for an undisclosed form of cancer in his pelvic area. Officials said doctors then had to fight a respiratory infection.
"Just a few minutes ago we were with President Chavez. He greeted us and he himself talked about these complications," Maduro said in the broadcast, adding that the third set of complications arose because of the respiratory infection.
"Thanks to his physical and spiritual strength, Comandante Chavez is confronting this difficult situation."
Maduro, flanked by his wife Attorney-General Cilia Flores, Chavez's daughter Rosa Virginia and her husband, Science Minister Jorge Arreaza, said he would remain in Havana while Chavez's condition evolved.
He said Chavez's condition remained "delicate" - a term he has used since the day after the surgery, when he warned Venezuelans to prepare for difficult times and urged them to keep the president in their prayers.
"We trust that the avalanche of love and solidarity with Comandante Chavez, together with his immense will to live and the care of the best medical specialists, will help our president win this new battle," Maduro said.
A senior government official in Caracas said the New Year's Eve party in the capital's central Plaza Bolivar had been canceled. "Everyone pray for strength for our comandante to overcome this difficult moment," the official, Jacqueline Faria, added on Twitter after making the announcement.
OIL-FINANCED SOCIALISM
Chavez's resignation for health reasons, or his death, would upend politics in the OPEC nation where his personalized brand of oil-financed socialism has made him a hero to the poor but a pariah to critics who call him a dictator.
His condition is being closely watched around Latin America, especially in other nations run by leftist governments, from Cuba to Bolivia, which depend on subsidized fuel shipments and other aid from Venezuela for their fragile economies.
Chavez has not provided details of the cancer that was first diagnosed in June 2011, leading to speculation among Venezuela's 29 million people and criticism from opposition leaders.
Chavez's allies have openly discussed the possibility that he may not be able to return to Venezuela to be inaugurated for his third six-year term as president on the constitutionally mandated date of January 10.
Senior "Chavista" officials have said the people's wishes were made clear when the president was re-elected in October, and that the constitution makes no provision for what happens if a president-elect cannot take office on January 10.
Opposition leaders say any postponement would be just the latest sign that Chavez is not in a fit state to govern and that new elections should be called to choose his replacement. If Chavez had to step down, new elections would be called within 30 days.
Opposition figures believe they have a better shot against Maduro, who was named earlier this month by Chavez as his heir apparent, than against the charismatic president who for 14 years has been nearly invincible at the ballot box.
Any constitutional dispute over succession could lead to a messy transition toward a post-Chavez era in the country that boasts the biggest oil reserves in the world.
Maduro has become the face of the government in Chavez's absence, imitating the president's bombastic style and sharp criticism of the United States and its "imperialist" policies.
In Sunday's broadcast, Maduro said Chavez sent New Year greetings to all Venezuelans, "especially the children, whom he carries in his heart always."
(Additional reporting by Deisy Buitrago and Mario Naranjo; Editng by Kieran Murray and Christopher Wilson)
BRASILIA: Military police killed the leader of a gang that had spectacularly blasted its way into a gem-cutting plant on Sunday, traded fire with police and made off with nine hostages who were later safely freed.
Three of the assailants died in the assault in the state of Rio Grande do Sul, a military police official told AFP on condition of anonymity.
The dead included Elisandro Falcao, 31, one of the state's most wanted men. He led a gang that specializes in robberies using explosives to target banks and automated teller machines, reports said.
Surviving attackers fled with their hostages -- one of whom was a 12-year-old girl -- into a wooded area of the town of Cotipora, with police pursuing in cars and helicopters, the official said.
At least 100 military police, backed by helicopters, worked into the night in the search for five assailants and their captives.
After an hours-long operation, police freed all nine hostages safely, but also exchanged more fire with the assailants, killing three more of them, while two police officers were injured, officials said.
The area where the strike was carried out is in the heart of the gem-cutting industry in Brazil, which is a world leader in exporting many semi-precious stones such as topaz, aquamarine and amethyst.
The robbers detonated dynamite to storm into the plant, then ran into police on their way out, the military police official said.
"There was an intense firefight. Three assailants died and two police were injured," Rio Grande do Sul state military chief Sergio Abreu told reporters.
Police have recovered part of the loot, but gave no figure for its value.
As they made their escape, the attackers split into two groups. One took two people who were in a bar hostage, and the other broke into a home and abducted seven people, apparently all members of the same family.
The forest where the gang fled is thick and hard to navigate, but police surrounded it, said state deputy military commander Altair de Freitas.
Helicopters and special operations teams with sniffer dogs took part in the search, he added. News reports said the remaining gang was made up of nine men armed with rifles.
Governor Tarso Genro stressed that the hostages' lives were the top priority.
Already considered a threat to U.S. national security, Huawei is again finding itself under scrutiny, linked to an offer to sell embargoed computer equipment to Iran.
A major partner of the Chinese telecommunications gear maker offered to provide 1.3 million euros ($1.7 million) of Hewlett-Packard computer equipment to Iran in 2010, according to documents reviewed by Reuters. However, Huawei says neither it nor Hong Kong-based Skycom, its privately-owned partner, provided the equipment to Mobile Telecommunication Co of Iran, known as MCI.
The proposal focused on expanding MCI's subscriber billing system and included at least 13 pages marked "Huawei confidential" and carrying the Huawei's company logo, according to Reuters. Those documents featured a price list for new HP equipment that included one server, 20 disk arrays, and 22 switches, as well as software.
In a statement, Huawei called the proposal a bidding document and said it was submitted by Skycom.
Huawei's business in Iran is in full compliance with all applicable laws and regulations including those of the U.N., U.S. and E.U. This commitment has been carried out and followed strictly by our company. Further, we also require our partners to follow the same commitment and strictly abide by the relevant laws and regulations.
The two Chinese companies appear to have close ties, with Reuters noting that the two share headquarters in China and Skycom employees in Tehran wear Huawei badges.
The report emerges just months after Cisco Systems ended its relationship with ZTE -- another Chinese telecommunications gear maker -- after it was revealed that ZTE was selling Cisco-branded networking equipment to Iran. The Shenzhen, China-based telecommunications giant reportedly sold restricted and banned computer equipment developed by Cisco and other U.S.-based companies to Iran's telecoms firms.
In October, House Intelligence Committee released a report accusing Huawei and ZTE of being threats to U.S. security and discouraging U.S. companies from buying their equipment.
"U.S. network providers and systems developers are strongly encouraged to seek other vendors for their projects," the committee wrote in its 52-page report. "Based on available classified and unclassified information, Huawei and ZTE cannot be trusted to be free of foreign state influence and thus pose a security threat to the United States and to our systems."
LA GRANDE, Ore. A tour bus careened through a guardrail along an icy Oregon highway and several hundred feet down a steep embankment Sunday, killing nine people and injuring more than 20 others, authorities said.
The charter bus carrying about 40 people lost control around 10:30 a.m. on the snow- and ice-covered lanes of Interstate 84, according to the Oregon State Police.
The bus came to rest at the bottom of a snowy slope. More than a dozen rescue workers descended the hill and used ropes to help retrieve people from the wreckage in freezing weather. The bus driver was among the survivors, but had not yet spoken to police because of the severity of the injuries the driver had suffered.
Lt. Greg Hastings said the bus crashed along the west end of the Blue Mountains, and west of an area called Deadman Pass. Stretches of highway in the rural and agricultural area of east Oregon tend to be icy in winter months.
The bus slid down the hill and landed upright, with little or no debris visible around the crash site.
St. Anthony Hospital in Pendleton treated 26 people from the accident, including some who were treated and then transported to other medical facilities, said hospital spokesman Larry Blanc.
In addition to the people who were transferred from St. Anthony to La Grand and Hermiston, Ore., and Walla Walla, Wash., Hastings said. Others were taken directly to hospitals further away, including Boise, Idaho, and Portland, Ore.
I-84 is a major east-west highway through Oregon that follows the Columbia River Gorge.
Umatilla County Emergency Manager Jack Remillard said the bus was owned by Mi Joo travel in Vancouver, B.C., and state police said the bus was en route from Las Vegas to Vancouver.
A woman who answered the phone at a listing for the company confirmed with The Associated Press that it owned the bus and said it was on a tour of the Western U.S. She declined to give her name.
A bus safety website run by the U.S. Department of Transportation said Mi Joo Tour & Travel has six buses, none of which have been involved in any accidents in at least the past two years.
The bus crash was the second fatal accident in Oregon on Sunday morning due to icy conditions. A 69-year-old man died in a single-vehicle rollover accident. CBS affiliate KOIN-TV in Portland reports both the 26-year-old driver, who is expected to survive, and the deceased passenger were wearing safety restraints.
Secretary Hillary Clinton was hospitalized today after a doctors doing a follow-up exam discovered a blood clot had formed, stemming from the concussion she sustained several weeks ago.
She is being treated with anti-coagulants and is at NewYork-Presbyterian Hospital so that they can monitor the medication over the next 48 hours, Deputy Assistant Secretary Philippe Reines said.
Her doctors will continue to assess her condition, including other issues associated with her concussion. They will determine if any further action is required, Reines said.
Clinton, 65, originally fell ill from a stomach virus following a whirlwind trip to Europe at the beginning of the month, which caused such severe dehydration that she fainted and fell at home, suffering a concussion. No ambulance was called and she was not hospitalized, according to a state department official.
The stomach virus had caused Clinton to cancel a planned trip to North Africa and the United Arab Emirates, and also her scheduled testimony before Congress at hearings on the attack on the U.S. consulate in Benghazi, Libya.
According to a U.S. official, the secretary had two teams of doctors, including specialists, examine her after the fall. They also ran tests to rule out more serious ailments beyond the virus and the concussion. During the course of the week after her concussion, Clinton was on an IV drip and being monitored by a nurse, while also recovering from the pain caused by the fall.
Medical experts consulted by ABC News said that it was impossible to know for sure the true nature or severity of Clinton’s condition, given the sparse information provided by the State Department. However, most noted that the information available could indicate that Clinton had a deep venous thrombosis,which is a clot in the large veins in the legs.
“A concussion (traumatic brain injury) in itself increases risk of this clot. Likely the concussion has increased her bed rest,” said Dr. Brian D. Greenwald, Medical Director JFK Jonson Rehabilitation Center for Head Injuries. “Immobility is also a risk for DVT. Long flights are also a risk factor for DVT but the recent concussion is the most likely cause.
“Anticoagulants are the treatment,” he said. “If DVT goes untreated it can lead to pulmonary embolism (PE). PE is a clot traveling from veins in legs to lungs which is life threatening. Many people die each year from this.
“Now that she is being treated with blood thinners her risks of PE are decreased,” he said. “Blood thinners carry risk of bleeding but are common and can be safely used.”
Dr. Allen Sills, associate professor of Neurological Surgery at Vanderbilt University Medical Center, said it was most likely that the clot was not located in Clinton’s brain, since she is being treated with anticoagulants.
“This is certainly not a common occurrence after a concussion, and is most likely related to either inactivity or some other injury suffered in the fall,” he said.
Dr. Neil Martin, the head of Neurovascular Surgery at the University of California, Los Angeles, Medical Center, said blood thinners are often given for blood clots in the legs, and it is “very unusual” for anticoagulants to be given for blood clots in the head.
But he cautioned about speculating too much about Clinton’s condition before more information is available.
“If we don’t know where it is, there is the possibility of several different indications,” he said. “I don’t know if there is any connection between what she’s got now and the concussion. All I can tell you is, at this point, it’s almost impossible to speculate unless we know what’s going on there.”
