The government is defeated in Parliament over its negotiating position on the EU budget, with MPs backing a Tory rebel call for a real terms cut in spending in a non-binding vote.
Hours after the National Weather Service downgraded Sandy from a hurricane to a tropical storm, a Hurricane Hunter aircraft recorded sustained winds at 75 mph, which passes the threshold of a Category 1 hurricane.
Fox News has learned from sources who were on the ground in Benghazi that an urgent request from the CIA annex for military back-up during the attack on the U.S. consulate and subsequent attack several hours later on the annex itself was denied by the CIA chain of command -- who also told the CIA operators twice to "stand down" rather than help the ambassador's team when shots were heard at approximately 9:40 p.m. in Benghazi on Sept. 11.
Emergency management officials and power companies along the northeastern U.S. are bracing for a potentially devastating storm as Hurricane Sandy rumbled across Cuba and barrels toward the Bahamas on Thursday.
