Kennedy Assassination 50 years ago remembered

Across the nation and around the world, there are events to remember the assassination of President John F. Kennedy, 50 years ago Friday.

Special Section: The JFK Assassination 

Just outside of London, President Kennedy's granddaughter, Tatiana Schlossberg and the U.S. Ambassador to the United Kingdom, Matthew Barzun, along with Lord Hill, leader of the House of Lords, planted an oak sapling and laid four wreaths at the official British memorial to the late president. Queen Elizabeth and Prince Phillip, along with Jackie, Caroline and John Kennedy, dedicated the memorial in Runneymeade in May of 1965.

U.S. Attorney General Eric Holder visited President Kennedy's gravesite early Friday. The president's sister, Ambassador Jean Kennedy Smith, was to lay a wreath at the eternal flame at the president's grave, and taps will be played.

Dallas hosts an commemoration at Dealey Plaza, where Kennedy was shot and killed. Bells will ring shortly before 12:30 p.m. CT, followed by a moment of silence to mark the time of the president's death. The mayor, the bishop of Dallas, the U.S. Naval Academy Men's Glee Club, the Dallas Symphony Orchestra and historian David McCullough are part of the event, which you can watch live on CBS.

Also, in Boston, at the John F. Kennedy Library, musicians James Taylor and Paul Winter and his Sextet will play, and the performance will be streamed live on the web, followed by a moment of silence at 2 p.m. ET, the time the president's death was announced to the nation.

CBSNews.com will stream CBS News' historic broadcast coverage of President John F. Kennedy's assassination to mark the anniversary. The online stream will begin at 1:38 p.m. ET on Friday, and feature the minute-by-minute CBS News broadcasts in real time as they were delivered during the four-day period following the assassination.

Obama administration pondering new carbon emission pledge in wake of Warsaw climate change conference

The Obama Administration is planning to introduce a pledge to make additional steep cuts in U.S. carbon emissions after 2020 in the wake of a little-noticed United Nations conference on greenhouse gas emissions that is the latest step toward a new treaty to take the place of the tattered Kyoto Protocol.

Just how dramatic the American pledge will be is not yet clear. A U.S. official at the conference taking place in Warsaw —who declined to be quoted directly—told Fox News that an amorphous White House inter-agency consulting process was still considering what the next U.S. reduction should be, and wasn’t yet ready to put a hard number on the table.

Whatever it is eventually revealed to be, the next emissions reduction target will be introduced into the labyrinthine, U.N.-sponsored treaty process as itinches along for two years after the Warsaw meeting that is slated to end Friday. It will supposedly culminate at yet another major climate session in Paris in December 2015, where the successor treaty will—supporters hope—be adopted.

The administration itself says that its forthcoming emissions targets—and continuing staunch support for the war against “climate change”—are intended help to kick-start a virtuous competition among nations, spurred on by interest groups, hosts of non-government organizations, and the sprawling global network of United Nations organizations to push the faltering climate process away from the ditch of disinterest where it has increasingly been heading.

That virtuous competition is part of a new, smorgasbord-style approach that the U.S. is promoting for future pledges, “ to ensure that each Party is constructing a commitment that reflects its national circumstances and full capabilities,” as the administration puts it in a conference submission

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Senate's Nuclear Option Raises Stakes For 2014

 WASHINGTON -- Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid made one party in the Senate significantly more powerful when he ended filibusters on presidential appointments Thursday -- and instantly elevated the importance of the 2014 Senate elections.

"It raises the stakes," said Sen. John McCain (R-Ariz.), who has often remarked that "elections have consequences."

The one-time GOP presidential nominee also admitted that the ability Reid exercised to break the Republican blockade of President Barack Obama's nominees was one of those consequences.

"I'm afraid so," McCain said.

Led by the Nevada Democrat, the Senate voted 52-48 Thursday to wield the "nuclear option," eliminating the ability of the Senate minority to filibuster executive branch nominees and any judgeship below the Supreme Court by changing the requirements for passage to a simple majority vote. And now, thanks to Reid's power move, the stakes for 2014 include control of a Senate that can either be a stronger aid to Obama in the furtherance of his agenda or, if the GOP can take over, an even more effective check on the executive's ambitions.

Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell (R-Ky.) suggested just that immediately after Thursday's vote to change the rules, announcing that he intended to strike back at the polls next fall.

"The solution to this problem is at the ballot box," McConnell rather pointedly told reporters on Capitol Hill. "I look forward to having a great election in November 2014."

Republicans need to win six seats next fall to take over the upper chamber, and the map remains a tough one for Democrats, who have to defend 21 seats, compared to just 14 for the GOP. And seven of those Democratic seats are in states that lean Republican, with a couple more in swing states.

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EU spokesman: Iran nuclear deal reached

Geneva, Switzerland (CNN) -- An agreement was struck early Sunday between Iran and six world powers over Tehran's nuclear program, a spokesman for the European Union said.

The historic deal follows marathon talks to overcome issues surrounding the wording of an initial agreement over Iran's nuclear development program and lift some sanctions while a more formal deal between the two sides is worked out.

"We have reached agreement," EU spokesman Michael Mann said in a Twitter post.

For years, Iran and Western powers have left negotiating tables in disagreement, frustration and at times open animosity.

But the diplomatic tone changed with the transfer of power after Iran's election this year, which saw President Hassan Rouhani replace Mahmoud Ahmadinejad.

Caustic jabs at the United States and bellicose threats toward Israel were a hallmark of Ahmadinejad's foreign policy rhetoric.

He lambasted the West over the economic sanctions crippling Iran's economy and at the same time, pushed the advancement of nuclear technology in Iran.

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Rouhani has struck up a more conciliatory tone and made the lifting sanctions against his country a priority