The measure is the latest in a string of little-noticed initiatives by the Obama DHS to reconsider some of the most controversial enforcement policies of the past decade. The administration in August launched an overhaul of the immigration detention system, which had grown out of control as the number of detainees doubled in just five years to more than 440,000 annually. Some of those were simply lost in the system, while others fell ill and died due to poor medical care, and the administration has pledged to stop such abuses. That same month, it moved families out of the notorious T. Don Hutto immigrant detention facility in Texas, which had become a national disgrace after revelations that pregnant women and small children were being held there in prison-like conditions.

The administration has also largely halted workplace raids that resulted in jailing, deportation and even criminal charges for many unauthorized workers, and is focused instead on in-depth audits of companies suspected of hiring those workers. And DHS has curbed the authority of state and local police forces to demand immigration documents from anyone stopped for minor offenses like traffic violations, saying that such checks should be done only for those jailed on criminal charges, particularly for serious criminal offenses. To drive home the point, DHS in October stripped the notorious Sheriff Joe Arpaio of Arizona of federal authority to make immigration-related arrests.

Among the changes is a requirement that every record be released eventually and that federal agencies review how and why they mark documents classified or deny the release of historical records. A National Declassification Center at the National Archives will be established to assist them and help clear a backlog of the Cold War records by Dec. 31, 2013.

Dozens of bikers joined a protest called the “Freedom Ride” to oppose the removal of a bike path in Williamsburg, an Orthodox Jewish neighborhood.

But the fierce snowstorm in New York kept them from pedaling topless as planned.

But no new deal will be signed in Copenhagen, Moscow and Washington said.

“The presidents plan to meet after the end of the summit. They will discuss actual bilateral relations, including preparations of a new treaty that is to replace expired START,” a Kremlin official said.

“Policy decisions require real science and real solutions,” Palin argued on Facebook, “not junk science and doomsday scare tactics pushed by an environmental priesthood that capitalizes on the public’s worry and makes them feel that owning an SUV is a ’sin’ against the planet.”

The reaction to Palin’s latest piece, however, is focused not on what she wrote, but on the fact that the Washington Post chose to run it in the first place.

Like many developing countries, Bolivia says it is the victim of the rich world’s pollution and it is demanding aid to meet the impacts of global warming.

Announcing that conservative rancher Porfirio Lobo was headed for victory in Sunday’s presidential contest, election officials said more than 60 percent of registered voters cast ballots, an increase from the last election, when about 55 percent voted.

That would be a victory for interim leaders who hoped a strong turnout would prove the vote’s legitimacy and free this poor Central American nation from the international isolation that followed the June 28 ouster of President Manuel Zelaya.

Zelaya was sure to dispute the official numbers. He said information he received from polling places indicated two-thirds of voters stayed home, which he insisted meant the election had no legitimacy and should not be recognized.

The debate over whether Honduras should hold the election without restoring Zelaya to his office overshadowed the campaign.

The five apparently include three death sentences announced last month. None of the five have been identified by Iranian authorities.

Iran began the mass trial in August of more than 100 prominent opposition figures and activists, accusing them of a range of charges from rioting to spying and plotting what Iran’s clerical rulers have depicted as a foreign-backed plot to oust them from power.

In the weeks following the June 12 election, the opposition led massive street protests that drew hundreds of thousands and supporters clashed with security forces. They claimed fraud after election authorities declared President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad the winner of a second term and their anger unleashed the most serious internal unrest in Iran in the 30 years since the Islamic Revolution.

A harsh crackdown ended the demonstrations and a security sweep went far beyond rounding up just protesters on the streets, snatching up rights activists and journalists, as well as pro-reform politicians. Rights groups and opposition figures in Iran have criticized the court proceedings, calling them a “show trial” and saying confessions are coerced.