8 best vines in politics 2014

(CNN) -- Whether it's competing in a guitar battle or doing a karate kick in costume, there's a lot a politician can do in six seconds. With that, I give you the best Vines in politics for 2014:

1. Joe Biden goes into take a selfie while wearing a baseball cap, and it's really a Vine. Oh yes, the girl taking the Vine knows exactly what she's doing. #Biden'd

2. Michelle Obama's vegetable take on DJ Snake and Lil Jon's "Turn Down for What"

3. 77-year-old Rep. Jim McDermott, D-Washington, paid tribute to martial arts icon, Bruce Lee. And, no, this was not for Halloween.

4. A guitar battle that took place on not one, but two Vine accounts, where Rep. Keith Ellison, D-Minnesota, and Rep. Joe Crowley, D-New York, challenged each other with six-second Prince cover jam sessions:

5. Crowley's challenge:

6. Sen. Chris Murphy, D-Connecticut, went all meta, capturing Sen. Tim Kaine, D-Virginia, rocking out on the harmonica with a blues guitarist WHO KNEW?! #BFFs

7. Donald Trump got political, giving Miley Cyrus some advice:

8. And lastly, Rep. Eric Swalwell, D-California, toured DC in Google's self-driving car. Vine-selfie included:

That's a wrap for 2014. I can only imagine what the new year will bring.

How celebs are celebrating the holidays

Woman's drug probe 'nightmare' is over

American Stacey Addison was arrested September 5 while traveling solo in East Timor.

• Stacey Addison was detained by police in September during a taxi journey


• She says another passenger in the cab picked up a package containing drugs


• Addison was on a nearly two-year trip around the world


• She is awaiting return of her passport so she can go back to the United States

Dili, East Timor (CNN) -- American traveler Stacey Addison says she was detained for months in East Timor because she unwittingly shared a taxi with a stranger carrying methamphetamine. Now she's out of jail -- and a guest of a former East Timor leader.

Addison, 41, of Oregon, was released from an East Timor prison Thursday, nearly four months after her initial arrest in the small Southeast Asian nation in a drug case in which she says she's innocent.

Addison appeared before reporters Thursday at the home of former East Timorese President and Nobel Peace Prize laureate Jose Ramos-Horta, who says he'll host her temporarily at his home.

Details on the reasons and conditions for her release, or when she would be able to leave the country, weren't available. She couldn't leave immediately Thursday, because her passport -- seized during the investigation -- had not been returned.

The U.S. State Department welcomed the decision, according to department spokesperson Jen Psaki, but confirmed that Addison remains in Timor-Leste where the government still retains her passport.

Both she and Ramos-Horta said they would not discuss details of the case.

Addison was asked what she would do when she is able to obtain a passport. Her answer: "Go home."

"I don't think my mom would ever forgive me if I didn't come home immediately and stay for a while," she said.

Addison's arrest in September was an unexpected bump in what had been a multi-year trip around the world.

She said she had been traveling solo since January 2013, having quit her job as a veterinarian to explore the globe. On September 5, she was sharing a cab from near the Indonesian border to the East Timor capital of Dili.

On the way, a fellow passenger asked to stop to pick up a package at a DHL office, her mother, Bernadette Kero of Oregon, has told CNN. After the man picked up the package, police surrounded the car and arrested the occupants, according to Kero.

The package was found to contain methamphetamine, Addison has said.

She initially was held for four nights, and a judge released her -- but prevented her from leaving the country while the case was still being investigated -- after the man testified that he didn't know her, Kero said.

In late October, during a court appearance where she thought she'd retrieve her passport, a judge ordered her arrest again and sent her to Gleno prison outside Dili.

Paul Remedios, a lawyer representing Addison, said at the time that the court detained her again because there was a warrant for her arrest, and that the reason for the warrant was unclear.

Addison said Thursday that she had petitioned for her release earlier this month, but didn't expect to be released on Thursday.

"I had kind of thought it wouldn't happen because it's Christmas -- that everything would be closed," she said. "I knew there was a petition pending, but it had been three weeks and I had heard nothing."

Kero told CNN last month that the case was a "nightmare." On Thursday, she said her daughter's release was "the best Christmas present I could imagine."

"The past four months have been an extremely stressful time for all of us," Kero wrote in an email Thursday. "Of course we are now hoping that her passport will be returned and she will be able to return home to Oregon very soon.

"Her lawyer will work on getting her passport released. I just want to be able to see her and give her a big hug."

Journalist Wayne Lovell reported from Dili, CNN's Kristina Sgueglia reported from New York, and CNN's Jason Hanna wrote in Atlanta. CNN's Jethro Mullen and Susan Candiotti contributed to this report.

CDC lab tech under Ebola watch

• CDC statement says the public isn't at risk


• Exposure came inside secure lab, as material was transferred


• Scientist has no symptoms, but will be monitored for 21 days


• Others will also be assessed, the agency says

(CNN) -- A technician from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention will be monitored for three weeks after possibly being exposed to the Ebola virus at one of the agency's Atlanta labs, the CDC said Wednesday.

The CDC said in a written statement that a small amount of material from an experiment was mistakenly transferred from one lab to another and it might have contained the live virus. The incident was discovered Tuesday.

The technician has no symptoms of the illness, CDC Director of Public Relations Barbara Reynolds said in the statement.

"Others who entered the lab have been contacted and will be assessed for possible exposure by the CDC Occupational Health Clinic. As of this time we believe exposure requiring monitoring is limited to one individual," the CDC said.

There is no possibility of exposure outside the lab and no risk to the public, the statement said.

The center is investigating the incident, which CDC Director Dr. Tom Frieden called troubling. He said the agency is taking "all necessary measures."

That includes destroying the material, decontaminating and closing the lab, letting staff know about the incident and notifying the proper oversight agencies.

This is not the first incident in which the transfer from one lab to another risked exposure to potentially deadly material.

In early June, dozens of CDC workers were potentially exposed to anthrax after a lab failed to inactivate the dangerous bacteria before transferring it to another lab.

An outside investigation by the U.S. Department of Agriculture found dangerous biological materials stored in unlocked refrigerators and a general lack of lab workers following safety protocols. Investigators said the anthrax that was believed to be deactivated was transferred in Ziploc bags, which are not approved to carry such materials.

Frieden, who took the CDC director job in 2009, acknowledged at a congressional hearing into that incident and others that he and other CDC managers failed to recognize a "critical pattern."

CDC director warns against Ebola complacency

CNN's Ben Tinker contributed to this report.

How celebs are celebrating Christmas

114-year-old Facebook user dies

• Anna Stoehr of Plainview, Minnesota, lied about her age to get on Facebook


• The company sent her a huge bouquet of flowers on her 114th birthday, her son says


• She died Sunday, leaving 5 children, 27 grandchildren and 12 great-grandchildren


• Stoehr lived on a farm until she was 112-years-old

(CNN) -- A woman believed to be the world's oldest Facebook user has died at the age of 114, her family said.

Anna Stoehr of Plainview, Minnesota, gained widespread attention in October when she said she'd had to lie about her age to sign up for the social network.

Facebook responded by celebrating her impressive longevity on her birthday.

"She turned 114 in October of this year and received a huge bouquet of 114 flowers from Facebook after they learned that she was not able to sign up without putting in a fake age of 90 or 95," Harlan Stoehr, her 84-year-old eldest son, told CNN on Tuesday.

He told CNN that his mother -- who leaves 5 children, 27 grandchildren and 12 great-grandchildren -- died Sunday.

No phone, no car, no electricity

She was born in 1900, the year before the assassination of President William McKinley and the death of Queen Victoria. Her family had no telephone, car or electricity at the time.

Facebook isn't set up to accommodate such venerable users. The network's sign-up page only allows people to put dates of birth going back to 1905.

Facebook Chief Executive Mark Zuckerberg had attempted to reach Anna Stoehr after his company sent an apology about the age restriction, according to her daughter-in-law Marlene Stoehr.

"She was not available when he had his assistant call to get hold of her because of a medical appointment, and then Mark Zuckerberg was out of the country so it never happened," she said. "But it was an exciting time for everyone with all the attention."

The company didn't immediately respond to a request for comment Wednesday.

Lived on a farm until she was 112

Facebook isn't the only area where Anna Stoehr stood out -- she was also the oldest person in Minnesota.

She even threw out the first pitch at a Minnesota Twins game (via a video-taped throw) at the age of 113, according to her son.

"They asked her if she would pitch it overhand or underhand, and she said, 'Overhand, of course, it's baseball,'" he said.

Harlan Stoehr said his mother was always very active and had lived on a farm near Elgin, Minnesota, from 1936 until 2013. She was left alone there after the death of her husband in 1998. At the age of 112, she moved to an apartment in a retirement community in Plainview.

"She loved gardening and always had huge flower gardens and strawberries," her son said. "She grew all kinds of things, and when an apple tree on her farm blew down, she planted another one. She was 105 years old at the time."

Signed up for Facebook at 113

Her interest in getting onto Facebook at the age of 113 grew out of a friendship with a Verizon salesman.

Joseph Ramireza was selling an iPhone to Stoehr's 85-year-old son, who started talking about his mother. Ramireza said he had to meet her.

"She's become something of a kindred spirit," Ramireza told CNN affiliate KARE-TV in October.

He helped her use FaceTime to video chat with friends on an iPad and has been teaching her to use email and Google search.

When Facebook didn't have her birth year as an option, Ramireza helped Stoehr write a letter to Zuckerberg -- on a typewriter.

"I'm still here," she said in the letter.

2,800 flights delayed

• NEW: More than 2,800 flights delayed on Wednesday


• NEW: One traveler uses extra time to buy gifts at airport shops


• NEW: System steers away from Chicago, sparing Windy CIty from snowfall


• Tornado system kills four in Mississippi

(CNN) -- It was a frustrating day for many holiday fliers as almost 3,000 flights were postponed due to rain and poor visibility.

Chicago, Dallas and Philadelphia all were hubs of harried travelers anxiously waiting for announcements that it was time to go. At some points, those didn't come for up to two hours.

At Reagan National Airport in Washington, traveler Gregory Simpson had to wait an extra hour for his flight to Toronto.

"If you want to see family, you gotta do what you have to do," he said, taking the weather delay in stride. "It's unfortunate that this tends to happen this time of year, but there's not a whole lot you can do about it."

One man at LaGuardia International Airport in New York took advantage of the extra time. He hit the airport shops to do some last minute gift buying.

"Anywhere and everywhere I can," he told CNN affiliate WCBS with a wry smile.

At least one holiday flight doesn't have to worry about such annoyances. Santa's aircraft, Candy Cane One, was cleared by the FAA for gift deliveries.

There were more than 2,800 delays because of weather and other reasons for flights with U.S. points of departure and/or arrivals, according to the flight tracking website FlightAware.com. More than 380 were canceled.

White Christmas for some

There was good news for snowplow drivers in Chicago as a storm system that was forecast to bring snow ended up to the east of the city. It was also weaker than expected, the National Weather Service office in Chicago said.

The folks that clear the roads Thursday in the Rockies won't be as lucky. A storm system that is moving eastward will drop snow on the mountains and the High Plains, the NWS says. Snow totals in some areas of Idaho, Montana, Utah, South Dakota and Wyoming could be significant.

The sun should return to a broad section of the southern and central United States on Thursday.

AAA projects that 98.6 million Americans will travel 50 or more miles this holiday season, a 4% increase from last year. Those traveling by car can take advantage of plummeting gas prices -- which, averaging $2.25 nationwide, are down 69 cents a gallon from a year ago.

Storms kill four in Mississippi

People grieved Wednesday and cleared rubble in southern Mississippi, where a tornado system killed four people Tuesday night and packed an emergency room with dozens of injured.

That storm tore to pieces a mobile home in the countryside of Jones County, Mississippi, killing two people, Sheriff Alex Hodge said.

"There were other brick and mortar homes that had major damage, but we have no other injuries reported," he said. The storm also wrecked a church.

A few dozen miles to the southwest, two more people died in storms in Marion County, police said. The hospital overflowed with injured people.

"Fifty patients were seen in the ER today because of the storm," said Marion General Hospital spokeswoman Millie Swan. "We are operating on generator power. Columbia is completely out of power."

At least 6,300 households lost power and roads were cut off. Emergency operators have heard of people injured and trapped. Swan expects more injured patients to come into the hospital in coming days, once they can make it in.

State of emergency

Mississippi Gov. Phil Bryant issued a state of emergency for Marion and Jones counties.

On a highway in between the two counties, the storm damaged a children's day care center, but spared the children inside.

Unharmed, they were moved to a nearby bank building.

In Louisiana, not far from the town of Amite, authorities said a windstorm damaged 15 homes.

Civil defense sirens howl from the distance on a video posted to YouTube on Tuesday purportedly of a tornado in Mississippi that day. "See it spinning?" a woman asks another.

Something on the grainy image seems to be circling in a mass of dark gray clouds on the nearby horizon.

Tornadoes are not unusual this time of year in the Deep South, said CNN meteorologist Karen Maginnis. "Actually, this is a secondary peak for tornado activity. The first is during the spring months."

CNN's Ben Brumfield, Devon Sayers, Tony Marco, Monica Garrett, Mayra Cuevas, Rene Marsh and Laurie Ure contributed to this report.