Following through on a pledge made by President Obama earlier this year, the White House has announced it will insist on measures that give legal status to an estimated 12 million undocumented immigrants in a push for overhaul of the existing immigration system beginning early next year.
Not to be outdone by Barack Obama as the president contemplates whether to send 40,000 more troops to Afghanistan, British Prime Minister Gordon Brown has announced he will campaign for and expects to get coalition partners to commit an additional 5,000 troops to the NATO operation in that country.
The latest in a string of attacks in Pakistan this week happened Friday when a bomb exploded outside the Inter-Services Intelligence agency’s northwest headquarters in Peshawar, killing at least nine people and wounding 50.
President Barack Obama has ordered a probe into how American intelligence agencies dealt with information they had about suspected gunman Maj. Nidal Hasan before the Nov. 5 shooting at the Fort Hood Army base in Texas.
Blame it on the recession? Cigarette smoking among American adults had been on the decline for about 15 years, but in 2008 the smoking rate rose, bumping up slightly from 19.8 percent the previous year to just under 21 percent, according to the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.
Thank the regulatory heavens. The Federal Reserve is moving to prohibit banks from charging overdraft fees on ATM and debit card transactions unless the customer has opted into a program agreeing to pay the extra charges. Banks raked in $37 billion in fees last year, largely through unexplained programs and extraordinarily high levies.
A new sex education program in Spain’s Extremadura region is aimed at putting students’ sexual development into their own hands. The program, which teaches young people “sexual self-exploration” and “self-pleasure,” has sparked controversy as it battles with traditional (boring) Catholic views on sex.
After years of being denied entry by the Bush administration, a special rapporteur for the U.N. has finally completed a tour of housing in the U.S. and the diagnosis isn’t good. The special investigator accused the government of ignoring the “invisible” problem of homelessness while shelling out billions to banks.
We may not have seen the last of him on TV, but Lou Dobbs is done at CNN, having struck a deal to leave his anchor post at the cable channel immediately. In regard to what he’s doing next, Dobbs played coy while announcing his departure on camera Wednesday, saying only that he was “considering a number of options and directions.”
Karl W. Eikenberry, a former top-ranking general who once commanded allied forces in Afghanistan and now leads America’s diplomatic mission in Kabul, has reportedly urged President Obama to delay any escalation of the war until Hamid Karzai ... (continued)
Around here we take what Paul Krugman has to say seriously, which is probably why we’ve been so depressed lately. Alas (at last, even), the Nobel Prize-winning economist sees signs of hope—not in the numbers, but walking around the streets of New York and Princeton. (continued)
China’s authoritarianism has apparently helped the country keep a lid on the global H1N1 pandemic. Similarly populated India has experienced nearly 17 times as many deaths from the disease. The United States, with less than a quarter of China’s population, has recorded about 133 times as many deaths. (continued)
A study has found that workers exposed to high levels of bisphenol A, a chemical widely used in the manufacture of plastics and other consumer goods, were at least four times likelier to report sexual problems, including erectile dysfunction. (continued)
The Vatican used to burn people for talking about aliens. Now it holds conferences on the subject. After presiding over such an affair, the director of the Vatican Observatory explained “we cannot put limits on God’s creative freedom.” (continued)
Arguing that “the worst thing to do is nothing,” former President Bill Clinton rounded up Senate Democrats for a talking-to about their upcoming vote on the health care reform legislation passed by the House of Representatives last weekend. Clinton emphasized the need for action and reminded his audience that “there is no perfect bill.”
On Tuesday, President Barack Obama and first lady Michelle Obama were on hand at Fort Hood to pay tribute to those soldiers killed or wounded in last Thursday’s shooting at the Texas Army base. The 13 men and women fatally shot during the attack, in which Maj. Nidal Hasan is expected to be charged, were honored in the traditional manner for soldiers killed in battle, their framed photos set before empty pairs of combat boots next to helmet-topped rifles.
Tensions between North and South Korea escalated to the point of open combat off the Korean peninsula early Tuesday when navy patrol boats of the two nations swapped fire in disputed waters, according to The New York Times.
Oh, to be a fly on the wall at President Barack Obama’s closed-door meeting with Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu. The two administrations have been at odds over Israel’s settlement construction, a disagreement that might have had something to do with Obama’s snubbing of Netanyahu by holding a meeting that lacked the usual fanfare. (continued)
With all the bad press that pigs have been getting of late, owing to the swine flu scourge, it’s good to see that an academic journal, Animal Behaviour, has given our porcine friends a PR boost in the form of a study that shows pigs know how to identify themselves, and explore their surroundings, using mirrors.
A Russian police major lost his job after recording two YouTube videos’ worth of complaints about low pay, long hours and being promoted for arresting an innocent man. In one of the clips, the major invites Vladimir Putin himself to buddy up and investigate the problem. (video after the jump)
To mark the 20th anniversary of the fall of the Berlin Wall, a group of world leaders from past and present—including Mikhail Gorbachev, Lech Walesa, Nicolas Sarkozy and Hillary Rodham Clinton—joined German Chancellor Angela Merkel on Monday for a stroll through the Brandenberg Gate, which stood between East and West Berlin.
The first volume of a trilogy of Saddam Hussein books written by the late dictator’s lawyer has generated controversy in Iraq. It’s unclear whether the Iraqi government will even allow “Saddam Hussein: From an American Cell. This Is What Happened” to be sold in the country. (continued)
In an interview with Sky News Australia, the News Corp. tycoon laid out his vision for the future of the news business, which bears little resemblance to the present state of the news business. Murdoch said he would soon begin charging for online content, block Google searches and ... (continued)
Severe flooding has killed at least 124 people in El Salvador after heavy rains soaked the country. The government declared a state of emergency as the search for more victims went on.
Hezbollah is reportedly prepping for another possible conflict with Israel, stocking up on arms and reinforcing fixed positions, as fears grow that the Netanyahu government will launch a new assault against Lebanon as a precursor to any attack against Iran and its nuclear facilities.
Obama Risks Losing His Judicial Prize
