Sounding a cautionary, and cautiously optimistic, note on the eve of Afghan President Hamid Karzai’s second inauguration, U.S. Secretary of State Hillary Clinton pointed to a crucial “window of opportunity” for Afghanistan as she called for Karzai and his administration to tackle the corruption issue within their government.
With the threat of a Republican-led filibuster looming large, Majority Leader Harry Reid is faced with the unenviable task of ushering the Senate’s version of the health care reform bill through his congressional chamber. On Wednesday, Reid started his woo-a-thon with an only slightly easier audience: moderate Democrats.
A Canadian couple have negotiated something called a Differentiated Homework Plan with their children’s school after learning that there is no guarantee that after-school toil does a lick of good. As a result, young Spencer and Brittany Milley of Calgary will not be judged on anything but their in-class performance. (continued)
After terminating his second stint as California’s governor, Arnold Schwarzenegger will be looking for a fourth act in life. The movie-star-turned-politician told reporters in Italy, “I am not going to run for anything else.” So what’s next? Environmental activist? Hummer salesman? Judge on Project Runway? (continued)
Attorney General Eric Holder’s idea to hold a criminal trial in New York City for Khalid Sheikh Mohammed and four others implicated in the 9/11 terrorist attack plot has been sharply criticized, primarily from the right side of the aisle, but Holder defended his decision before the Senate Judiciary Committee on Wednesday.
The folks at Fox News are going to love this one: Lou Dobbs may have left his desk at CNN, but that doesn’t mean he’ll cut out the crazy talk anytime soon. He believes his decline at the network began when President Barack Obama was elected. However, it’s unclear how exactly that might account for the drop in his ratings.
File this one under Dubious Honors of the World: An organization with the fun name of Transparency International has created a list ranking nations according to “perceived levels of corruption in the public sector,” as the BBC put it, and Somalia appears to be the worst of the bunch.
The Israeli Interior Ministry has approved the construction of 900 housing units, four or five bedrooms each, on annexed Palestinian territory in East Jerusalem. Benjamin Netanyahu’s spokesman said any settlement deal with the U.S. would not include Jerusalem. (continued)
Did you know that there’s a condition called “hypoactive sexual desire disorder,” from which many women suffer? Well, there is, or at least a bunch of scientists have decided there is, and sadly, about 10 percent of premenopausal women grapple with it. Luckily, if unsurprisingly, there might be a pill in the works for just this issue.
Sherrod Brown and other progressive senators held a meeting Monday night with Harry Reid to let the majority leader know they don’t intend to give up any more of an already weakened public option. (continued)
That recession is overstatement looks more unfortunate every day. The Department of Agriculture disclosed Monday that a little more than 49 million Americans had trouble putting food on the table last year—the highest percentage since the government began keeping track in 1995, up 13 million people from the previous year. (continued)
A new Harvard study has uncovered another disturbing reality of America’s broken health care system: Trauma patients without insurance are almost twice as likely to die in the emergency room. Researchers were unable to determine why, but hospitals’ eagerness to transfer the uninsured could be to blame.
Those financial institutions that viewed last year’s bailout as an object lesson that they can carry on as they wish so long as they’re “too big to fail” may have to adopt another approach. At least, that was the message Monday from Federal Reserve Chairman Ben Bernanke, if he makes good on words of warning to big banks.
A year after declaring independence from Serbia, Kosovo has received good marks from European monitors for its first round of local elections, which could lead to wider recognition and acceptance of its newly established status in the international community.
Could she be a contender? In the eyes of the voting public, that remains to be seen. For her part, Sarah Palin isn’t giving any clear signals that she plans to make a play for the White House in 2012, but in her customary fashion, she’s not exactly answering that question directly and completely either.
President Obama’s remarks at a Shanghai town hall meeting Monday were unlikely to please either the power brokers in Beijing or the hawks on the home front. Obama said China and the U.S. were not adversaries, but he also spoke of “universal rights,” which ... (continued)
In the decades after World War II, some 10,000 British children were separated from their families and exiled to Australia, where many were physically and sexually abused and some were put to work in what were effectively child labor camps. Australian Prime Minister Kevin Rudd ... (continued)
The fight against health care reform is being waged partly by secretive front groups such as Americans for Quality and Affordable Healthcare. While its sponsorship may be cloaked in mystery, its aims fit nicely with those of the health insurance industry.
President Obama, at an ASEAN summit in Singapore, urged Burma’s premier to free pro-democracy activist Aung San Suu Kyi in a rare meeting between American and Burmese leaders.
Fallujah, an Iraqi city forever marked by the U.S. assault there, is dealing with another claim to infamy—infant deformities running up to 15 times higher than normal and a spike in cases of early-life cancers that may be linked to toxic materials from the fighting.
Human Rights Watch is accusing Israel and its backers of waging a campaign of misinformation in an effort to discredit the group. HRW has been a leading voice in condemning alleged Israeli war crimes in the Gaza Strip.
Amid continuing protests by Japanese civilians on Okinawa, President Obama has announced he will create a “high-level working group” to discuss the future of a U.S. Marine Corps air base on the island, a move that appears to be aimed at mending relations with Japan.
The British Defense Ministry is investigating 33 cases of alleged abuse of Iraqi civilians by its soldiers. Many of the allegations, which include sexual attacks and torture, reflect U.S. soldiers’ acts depicted in photos from the infamous Abu Ghraib prison.
Feliz cumpleaños, Gitmo: Eight years ago Friday, then-President George W. Bush signed what we now refer to as Military Order No. 1, thus paving the way for the creation of the Guantanamo Bay prison and for the creative adaptations of international justice codes that supported it.
News flash: Adding caffeine to alcoholic drinks may lead consumers to underestimate how drunk they are. The Food and Drug Administration is getting to the bottom of this potential health issue by ordering close to 30 manufacturers of caffeinated adult beverages to prove that their drinks are safe—or else.
Catch Up on the News With Larry’s List: Thanksgiving Weekend Edition
