Mexico floods president’s home state with police

In response to a spate of attacks allegedly by a drug cartel, Mexico more than tripled the number of federal police officers patrolling the state of Michoacan, a government spokeswoman said. The government on Thursday dispatched 1,000 federal police officers to Michoacan state in southwest Mexico, increasing its presence to 1,300 total, Public Safety spokeswoman Veronica Penunuri told CNN.

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Deadly blasts hit two hotels in Jakarta

Explosions tore through two luxury hotels Friday morning in south Jakarta, Indonesia, killing at least eight people, a presidential spokesman said. The number of injured was in the 40s, said Dino Patti Djalal, spokesman for President Susilo Bambang Yudhoyono. They were taken to area hospitals.

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Obama to NAACP: Progress made but much still to accomplish

President Obama commended the progress of African-Americans in a speech on the 100th anniversary of the NAACP, but said there was still much work to be done. Speaking at the organization’s annual convention in New York, the city where the organization was founded, Obama evoked symbols of the civil rights movement to describe the NAACP’s influence on race relations in the United States.

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Is Secretary Clinton being back-benched?

Secretary of State Hillary Clinton delivers a major foreign policy speech and some Washington political observers ask: "Is she trying to get back in the spotlight?" Since she slipped and broke her elbow last month, the secretary has had to cancel an international trip, and some inside-the-Beltway types are reading the tea leaves. Is it another step in the process of keeping Secretary Clinton from the real foreign policy decision-making in the Obama administration “The Daily Beast’s” Tina Brown writes: “Left behind on major presidential trips, overruled in choosing her own staff — Hillary Clinton is the invisible woman at State.” “It’s time for Barack Obama to let Hillary Clinton take off her burqa,” she said

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Obama throws ceremonial first pitch at All-Star game

President Obama is not shy about showing off his jump shot on the basketball court, but on Tuesday night, it was his baseball skills that were put to the test. Obama, clad in a Chicago White Sox jacket and blue jeans, threw out the ceremonial first pitch at the Major League Baseball All-Star Game in St

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Charles Taylor: Liberian Warlord Begins War-Crimes Trial

Pulling the microphone toward him, the dapper 61-year-old man in sunglasses creased his forehead, cleared his throat emphatically and introduced himself to the war-crimes court in the Hague: “My name is Dakpenah Dr. Charles Ghankay Taylor, the 21st President of the Republic of Liberia.” Thus began the testimony of Charles Taylor, the reviled warlord and ousted Liberian President, at his landmark trial for war crimes and crimes against humanity.

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