Daily News Channel
The streets of Kabul were eerily quiet on Thursday, as polls for Afghanistan’s second presidential election since the fall of the Taliban opened to little fanfare and even smaller crowds. Children, taking advantage of the trafficless streets, flew kites. Watermelon sellers languished in the shade of their carts waiting for a sale
The only man ever convicted over the Lockerbie passenger plane bombing was Thursday released and allowed to return to Libya on compassionate grounds because he is terminally ill. Abdelbeset Ali Mohmed al Megrahi 57 was serving a life sentence for bombing Pan Am Flight 103 over the Scottish town of Lockerbie, resulting in the deaths of 270 people. The White House, which has urged Britain to keep al Megrahi behind bars, said it “deeply regrets” the decision
Conservative columnist and former CNN "Crossfire" co-host Robert Novak has died after a yearlong battle with cancer, his family said Tuesday. He was 78. Novak died at home, over a year after doctors diagnosed him with a malignant brain tumor in August 2008.
The White House sought to reassure jittery supporters Monday that President Obama is not abandoning the fight for a public health insurance option. The assurance came amid a media firestorm ignited over the weekend by administration officials seeming to indicate a willingness to drop such an option in order to secure congressional approval of a health care reform bill.
Few things have peeved Latin America more than Washington’s hypocrisy regarding coups. Overthrowing our friends at gunpoint is bad, the traditional U.S. line seemed to go, but toppling our foes — even the democratically elected ones — is O.K
There is no "silver bullet" solution to health care overhaul, President Obama said on Saturday, but the system needs to change to avoid "a world of hurt" down the road. “There is no perfect, painless silver bullet out there that solves everyone’s problem, that gives everyone perfect health care for free.
George Orwell never wrote about health insurance, but his ghost hovers over the current health-care debate, providing inspiration for all manner of fears about Big Brother-like intrusions by the government into the lives of ordinary Americans. First was the rumor—promoted by high-profile Republicans like Sarah Palin, Newt Gingrich and Iowa Senator Charles Grassley—that Democratic health care plans would create “death panels” which would pass judgment on which citizens deserved to live.
A pioneer, a preacher, an activist and an athlete were among 16 people who President Obama honored Wednesday with the Presidential Medal of Freedom, the nation’s highest civilian honor. “This is a chance for me and for the United States of America to say thank you to some of the finest citizens of this country and of all countries,” Obama told the audience assembled for the ceremony at the White House. “At a moment when cynicism and doubt too often prevail, when our obligations to one another are too often forgotten, when the road ahead can seem too long or hard to tread, these extraordinary men and women, these agents of change, remind us that excellence is not beyond our abilities, that hope lies around the corner and that justice can still be won in the forgotten corners of this world,” the president said.
Beyond the noise of raucous crowds and angry protesters who have turned town hall meetings into shouting matches is genuine concern from ordinary citizens who are afraid that President Obama’s health care proposals would only make things harder for them, experts say. “The reason that we see these protests and people asking tough questions at town hall meetings is because they feel like the president is going to take something away from them. That motivates people.
President Obama complained Tuesday about opposition scare tactics against a proposed health care overhaul but said that failing to fix problems in the current system would be the scariest outcome of all. Obama addressed a supportive town hall meeting that contrasted with combative events held by Democratic Congress members, which have generated heated and sometimes disruptive responses. Also Tuesday, hostile crowds shouted questions and made angry statements against proposed health-care legislation at meetings in Pennsylvania and Missouri led by Democratic senators Arlen Specter and Claire McCaskill.