Spurred by anger over A.I.G. bonuses, the House voted 328 to 93 to levy a 90 percent tax on bonuses paid by any company owing more than $5 billion in bailout money.
Residents who had been pillars of Connecticut towns are finding themselves the focus of populist rage, and guards have been stationed at some of their houses.
AP - President Barack Obama told Iran's people and leaders that the United States wants to engage with their country and end decades of strained relationship, but not unless their officials stop making threats.
AP - Buoyed by adoring crowds far from Washington's political wars, President Barack Obama guaranteed Americans on Thursday that the nation's economy will recover, though he asked them for patience.
AP - Denouncing a "squandering of the people's money," lawmakers voted decisively Thursday to impose a 90 percent tax on millions of dollars in employee bonuses paid by troubled insurance giant AIG and other bailed-out companies. The House vote was 328-93. Similar legislation has been introduced in the Senate and President Barack Obama quickly signaled general support for the concept.
Oscar Reynoso owed his bosses $300,000, and he was running out of time. Gunmen snatched Reynoso and locked him in the basement of a home to try to settle the drug debt. He was chained to a wall of the basement by his hands and ankles, gagged and beaten. His captors, members of a powerful Mexican drug cartel, held Reynoso for ransom, chained in the sweltering, dirty basement for six days without food. Reynoso's ordeal could've been a scene from the drug war in Mexico. But it played out recently in suburban Atlanta, Georgia.
President Obama became the first sitting president to appear before a late-night talk show studio audience, mixing jokes with serious discussion on "The Tonight Show with Jay Leno." Obama is on a swing through the Los Angeles area for town hall meetings on the economy, where he has said he accepts responsibility for outrage over bonuses paid to executives by bailed-out insurer AIG.
Aokigahara Forest is known for two things in Japan: its views of Mount Fuji and suicides. Fired from his job, Taro bought a one-way ticket to the forest. Once there, he slashed his wrists, though it wasn't enough to kill him before he was found by a hiker. Taro's story is just one of hundreds logged at the forest each year. And Japan's suicide rate, already one of the world's highest, has increased with the recent economic downturn.
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