Proposals to allow criminals to serve only half their sentences if they plead guilty at an early stage are set to be dropped entirely, the BBC understands.
The government rejects calls for a rethink over controversial plans to raise the state pension age for women by 2018 but promises to look at the "transitional arrangements".
Intelligence analysts say Ayman al-Zawahiri, the successor to Osama bin Laden, is disliked in Al Qaeda as an irritable micro-manager, but he's also a skilled military tactician and should not be discounted.
The secrecy around Mayor Michael R. Bloomberg’s selection of Cathleen P. Black to run the city’s schools highlighted his faith in business leaders and dislike of public debate.
Starting Thursday, Wal-Mart plans to offer free shipping on its Web site, a move that may create an expectation among consumers and a threat to smaller retailers.
AP - President Barack Obama will announce the critical next steps in America's decade-long war in Afghanistan on Wednesday, outlining both a plan to start bringing thousands of U.S. troops home next month and a broader withdrawal blueprint aimed at giving Afghans control of their own security in 2014.
AP - Libya's government said a NATO airstrike west of Tripoli early Monday destroyed a large family compound belonging to a close associate of Moammar Gadhafi, killing at least 15 people, including three children. It was the second claim of civilian deaths at a home in as many days.
AP - Wal-Mart scored a big victory on Monday when the Supreme Court threw out the largest sex-discrimination case in U.S. history. Still, the nation's biggest private employer has been forced to address the issues raised in the suit.
At least 44 people died when a Russian jetliner crashed onto a highway outside the northwestern city of Petrozavodsk late Monday, emergency management officials said.
President Obama has promised to start a withdrawal from Afghanistan in July and complete it by 2014. On Wednesday, he'll give a speech laying out details.
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