For nearly three weeks Israel has blocked access to the Gaza Strip. Foreign journalists are challenging the Gaza ban in court, calling it a 'blow' to freedom of the press.
Wednesday's vote on a security pact to allow US troops to remain in Iraq for three more years is being seen as a referendum on Prime Minister Maliki's performance.
President-elect Barack Obama will retain Defense Secretary Robert M. Gates as a show of continuity in a time of war, Democrats close to the transition said.
A new study concluded that policies that grew out of President Thabo Mbeki?s denial of the scientific consensus about AIDS may have led to the premature deaths of 365,000 people.
AP - Seeking experience in wartime, President-elect Barack Obama intends to re-enlist Defense Secretary Robert Gates as head of the Pentagon — if only temporarily — and has chosen a retired Marine general to be White House national security adviser, officials said Tuesday.
AP - Rolling out powerful new weapons against the financial meltdown, the Bush administration and the Federal Reserve pledged $800 billion Tuesday to blast through blockades on credit cards, auto loans, mortgages and other borrowing. Total bailout commitments, loans and pledges of backing neared a staggering $7 trillion.
AP - The economy growing weaker, President-elect Barack Obama said Tuesday that recovery efforts will trump deficit concerns when he takes office in January. Yet he pledged a "page-by-page, line-by-line" budget review to root out unneeded spending.
A U.S. Marine and a soldier were shot to death Tuesday while conducting a humanitarian mission north of Baghdad, the U.S. military said. The attack occurred on the eve of a parliamentary vote on a proposed security pact between the United States and Iraq that sets out the role of U.S. and allied troops in Iraq.
Several officials close to President-elect Barack Obama's transition tell CNN that Defense Secretary Robert Gates is expected to stay on the job for at least the first year of the new administration. One source called it "all but a done deal" and said the announcement could come as early as next week.
Rates of new cancer diagnoses and deaths for U.S. men and women have fallen for the first time, according to a new report from leading cancer and medical research organizations. But lung cancer incidence and mortality increased in 18 states that generally have not passed anti-smoking laws, said the lead author of the study.
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