The Senate race in Pennsylvania, where Senator Rick Santorum lags behind his Democratic challenger, State Treasurer Bob Casey, in the polls, will put Republican fortifications to the test.
Members of the international force sent to help keep the peace in Lebanon say their mission is defined more by what they cannot do than by what they can.
What would Mark Twain make of America today? When he wrote his utopian satire, The Gilded Age (1873), there were certainly a lot of targets for his barbed shafts. The country worshipped gold, its politics were venal, and 1 percent of Americans sat on 20 percent of the nation's wealth. And they weren't shy about it, either. At a dinner in New York, by one account, guests smoked cigarettes rolled in hundred-dollar bills (about $2,000 today).
We're a nation of beautiful babies. In a remarkable achievement, the loss of babies during their first year of life has plummeted by almost 70 percent since 1970. Yet the nation's infant mortality rate is used time and again as evidence of America's failed health system. Just last week, the Commonwealth Fund issued a score card that flunked U.S. health system performance with newborns. The reason? Our current infant mortality rate of 6.4 per 1,000 live births is high compared with the 3.2 to 3.6 per 1,000 estimated for the three top-scoring countries in the world-Iceland, Finland, and Japan. It's also higher than the 6 deaths per 1,000 for the European community as a whole. Before putting on the hair shirt, let's take a look behind these numbers as these comparisons have serious flaws. They also convey little about why we lose nearly 28,000 babies a year, a starting point if we want to bring universal health to our nation's cradles.
AP - The government is partially lifting its ban against carrying liquids and gels onto airliners, instituted after a plot to bomb jets flying into the United States was foiled, an administration official said Monday.
AP - Pope Benedict XVI told Muslim diplomats Monday that "our future" depends on good relations between followers of both faiths as he sought to put to rest anger over his recent remarks about Islam and violence.
AP - In a new sign of mounting strain from the war in Iraq, the Army has extended the combat tours of about 4,000 soldiers who would otherwise be returning home, a defense official said Monday.
Pope Benedict XVI told Muslim leaders today that "our future" depends on dialogue between Christians and Muslims. The pope, trying to repair relations with Muslims after controversial comments he made earlier in the month, expressed "total and profound respect for all Muslims."
One Iraqi civilian was killed and 14 others wounded -- including three police officers -- when a car bomb targeting a police patrol exploded near Karrada in eastern Baghdad Sunday, Iraqi emergency police said.
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