GOP proposals to cut the federal budget range from $100 billion to $500 billion to a symbolic $1.5 trillion. With Democrats wary of stifling the economic recovery, the divide just may be too wide.
President Obama did not mention several hot-button topics during the State of the Union, such as abortion. But given the Jan. 8 shooting in Tucson, Ariz., gun control was notable in its absence.
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 - Sick and getting sicker, Social Security will run at a deficit this year and keep on running in the red until its trust funds are drained by about 2037, congressional budget experts said Wednesday in bleaker-than-previous estimates.
AP - Thousands of Egyptians vented their rage against President Hosni Mubarak's autocratic government in a second day of protests Wednesday that defied a ban on public gatherings. Baton-wielding police responded with tear gas and beatings in a crackdown that showed zero tolerance for dissent.
AP - Rep. Gabrielle Giffords on Wednesday left intensive care for the first time since she was shot in the head in Arizona more than two weeks ago, the latest big step in the long road to recovery.
A new book released by a Japanese man accused of killing his British English language teacher reveals chilling details about the extreme measures he took to evade capture for two and a half years.
Afghan President Hamid Karzai inaugurated parliament this morning more than four months after a fraud-filled election, but did so begrudgingly and only after blaming the West for pushing the country to the verge of "chaos." Karzai and his allies, upset at the outcome of the September election and worried about losing candidates responding violently, created repeated roadblocks to today's ceremony, including a special tribunal to investigate fraud that critics said was unconstitutional.
About 200 people listen to a Taliban mullah describe why a man and woman deserve to be killed. A few dozen spectators – people from the local community -- start throwing rocks at the woman, who had already been placed in a 4-foot-deep hole. They throw with relish and yell, "Allah akbar." At one point a large rock strikes her head and she falls down, her burqa red with blood. After the rock throwing ends, a few people debate whether she should be shot. Eventually one of the spectators shoots her with an AK-47. She falls into the hole, out of sight. There is a short period of absolute silence, and then the spectators turn to each other and start talking.
A quick-hitting snowstorm that began coating the nation's capital has forced the cancellation of hundreds of flights in New England and the Eastern Seaboard.
An embattled Nevada councilwoman called police shortly before they found her and her husband dead in an apparent murder-suicide, police in Mesquite said Wednesday.
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