New York - The International Year of Youth kicked off today with calls from United Nations officials to harness the talents and energy of the world´s young people to promote better understanding and dialogue between different generations, cultures and religions.
Dialogue and mutual understanding ...
Judge rules California´s Proposition 8 unconstitutional.
SAN FRANCISCO – In a landmark decision Wednesday, a federal judge ruled that Proposition 8, the California ballot initiative that excluded same-sex couples from marriage in the state, violates the United States Constitution. The American Ci...
Opposition leader Mousavi moves out of the consensus on foreign policy to criticize the Iranian president over UN sanctions.
Benjamin Joffe-Walt / The Media Line
Iranian opposition leader Mir-Hossein Mousavi harshly criticized Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad on Wednesday for fail...
Dean of Senate was Champion of the U.S. Constitution.
Senator Robert C. Byrd of West Virginia has died at age 92. He was the longest-serving member of Congress. The nine-term Democrat died peacefully Monday at 3 a.m. at Inova Fairfax Hospital in Falls Church, Virginia.
Byrd was best known fo...
Congressman Joe Barton, the top Republican on the committee that is overseeing the Gulf oil spill and its aftermath, delivered a personal apology to BP last week, saying the $20 billion relief fund that President Obama directed BP to provide to the victims of the oil disaster was a "tragedy in the f...
Democrat Elected to Congress from District Carried By John McCain in 2008
In the only race on Tuesday, May 18, where a Democrat faced off against a Republican, Congressman-elect Mark Critz won in a district carried by Republican Presidential contender John McCain in 2008. The seat, vacated by ...
Solicitor General would become historic third woman on Court.
Last week, President Obama nominated former Harvard Law School Dean and current Solicitor General Elena Kagan to be the third woman on the United States Supreme Court, replacing retiring Justice John Paul Stevens.
Kagan, a respect...
Fixing Immigration System Is Part And Parcel of Improved Border Security.
Washington, DC - The National Immigration Forum along with Arizona Congressman Raul Grijalva, and a coalition of border leaders hosted a press conference on Capitol Hill to highlight the renewed focus on the border and ...
President Obama achieves goal of Democratic presidents dating back to Harry Truman.
Under the leadership of House Speaker Nancy Pelosi, Democrats in Congress approved sweeping health care reform Sunday, providing medical coverage to millions of Americans. "With this action tonight, with this heal...
Washington – The Human Rights Campaign (HRC), the nation´s largest lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgender (LGBT) civil rights organization, this week lauded the introduction of the Military Readiness Enhancement Act of 2010 in the U.S. Senate. The bill, sponsored by U.S. Senator Joseph Lieberman (I...
U.S. President Barack Obama said $100 million would be available immediately to provide equipment, food, water and medicine to earthquake-ravaged Haiti. "This investment will grow over the coming year as we embark on the long-term recovery from this unimaginable tragedy," Obama said.
The first w...
"Candle of Hope" legislation passed early morning Christmas Eve.
Democrats in the United States Senate have passed the first major health care reform bill since the 1960s. The bill would extend health care coverage to an additional 31 million Americans who are currently without coverage. Not a ...
New York: Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon is urging countries to seize the opportunity presented by next month´s climate change conference in Copenhagen to clinch a political agreement that will help chart the way forward on a new legally binding pact to combat global warming.
"Opportunity is knock...
At 11:15 p.m. Eastern Time, House Speaker Nancy Pelosi announced the historic passage of a health care bill revamping the health care system and bringing about the reforms promised by President Obama during the November 2008 election.
The vote was 220 to 215 with one Republican, Representative C...
$1 billion minimum required annually to reach children still at risk.
WASHINGTON, DC | GENEVA -- Reversing a downward trend, immunization rates are now at their highest ever and vaccine development worldwide is booming, according to a new assessment released today by the World Health Organizati...
Barely nine months into office, President Barack Obama has won the Nobel Peace Prize, substantially boosting his prestige and standing in the United States and internationally.
The Nobel Committee said the President won the award for his "extraordinary efforts to strengthen international diploma...
More than 400 of the nation's most respected health care leaders issued a joint Open Letter to Congress declaring that the health care system is in crisis and is unsustainable and calling on Congress to act now on meaningful reforms. They state that Congress has a moral and ethical obligation to imp...
Speaking to a joint session of Congress last night, President Obama gave a clear, inspiring and unusually detailed explanation of our nation´s health care crisis and his plan to address it.
The President outlined the two key goals of health care reform: safety and security for those already insu...
Stay in school and take personal responsibility are two messages President Barack Obama delivered to U.S. school children.
Obama's speech to the nation's school children Tuesday encouraged them to do the best they can.
"(At) the end of the day, we can have the most dedicated teachers, the most...
The number of people hit by deadly floods across West Africa has now topped 600,000, and the heavy rains have also destroyed crops and infrastructure in a region already hard hit by poverty, the United Nations humanitarian arm reported today.
The rains that began in June have claimed nearly 160 l...
GENEVA -- Monitoring of outbreaks from different parts of the world provides sufficient information to make some tentative conclusions about how the influenza pandemic might evolve in the coming months.
WHO is advising countries in the northern hemisphere to prepare for a second wave of pandemic ...
A strong earthquake struck Indonesia Wednesday, killing at least 13 people, injuring 18 others and damaging several older buildings, witnesses said.
The earthquake, centered about 150 miles from Jakarta, initially was categorized at 7.4 magnitude before being downgraded to 7 by geological official...
By William M. Welch
LOS ANGELES -- Two firefighters died in a wildfire Sunday in the San Gabriel Mountains that threatened more than 10,000 homes and the century-old Mount Wilson Observatory.
Los Angeles County Deputy Fire Chief Mike Bryant said the two firefighters died in the Angeles Nationa...
Praise for the long political career of U.S. Sen. Edward Kennedy, D-Mass., began coming in early Wednesday as word of his death was reported.
The Kennedy family released a brief statement announcing the death and thanking those who cared for the senator in his last months.
"He loved this count...
U.S. Federal Reserve Chairman Ben Bernanke told assembled bankers and policymakers in Wyoming Friday to expect the U.S. economy to grow soon.
"Fears of financial collapse have receded substantially," Bernanke said at the Fed's annual retreat in Jackson Hole.
"After contracting sharply over the...
A tropical storm warning was issued Sunday for Florida and Alabama as a tropical depression organized off the Gulf Coast, meteorologists said.
The depression, on the brink of becoming Tropical Storm Claudette, was located about 125 miles south-southeast of Apalachicola and moving toward the Florid...
By Karen Jeffrey, Cape Cod Times, Hyannis, Mass.
HYANNIS -- Eunice Kennedy Shriver, 88, an internationally acclaimed advocate for people with physical and development disabilities, died early this morning at Cape Cod Hospital, according to a statement from the family.
Born into the privilege...
Former Democratic President achieves diplomatic coup.
By Matt Williams
Two American reporters were freed from North Korea's notorious labour camps after former President Bill Clinton flew in for talks. Clinton met Kim Jong-il yesterday during a surprise visit to the secretive Asian state.
...
Inspectors General fault Bush-Era surveillance tactics for questionable effectiveness and circumvention of legal safeguards.
Top federal investigators from the Department of Justice, Department of Defense, CIA, Directorate of National Intelligence, and the National Security Agency issued a detai...
AVE MARIAH FOR MICHAEL; STARS FLOCK TO MEMORIAL AS 17,000 FANS FIND OUT OF THEY'VE GOT A TICKET
By Keith McLeod
Mariah Carey will sing the Jackson Five's classic I'll Be There as Tinseltown pays tribute to the King of Pop today.
Maria, who had a hit with the haunting ballad in 1992, is o...
Protesters hit the streets of Tehran again Tuesday to express anger over election results they say were manipulated to keep Mahmoud Ahmadinejad in power.
The government has begun cracking down harder on the demonstrations that have turned deadly, while reaction from world leaders remains subdued, ...
By Marie McCullough, The Philadelphia Inquirer
The tobacco-control movement celebrated another milestone yesterday as the U.S. Senate easily passed a bill giving the government unprecedented power over the making and marketing of tobacco products.
Supporters say the law will enable the Food ...
By PAUL KANE; JOBY WARRICK
FORMER US vice-president Dick Cheney personally oversaw at least four briefings with senior members of Congress about controversial interrogation programmes, part of a secretive and forceful defence he mounted throughout 2005 in an effort to maintain support for the hars...
WASHINGTON - President Barack Obama has nominated federal judge Sonia Sotomayor of New York for the U.S. Supreme Court positioning the longtime federal jurist to become the first Hispanic member of the nation's high court.
Sotomayor, a former federal prosecutor who first was appointed to the fed...
North Korea claimed Monday it had "successfully" conducted a nuclear test, its second since October 2006, to "bolster its nuclear deterrent for self-defense."
South Korea's Yonhap news agency reported the testing comes in the wake of the Communist country's warning last month about its nuclear pla...
Poor weather conditions prevented the the U.S. space shuttle Atlantis from landing at Kennedy Space Center in Florida, NASA said Friday.
The landing was rescheduled for Saturday.
Two landings were waved off at the center because weather conditions wouldn't permit a safe landing, the space agen...
Los Angeles - Kobe Bryant scored 40 points, sank six free throws in the final 30.5 seconds and came up with the game-sealing rebound in the final seconds, as the Lakers rallied to beat Denver, 105-103, in the opener of the Western Conference finals.
Bryant had 18 of his points in the fourth quarte...
By Tom Troy, The Blade, Toledo, Ohio
SOUTH BEND, Ind. - Notre Dame University gave a thunderous welcome during Sunday's graduation ceremony to President Obama and cheered him throughout the program despite stark differences on abortion that prompted protests on the Catholic campus.
Mr. Obama w...
Pope Benedict XVI, in Israel on his Middle East tour, called for a solution to the Israeli-Palestinian conflict that would lead to a homeland for both sides.
The pontiff said, "I plead with all those responsible to explore every possible avenue in the search for a just resolution of the outstandin...
By Bangor Daily News, Maine
AUGUSTA, Maine - Gov. John Baldacci on Wednesday signed a gay marriage bill passed just hours before by the Maine Legislature.
Baldacci made his announcement within an hour of the Maine Senate giving its final approval to LD 1020. The Senate voted 21-13 in favor o...