United States

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Clinton Signals Engagement With Syria

(Newser) - In a signal likely to be parsed all over the Middle East, Secretary of State Hillary Clinton shook hands and shared “very pleasant” words today in Egypt with her Syrian counterpart, the Times reports, a meeting that did not likely happen by accident. Some think the US could try...

US Gun Dealers Arm Mexican Drug Wars

Softer American laws lead to cross-border flood of weapons

(Newser) - More than 6,000 Mexicans died in drug wars last year, and violence has surged recently as gangs battle the police and each other. But because of Mexico's strict gun laws, cartels have to get their weaponry from elsewhere: the United States. Ninety percent of guns recovered in Mexico originated...

Would Better Laws Have Caught Salmonella Scare?
Would Better Laws Have Caught Salmonella Scare?
ANALYSIS
Feb 23, 2009 6:33 PM CST

Would Better Laws Have Caught Salmonella Scare?

(Newser) - A third of US states do not require testing of the salmonella bacteria involved in reported illnesses, possibly hampering national efforts to identify outbreaks, MSNBC reports. If testing were mandatory, proponents say, a strain’s widespread dissemination could be more quickly identified and the source more easily pinpointed. But states...

Iraqi Kurds Fear a Resurgent Baghdad

Arab-Kurdish tensions intensify as country's safety improves

(Newser) - Now that violence between Sunni and Shia Arabs is declining across Iraq, tensions are mounting again between Arabs and Kurds, who want Barack Obama to step in to cool off conflicts, the Economist reports. Oil and land disputes, political losses and an empowered central government have weakened the Kurds, who...

Obama, Harper Launch 'Clean Energy Dialogue'

(Newser) - President Obama and PM Stephen Harper today announced an environmental partnership between the US and Canada, the Globe and Mail reports. Harper spoke of a “clean energy dialogue” between top officials to “collaborate on the development of clean energy science and technology.” Said Obama, who was making...

Songbirds Faster Than We Thought

(Newser) - Researchers have tracked the migratory paths of songbirds for the first time, using small data-gathering “backpacks,” the Washington Post reports. The avian wanderers, who are so small they cannot be tagged with transmitters, move about 3 times as a fast as previously thought. The recovered data shows that...

Exxon Breaks Own Profit Record With $45B Haul

The oil behemoth shattered the annual profit record despite slow fourth quarter

(Newser) - Buoyed by last year's spike in crude prices, Exxon Mobil Corp. today reported a profit of $45.2 billion for 2008, breaking its own record for a US company, even as its fourth-quarter earnings fell 33%  from a year ago. The previous record for annual profit was $40.6 billion,...

Storm Kills 19, Cuts Power to 600K in South, Midwest

Winter bears down (again) on Northeast, trigger travel troubles, and worse

(Newser) - A storm sweeping from the middle of the country into the Northeast today has left at least 19 dead and cut power to 600,000 people, the AP reports. In hard-hit states like Arkansas, where power companies warned service might not return for days, 3 inches of ice weighed down...

Consumer Confidence Finds a New Low in January

Conference Board's index at half its year-ago value

(Newser) - Americans' mood about the economy darkened even more in January, sending a widely watched barometer of consumer sentiment to yet another new low as people worry about their jobs and watch their retirement funds dwindle. The Conference Board said its Consumer Confidence Index edged down to 37.7 from a...

Obama Rebukes Bush, Assures World in Speech

Rejects policies, advocates diplomacy, warns enemies

(Newser) - Barack Obama offered a clear rebuke of George Bush's policies and signaled a sharp break with his predecessor's strategy abroad in his inaugural address today. “We reject as false the choice between our safety and our ideals,” the new president said, referring obviously to torture of detainees and...

Bush Leaves Customary Oval Office Note for Obama

Continuing a tradition begun by Reagan, Bush pens encouragement to his successor

(Newser) - Continuing a White House ritual begun by Ronald Reagan, George W. Bush left a note in the Oval Office for President-elect Barack Obama, wishing him well as he takes the reins of the executive branch. The White House declined to provide specific details of the message, saying only that Bush...

North Korea Threatens to 'Shatter' South

Pyongyang claims to have plutonium for 4 nuclear bombs

(Newser) - North Korea threatened to “shatter” South Korea today as reports surfaced that Pyongyang may have enough plutonium stocks to produce at least four nuclear bombs, the Guardian reports. The North said rising hostilities with Seoul compelled it to take “an all-out confrontational posture” over a disputed maritime border...

Knox Murder Trial Begins Tomorrow
Knox Murder Trial Begins Tomorrow
Jan 15, 2009 12:03 PM CST

Knox Murder Trial Begins Tomorrow

Italian police still have little evidence in death of British roomie

(Newser) - The murder trial of 21-year-old American Amanda Knox begins in Italy tomorrow, though police have gathered little more than her roommate Meredith Kercher’s dead body as evidence since the 2007 murder, Der Spiegel reports. The sexual crime involving two promising college students and several shady Italian men has the...

US Inaugurates $700M Embassy in Baghdad

Buildings symbolize desire to 'continue the tradition of friendship'

(Newser) - The United States inaugurated its largest embassy yet in the heart of the Green Zone today, officially opening the fortress-like compound that was intended to stand as a testament to America's commitment to Iraq. Addressing an inauguration ceremony under tight security, Ambassador Ryan Crocker said the $700 million embassy was...

Watch Out World, You're Going Gray
 Watch Out World, 
 You're Going Gray 
Analysis
Jan 4, 2009 11:38 AM CST

Watch Out World, You're Going Gray

Aging, population decline mark next decades

(Newser) - Wall Street's a wreck and terrorists are clamoring for WMDs, but the world's real crisis is far worse: It's getting old, Neil Howe and Richard Jackson write in the Washington Post. By the 2020s, baby boomers will push the median age in Western Europe and Japan to near 50,...

US Blocks UN Call for Gaza Truce
US Blocks UN Call
for Gaza Truce
Jan 4, 2009 7:04 AM CST

US Blocks UN Call for Gaza Truce

Americans want Hamas labeled 'terrorist'

(Newser) - The US has blocked Libya’s push to issue a UN Security Council call for a Gaza ceasefire, Reuters reports. Libya, the only Arab member of the council, had circulated a draft statement expressing "serious concern"  and urging all parties to "observe an immediate ceasefire." American...

Suicide Bomber in Iraq Kills 30
Suicide
Bomber in
Iraq Kills 30
Jan 2, 2009 9:45 AM CST

Suicide Bomber in Iraq Kills 30

Blast south of Baghdad takes place during tribal gathering

(Newser) - A suicide bomber sneaked into a luncheon gathering called by the leader of a local tribe, killing 30 people and wounding 110 today, police said. The blast in Youssifiyah in the Sunni-dominated region south of Baghdad comes less than a month after a suicide bomber killed 55 people at a...

For Refugees, New Year Means New Way of Life

(Newser) - It's no coincidence that 15% of recent Somali refugees to the US share a birthday today. Aid workers often assign Jan. 1 when a birth date is unavailable, as is often the case in war-ravaged and disaster-ridden countries or cultures that don't celebrate birthdays. American rituals seem especially peculiar to...

Consumer Confidence Hits All-Time Low

Economists expected a rise this month after dreary November

(Newser) - US consumer confidence hit an all-time low this month, dropping unexpectedly in the face of layoffs and deteriorating investment markets. The Consumer Confidence Index, expected to rise incrementally to 45, fell to 38 in December from a revised 44.7 last month. The Present Situation index, which measures how respondents...

Mexico Halts Shipments From Top US Meat Plants

Move is seen as retaliation for country-of-origin labeling initiative

(Newser) - Mexico has temporarily banned meat from 30 US plants run by some of the largest American meat companies, Reuters reports. The Mexican government says violations in standards of packaging, labeling, and transport conditions occasioned the ban, but many US analysts suspect Mexico is registering its dissatisfaction with an American law...

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