Zelenskyy explained, “I told him that if he gave us the weapons we need and stopped supporting Putin, we would let him build Trump-branded hotels and other Trump-branded buildings in Ukraine’s ten largest cities, as well as Trump golf courses in the countryside. He was quite excited.”   read more

Crime does pay in the billion-dollar world of pharmaceuticals. Drug companies this decade have paid $7 billion in fines as a result of criminal and civil cases brought against them for illegally marketing their products, but the penalties pale in ...   read more

With concerns rising over too many people with the H1N1 virus going to work anyway, Democrats in Congress have introduced legislation to guarantee employees a certain amount of paid sick leave. The Emergency Influenza Containment Act will guarante...   read more

Whether it is credit cards or bank accounts, consumers are enduring higher fees from banks. According to a survey conducted by the Federal Reserve, half of the banks polled said they were increasing interest rates and reducing credit lines, even o...   read more

People across the globe are not happy with capitalism these days, favoring more government regulation and ownership of industries, according to a survey conducted by the BBC. Even in the United States, a majority of respondents (53%) expressed sup...   read more

Officials in India want no part of an old U.S. maritime ship headed for the world’s largest scrap yard because it has been deemed too contaminated. The Platinum-II was supposed to dock at the Alang shipyard where thousands of vessels from around t...   read more

Some European leaders are voicing support for a new tax on banks that get involved in the high-stakes trading of derivatives as a way for governments to cover such bets in the event of future bailouts. But the United States and Russia are reacting...   read more

When the United Nations’ General Assembly voted last Friday on an important war crimes report, the absence of U.S. Ambassador Susan Rice was noticeable. Diplomats and UN observers speculated why Rice was missing from a decision on the Goldstone Re...   read more

If the collapse of the U.S. auto industry has turned Detroit into what some say is an “urban prairie,” then why not do with this vacant land what settlers once did with the original American prairie: farm it. Some agricultural pioneers have alread...   read more

Solar power ventures are heating up in Japan and Europe where initiatives seek to harness the power of the sun from space and in the Sahara desert. Officials with Japan’s space agency believe they can collect solar power from earth’s orbit and bea...   read more

The free lunch in Cuba is coming to an end, literally and figuratively. Following the decision in September to end nearly free meals at state cafeterias, the government of Raúl Castro has decided to remove two food staples, potatoes and peas, from...   read more

Almost lost amid the public fanfare over the House of Representatives approving the health care reform bill was a huge compromise House Speaker Nancy Pelosi made on the issue of abortion. Pelosi, a staunch supporter of abortion rights, risked losi...   read more

Florida’s justice system is the toughest in the world when it comes to punishing juveniles who have committed violent crimes but stopped short of killing someone. Of the 109 juvenile prisoners worldwide serving life in prison without possibility o...   read more

A Virginia-based power company has been accused of causing birth defects and other health problems in the Dominican Republic after thousands of tons of coal ash were dumped on a local beach. AES Corporation, operator of coal-burning power plants i...   read more

On top of the $3.2 billion lost earlier this month when CIT filed for bankruptcy, the federal government’s bank rescue effort is now out of another $1.7 billion because of the collapse of United Commercial Bank. The San Francisco-based bank has th...   read more

At a time of media conglomeration, an effort is underway in the House of Representatives to expand the number of small, local radio stations on the FM dial. The Local Community Radio Act is designed to pick up where the Federal Communications Comm...   read more

Paul Anastas, a Yale chemist and so-called father of green chemistry, is being prevented from taking over the Environmental Protection Agency’s Office of Research and Development because of opposition from Senator David Vitter (R-LA), who has been...   read more