When Pope John Paul II visited Damascus in May 2001, Bashar used his welcoming speech to denounce the Jews, saying, “They tried to kill the principles of all religions with the same mentality in which they betrayed Jesus Christ and the same way they tried to betray and kill the Prophet Muhammad.”   read more

Prior to being selected by President Barack Obama to lead all U.S. forces in Afghanistan, Lt. General Stanley McChrystal led the military’s Special Operations command, and in this capacity, he helped oversee one of the more infamous torture progra...   read more

For a mere $6,100 Americans can have the ultimate toilet in their bathrooms, one that can help everyone from diabetics to women trying (and not trying) to get pregnant. The Intelligence Toilet II, built in Japan, can record data that includes weig...   read more

Regardless of whom Obama nominates to succeed soon-to-retire Justice David H. Souter, Republicans have already stockpiled ammunition against possible nominees. According to Gary Marx, executive director of the conservative Judicial Confirmation Ne...   read more

Concerns over safety made the cul-de-sac popular among suburbanites in the 20th century, but these days a different kind of safety issue is leading communities to do away with dead-end neighborhood streets.   Cul-de-sacs were first built in New ...   read more

Republican appointees to the Federal Election Commission found nothing illegal in the actions by Wal-Mart during last year’s election when the giant retailer was accused of pushing its employees to vote against Barack Obama and other Democrats. Th...   read more

The new director of the White House Office of National Drug Control Policy, Gil Kerlikowske, has called for an end to the term “war on drugs.” Noting a shift in policy from previous administrations, Kerlikowske aims to focus more on treatment and ...   read more

The length of the wars in Afghanistan and Iraq is taking its toll on the U.S. military’s ability to provide sufficient numbers of combat soldiers for the continuing conflicts. USA Today reports that fewer soldiers are available to go to war than a...   read more

Whether it’s because of the potential ramifications for U.S. soldiers overseas or for his important upcoming speech to the Muslim world in Cairo on June 4, President Barack Obama is now refusing to release photos of detainees captured in disturbin...   read more

Steven Hutchison of Scottsdale, AZ, had worked for a health care corporation and as a part-time college instructor before hijackers attacked New York City and Washington, DC, in 2001. Following the September 11 attacks, Hutchison wanted to reenlis...   read more

The good news from the latest study on single moms in America is that teenagers don’t account for nearly as many of the unwed births as they used to, according to research conducted by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC). Overall,...   read more

Law enforcement officials in Mississippi seized the largest quantity of black market cigarettes in U.S. history last month. Totaling 200 million cigarettes, and valued at $20 million, the bust represented three times the value of all cigarettes se...   read more

While President Barack Obama has given the go-ahead, once again, for military tribunals to try suspected terrorists, U.S. federal courts continue to find serious problems with the legal cases that the government has built against Guantánamo detain...   read more

A congressional investigation has determined that approximately 25% of Americans living overseas, mostly soldiers, who tried to vote in 2008 did not have their votes recorded by state officials. The Senate Rules and Administration Committee and th...   read more

A recent release of emails among members of the American Psychological Association (APA) has revealed the group’s discussion of the ethics behind the role that psychologists played in designing torture tactics used at interrogation facilities, suc...   read more

Medicare is “a monster,” says former Labor Secretary Robert Reich, but not one that can’t be fixed. Keeping Medicare from going bust before the end of the next decade will require slowing the rate of growth of medical costs, and that problem requi...   read more

For months, Americans sat by and watched as the banking and finance industry, in the wake of their self-induced meltdown, got just about everything they wanted from both the Bush administration and the Obama administration. Now it’s the turn of th...   read more