Questions after test space flight crashes in desert

It's not clear what caused a Virgin Galactic spaceplane to fail minutes into a test flight, killing one pilot and injuring another.



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Third school shooting victim dies

A third victim of last week's shooting at a Washington state high school has died, according to the hospital that treated victims.



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Court orders Marine's release

A Mexico court has ordered the release of U.S. Marine reservist Andrew Paul Tahmooressi, held in a Mexican prison since March on a weapons charge, a Mexican federal government press release said Friday.



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Are anti-ISIS airstrikes aiding Assad?

Coalition strikes have to an extent been successful in forcing ISIS from some of its strongholds. But will Bashar al-Assad's regime be the beneficiary at the cost of long-suffering civilians?



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Branson flying to crash

Richard Branson is headed to be with his team after Virgin's SpaceShipTwo goes down. CNN's Jake Tapper has more.



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Liberia's Ebola rate showd hope

It is not necessary to quarantine people merely because they come from Liberia, Sierra Leone or Guinea, the United Nations Ebola coordinator said Friday.



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Second ax attack sparks fear

An officer with Washington's Metropolitan Police Department came under an unprovoked attack Friday from a man wielding an ax, police said, the second such attack in two weeks that is prompting warnings and new protocols to officers on the job.



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Operator made rocket destruct

After it became apparent there was a problem with the launch of the NASA-contracted Antares rocket, the company that operated the flight hit the destruct button, a spokesman said Thursday.



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How Pope pushes back at creationists

Pope Francis continues to burnish his progressive credentials by reaching out to science.



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Tech vs. ambition: No match

Former Washington Post reporter Joel Glenn Brenner says Virgin Galactic's technology did not match their enthusiasm.



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Live rounds fired at protesters

Protesters set fire to Burkina Faso's parliament demanding that President Blaise Compaore step down. Diana Magnay reports.



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Debris scattered in desert

Debris has been spotted from Virgin Galactic's SpaceShipTwo which suffered an "in-flight anomaly."



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A 'huge loss' for aviation

CNN aviation analyst Miles O'Brien reacts to the "in-flight anomaly" suffered by the Virgin Galactic SpaceShipTwo.



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One charged in soccer star killing

A suspect in the shooting death of South African soccer team captain Senzo Meyiwa has been charged with murder and robbery, a National Prosecuting Authority spokesman said Friday.



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Inside Virgin Galactic's spaceship

When I first poked my head inside Virgin Galactic's newest spaceship, I felt a little like I was getting a front-row seat to space history.



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'Anomaly' in space ship test

Virgin Galactic's SpaceShipTwo experienced "an in-flight anomaly" during a test flight Friday, the company said on Twitter.



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Virgin Galactic has problem

Virgin Galactic's SpaceShipTwo suffered an "in-flight anomaly" during a test flight Friday, the company says on Twitter.



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Demonstration in pictures

Protestors demonstrate against plans to change the constitution to allow President Blaise Compaore to extend his 27-year rule.



from CNN.com - Top Stories http://edition.cnn.com/2014/10/30/world/gallery/unrest-in-burkina-faso/index.html?eref=edition

Kurdish backup arrives in Kobani

Iraqi-Kurds are arriving in the besieged northern Syrian city of Kobani -- the scene of a fierce battle with ISIS for control, witnesses tell CNN.



from CNN.com - Top Stories http://edition.cnn.com/2014/10/30/world/meast/isis-threat/index.html?eref=edition

F1: Alonso - I'm running out of time

Fernando Alonso declared he has reached the "Last Chance Saloon" as Formula One rolls into the Wild West of Texas for Sunday's U.S. Grand Prix.



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British royal targets Rio Olympics

Less than nine months after giving birth to the latest member of Britain's royal family, Zara Phillips was back in the saddle -- and her performances at the World Equestrian Games have boosted her hopes of another Olympic appearance at Rio 2016.



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FIFA president told to 'shut up'

Real Madrid boss Carlos Ancelotti says it appears FIFA president Sepp Blatter is "unable to keep his mouth shut" in the debate about who should be named Ballon d'Or world footballer of the year.



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Shock career change for U.S. ski star

He's won six Olympic medals on two legs, but Bode Miller's future will ride on four -- can he replicate his skiing success by bringing his brand of "voodoo" to the "Sport of Kings"?



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Compaore says he will step down

Burkina Faso's President Blaise Compaoré says he will resign to preserve peace in the country. CNN's Diana Magnay reports.



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Fire breaks out at Radio France

Dark smoke rose from the upper floors of Radio France's headquarters in Paris on Friday as a fire prompted an evacuation of the building.



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Can regulators kill zombie banks?

CNN's Jim Boulden explains the fearsome, fiscal, fright show that are zombie banks.



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U.S. orders quarantine for nurse

A Maine judge has ordered a quarantine for nurse Kaci Hickox, who defied her Ebola quarantine in a tense standoff with state authorities.



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Dog Bentley tests negative

When Dallas nurse Nina Pham left hospital after treatment for Ebola last week, all she wanted to do was hug her dog.



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Could tough new terror laws misfire?

New Australian legislation that will allow the government to lock up foreign fighters runs roughshod over human rights issues and could easily backfire, one analyst says.



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Israel partially reopens access to al-Aqsa Mosque

Israel partially reopens access to the Temple Mount, a day after closing it amid Israeli-Palestinian tensions following shootings.



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Football: 'Magic' behind LA franchise

Derbies often provide the highlight of any football season -- whether that be Boca Juniors vs. River Plate, AC Milan vs. Inter or Arsenal vs. Tottenham Hotspurs -- and Major League Soccer (MLS) is now hoping that Los Angeles can join that illustrious list.



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Too many phones from Samsung?

Samsung's many smartphone models was once considered its strength. Andrew Stevens explains how it's now become a weakness.



from CNN.com - Top Stories http://edition.cnn.com/video/data/2.0/video/business/2014/10/29/pkg-stevens-samsung-smartphone-fight.cnn.html?eref=edition

Anger at ban to Jerusalem holy site

Israel is reopening the Temple Mount holy site -- but only to certain groups -- as it tries to stop the holy site becoming the focal point for protests.



from CNN.com - Top Stories http://edition.cnn.com/2014/10/30/world/meast/temple-mount/index.html?eref=edition

MH370: Boys sue over loss of father

Two children sued Malaysia Airlines and three government agencies Friday over the loss of their father aboard missing Flight 370.



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N. Koreans 'shot for watching TV'

According to South Korean reports, North Korean leader Kim Jong Un executed party officials for watching soap operas.



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U.S.-Israel quarrel: Is it serious?

Here we go again. Yet another supposed crisis in the ongoing soap opera between the Obama administration and Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu.



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FBI seizes fugitive after long hunt

Terrified residents of northeastern Pennsylvania heaved a sigh of relief Thursday after police arrested Eric Frein following a long manhunt -- and then held him at the same barracks he allegedly ambushed.



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Deutsche Bank: A weary lender

HAMLET, Shakespeare’s Danish prince, may blame “the slings and arrows of outrageous fortune” for his plight, but those watching often conclude that indecisiveness lies at the root of his troubles. Deutsche Bank, Germany’s biggest financial firm, faces lots of slings and arrows: a never-ending barrage of fines from American regulators, tough new rules on bank capital, a stagnant European economy and listless financial markets. Together, they have pummeled its prospects and punctured its share price. But the modern-day audience of investors, clients and policymakers are beginning to ask themselves whether Deutsche’s biggest problem is its failure to make difficult decisions.Deutsche’s story, thus far, is hardly a tragedy. But the bank is in an oddly fragile position. It is barely profitable, having earned only €681m ($901m) last year on assets of €1.6 trillion—a return of just 0.04%. Its shares are priced at 0.6 times the value of its tangible net assets, half the level of American titans such as JPMorgan Chase and Goldman Sachs, to which it considers itself a potential rival (see chart 1). Investors, it seems, do not. It is Europe’s third-biggest bank by tangible...



from The Economist: Finance and economics http://ift.tt/1p6kGq5

Institutional investors: In-house revolt

Mayfair, Manhattan, Juneau

HEY finance hotshot! Want to trade in the London penthouse and 90-hour working week for something totally different? Do you prefer big mountains to big buildings, long summer evenings to long commutes and yet want to pursue a rewarding career in finance? Why not move to Juneau! “You will find all these things and more at the Alaska Permanent Fund Corporation,” promises the website of the government agency which manages the oil revenue Alaska is setting aside for the future. Sovereign-wealth funds and other big institutional investors from Ottawa to Oslo and—if icefishing isn’t your thing—Abu Dhabi to Auckland are hiring. The intention is to lure talent from private-equity firms and hedge funds in order to make the same sort of investments in-house.Sovereign-wealth funds made direct investments of around $186 billion last year, nearly triple the level of 2012, according to the Sovereign Wealth Fund Institute, a consultancy. Pension funds, insurers and family offices are doing the same—a response in part to the exorbitant fees and disappointing returns of many asset-managers. ADIA, Abu Dhabi’s sovereign-wealth...



from The Economist: Finance and economics http://ift.tt/105NCSY

Buttonwood: Eliminate the negative

PITY the pension-fund manager. Cash pays close to zero in many developed economies and ten-year Treasury bonds offer a yield of 2.3%. But many managers need much higher returns if they are to pay the benefits they have promised. That forces them to pile into equities, despite the risks of big bear markets like 2001-02 or 2008-09, not to mention minor scares like mid-October’s wobble.The problem afflicts firms that maintain “defined-benefit” pension plans, which pay retirement incomes linked to a worker’s final salary. A plunge in the stockmarket creates a big deficit in the pension scheme and a nasty hole in the sponsoring company’s balance-sheet. That can weigh on the share price: a new study by Llewellyn Consulting found that a £100 increase in the pension deficit of a FTSE 100 company reduces its market value by £160.The alternative approach, of avoiding risk altogether, may be no more palatable. The company would have to invest in inflation-linked government bonds that offer very low real returns. There would need to be a big increase in contributions to ensure benefits were paid.The holy grail would be a combination of equity-like returns...



from The Economist: Finance and economics http://ift.tt/105NCSX

Japanese investment in South-East Asia: Outward bound

Hun Sen is shopping, just like Japan Inc

IT IS not every day that the opening of a shopping centre attracts a prime minister, but then Aeon Mall in Phnom Penh is not any old shopping centre. The Japanese-built complex is Cambodia’s biggest, complete with an ice rink, television studio and bowling alley. For Hun Sen, the attending prime minister, it is a symbol of Japanese investment. Governments across South-East Asia are courting Japanese firms, and a torrent of yen is surging their way.Japanese investment in the region doubled to 2.3 trillion yen ($24 billion) last year, the latest in a series of sizeable increases (see chart). Part of that is mergers and acquisitions by Japanese firms, which have skimped on investment at home and so have a cash hoard of some ¥229 trillion. SoftBank, a Japanese mobile carrier, just led a $100m investment in Tokopedia, an Indonesian e-commerce firm; Toshiba, a conglomerate, has pledged to invest $1 billion in South-East Asia over five years. A year ago Mitsubishi UFJ Financial Group, Japan’s biggest bank, spent ¥536 billion to buy 72% of Thailand’s Bank of Ayudhya....



from The Economist: Finance and economics http://ift.tt/1p6kG9v

European banks: Stress relief

FIVE years ago this month, the discovery of a black hole in Greece’s public finances marked the start of the euro-zone crisis. Policymakers have scrambled to contain it ever since. The outcome of their latest ploy, a probe of the continent’s banks intended to demonstrate their solidity, was revealed on October 26th. Results were mostly encouraging, at least outside Italy. But more will be needed to prod Europe’s economy back to growth.Run over several months and involving 6,000 staff, the “stress tests” were certainly more diligent than Europe’s past attempts, which on several occasions resulted in banks faltering soon after they were pronounced healthy. Much of the work was overseen by the European Central Bank (ECB), which is taking over regulation of the euro zone’s biggest lenders next week.Probing the books of the 130-odd banks involved unearthed minor flaws rather than the graveyards of skeletons some had feared. The ECB found €136 billion in troubled loans banks had not already owned up to, bringing the European total to €879 billion ($1.1 trillion). But the correction is piddly compared to the €22 trillion of assets they hold.Regulators...



from The Economist: Finance and economics http://ift.tt/1p6kG9n

The history of surgery: Suffering for their art

ENTERING the small room that houses “War, Art & Surgery” at the Hunterian Museum in London, the visitor encounters two images hung one above the other. On top, in sepia tones, is “The Birth of Plastic Surgery” (pictured), painted in 1916 by Henry Tonks; below, strikingly similar though tinted in the blues and greens of the modern operating theatre, is “Hands, hands, hands”, by Julia Midgley, a contemporary artist. Her work has been paired with Tonks’s in this thoughtful show marking the centenary of the start of the first world war. The public might be forgiven for growing a little weary of the anniversary, but here at the Royal College of Surgeons, the subject is approached in an unusual light.Tonks, who was a surgeon himself as well as a subtle and perceptive artist, was not indulging in hyperbole in his painting’s title. The image depicts the operating theatre of Harold Gillies, the pioneer of facial reconstructive surgery. The two first met at the Cambridge Military Hospital in Aldershot, where Gillies was developing the techniques that laid the foundation for modern surgeons’ ability to rebuild the human face, using as his subjects the young men who had...



from The Economist: Books and arts http://ift.tt/1tTtCjI

American photography: Hotshots

Fewer shades of grey

Group f.64. By Mary Street Alinder.Bloomsbury; 399 pages; $35 and £22.99. Buy from Amazon.com, Amazon.co.uk“THE camera should be used for a recording of life, for rendering the very substance and quintessence of the thing itself, whether it be polished steel or palpitating flesh.” So wrote Edward Weston, an American photographer who would go on to be recognised as a 20th-century master, in 1924.Turning away from pictorialism—the previously dominant, painterly style of photography that emphasised soft-lensed craftsmanship—Weston made images that astonished Europeans at an exhibition in Stuttgart in 1929. Three years later, united in a belief that photography should show the world “as it is”, devoid of shading or manipulation, Weston and Ansel Adams formed an association of like-minded snappers, Group f.64. This first full-...



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New fiction: Amazing grace

Lila. By Marilynne Robinson.Farrar, Straus and Giroux; 272 pages; $26. Virago; £16.99. Buy from Amazon.com, Amazon.co.ukOVER the course of three novels set in the fictional town of Gilead, Iowa, Marilynne Robinson does what novelists are supposed to find impossible: she makes virtuous people interesting. Perhaps even more impressively, she makes their virtues interesting. The novels have an old-fashioned preoccupation with virtue, grace and their relation to lives as lived; though they are set in the 1950s their concerns are distinctly 18th-century.John Ames, a 76-year-old Congregationalist preacher whose letter to his young son makes up the entirety of “Gilead”, the first of the three books, has had a tragic life, losing his first wife and child, as well as three siblings, but he remains both personally devout and devoted to pastoral care. In the hands of a less clear-eyed novelist his loving...



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Capitalism through the ages: A grand tour

The Cambridge History of Capitalism. Edited by Larry Neal and Jeffrey Williamson.Cambridge University Press; 1,400 pages; £150. Buy from Amazon.com, Amazon.co.ukECONOMICS publishing has recently undergone a great democratisation. High-quality academic writing was once confined to a handful of journals, mostly accessible in academic libraries. The journals still exist, but mostly serve to influence university hiring decisions. Writing has overwhelmingly gone online, where ambitious academics release free working papers, plug them on Twitter, and watch the discussion unfold. Though this democratisation has critics, it has vastly expanded the audience for economics writing.This, in turn, may prime the market for another throwback: the authoritative collection of essays. For readers whose interest has been piqued online, the anthology provides an appealing way to learn about a range of subjects. “The Cambridge History of Capitalism” is an excellent example of the genre. In two volumes edited by two eminent economic historians, Larry Neal and Jeffrey Williamson, the collection provides a wide-ranging tour of capitalism.The editors...

from The Economist: Books and arts http://ift.tt/103DM4c

Ballot initiatives: Of pot and personhood

AMERICANS are not just picking politicians to represent them on November 4th. Voters in various states must also approve or reject 146 ballot initiatives, according to the Initiative and Referendum Institute, a think-tank that is part of the University of South California. That may sound a lot but is 17% fewer than in 2012, and more than a third down since 1998.Voters in Colorado and Oregon will ponder whether to require labels on foods with genetically modified ingredients. The Food and Drug Administration deems this unnecessary; the food industry warns that it will be costly. Organic farmers hope it will scare shoppers and boost their profits.California will mull reducing prison sentences for some non-violent crimes. Alaska and Oregon will vote on legalising marijuana. Washington state will decide whether to introduce background checks for all gun sales. The National Rifle Association thinks this would lead to “universal handgun registration”, making it easier for the state to grab your guns.In Colorado, evangelicals are supporting a “personhood amendment” which would enshrine in the state constitution the idea that life begins at conception. That would ban all abortions and—in theory—some contraceptives. It has no chance of passing and would be struck down by the Supreme Court if it did. But it could affect the election in Colorado, since it gives pro-choice voters a...

from The Economist: United States http://ift.tt/1tTvkle

Georgia’s Senate race: Nunn v. tycoon

Nunn having fun

GEORGIA’S Senate seat may be the only one that Democrats snaffle from the Republicans next week. Since any upset could be enough to prevent a Republican takeover of the Senate, money and endorsements are gushing into the Peach State. The race pits Michelle Nunn, the daughter of Sam, a Democratic ex-senator, against David Perdue, a successful businessman running on the Republican ticket. Georgia is a conservative state, so Mr Perdue ought to win easily, but the polls are dead level.Ms Nunn (pictured) is a more sure-footed campaigner. She stresses that she can work with both parties: she used to run George H.W. Bush’s “Points of Light” charity. She suggests that there is not much difference between her attitude and Mr Perdue’s when it comes to cutting corporate taxes and supporting small businesses.At the same time, she attacks his record as a corporate titan. Mr Perdue was the boss of Reebok, a sportswear brand, and of Dollar General, a chain of convenience stores. He was once hired to turn around Pillowtex, a struggling fabric firm that eventually failed. Ms Nunn bashes him for cutting jobs: her advertisements show...



from The Economist: United States http://ift.tt/103EUon

The mid-term elections: What they’re all about

ELECTION time in this New England town of houses painted in polite shades, disused brick smokestacks and trees with incandescent leaves is an antidote to pessimism about Washington. When the mid-terms are over, $4 billion will have been spent on the congressional races alone, according to the Centre for Responsive Politics, a watchdog. Much of this has gone on attack advertisements, some in gloriously bad taste, often paid for by donors whose identities are unknown.In the bar of the American Legion in Nashua, festooned with cobwebs, skulls, pumpkins and Bud Lite bunting, all that seems far away. Standing before a crowd of fewer than 50 ex-soldiers are two senators—John McCain of Arizona and Kelly Ayotte of New Hampshire—and one ex-senator who would like to be one again, Scott Brown. “None of us like what is happening in Washington,” says Senator Ayotte. Yet Washington is in a sense the expression of the wishes, often contradictory, of those who turn up to vote.The mid-terms will decide which party controls the Senate, as well as picking every member of the House of Representatives, 36 state governors (see...



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Obituary: Gough Whitlam: Caesar in Canberra

THE scene, perhaps the most dramatic in modern Australian politics, was replayed so often that it was a wonder the tape survived. Gough Whitlam, prime minister since 1972, now sensationally made ex-prime minister at a stroke by Her Majesty’s representative, Governor-General Sir John Kerr, stood facing a phalanx of microphones on the steps of Parliament House. More eager reporters, sideburned to their chins (this was 1975), jostled behind him. The governor-general’s official secretary, his hands shaking, had ended his declaration: “God save the queen.” “Well may we say ‘God save the queen’,” hurled back Mr Whitlam, over rising shouts of “We want Gough!”; “because nothing will save the governor-general.”Australia had barely had time to catch its breath during his time in office. He came in like a hurricane, a Labor man after 23 years of Liberal-and-Country Party debris, and swept it all away. In his first ten days alone, governing as a duumvirate with his deputy, he crossed off well over half of his to-do list: got Australia’s last troops out of Vietnam, ended conscription, and set up commissions to look into school funding, equal pay and aboriginal land rights. You...



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America’s mid-term elections: The silent centre

ALL political campaigns involve a certain amount of looking voters straight in the eye and lying to them. But America’s mid-term election campaign has involved more flim-flam than most. The Republicans, if you believe Democratic attack ads, oppose equal pay for women, want to ban contraception and just love it when big corporations ship American jobs overseas. The Democrats, according to Republicans, have stood idly by as Islamic State terrorists—possibly carrying Ebola—prepare to cross the southern border. And they, too, are delighted to see American jobs shipped overseas.Only a blinkered partisan would believe any of these charges. Alas, partisans are far more likely than anyone else to vote, especially in elections like this one, where the presidency is not up for grabs.A survey by the Pew Research Centre finds that 73% of “consistently conservative” Americans are likely to cast a ballot on November 4th, along with 58% of consistent liberals. Among those with “mixed” views, however, only 25% are likely to bother. That, in a nutshell, is why both parties are pandering to the extremes. Their strategy relies less on wooing swing voters than on firing up their own...



from The Economist: Leaders http://ift.tt/1p6jWRR

Kentucky’s Senate race: The new master of the Senate?

“I’M NOT Barack Obama,” says Alison Lundergan Grimes, clutching a shotgun. “I disagree with him on guns, coal and the EPA [Environmental Protection Agency],” the advertisement continues. As a Democrat running for the Senate in Kentucky, a conservative, coal-mining state that Mr Obama lost by 23 points in 2012, Ms Grimes must work hard to distance herself from the president. Bizarrely, she refuses to say whether she has ever voted for him, citing her constitutional right to privacy.In her race against Mitch McConnell (pictured, with bloodhounds), who will lead the Senate if the Republicans capture it on November 4th, Ms Grimes faces a difficult balancing act. She must convince voters that she is not a bit like the president they dislike, and persuade them to send her to Washington to join his allies there. When Mr Obama said that Democratic candidates “are all folks who vote with me [and] have supported my agenda in Congress”, it did not help Ms Grimes’s cause.Beating Mr McConnell was always a tall order. He was first elected to the Senate in 1984, when Ms Grimes was six years old. He is a formidable fund-raiser, strategist and backroom operator. He is unafraid of...



from The Economist: United States http://ift.tt/103ERsK

Family companies: Relative success

TODAY real power is rarely inherited. Monarchs spend their lives cutting ribbons and attending funerals. Landed aristocrats have to climb the greasy pole if they want to wield serious influence. Even in the United States great dynasties such as the Clintons and Bushes have to go to the trouble of getting themselves elected. The one exception to this lies at the heart of the capitalist system: the family firm.Leading students of capitalism have been pronouncing the death rites of family companies for decades, arguing that family firms would be marginalised by the arrival of industrial capitalism. They also insisted that the Dallas-style downsides of family ownership would become more destructive: family quarrels would tear these companies apart and the law of regression to the mean would condemn them to lousy management. Most countries have a variation of the phrase “clogs to clogs in three generations”. For a long time, they appeared to be right: in both America and Europe, family firms were in retreat for much of the 20th century.Yet that decline now seems to have been reversed. The proportion of Fortune 500 companies that can be...



from The Economist: Leaders http://ift.tt/1p6jXVY

Explaining run-offs: Not over yet

AMERICANS wearied by mid-term elections may suppose that November 4th, polling day, will bring blessed relief. Not so fast. With a Republican takeover of the Senate likely but not in the bag, one grisly scenario is that America will have to wait for a December 6th run-off election in Louisiana. Or, even worse, a run-off in Georgia on January 6th, after the new Congress is due to convene.Run-offs—extra elections triggered when no candidate scoops more than 50% of the vote—spread across the South after the Civil War, to stop blacks and Republicans from benefiting from squabbles between different white factions, and to unite votes behind a single, white Democratic candidate.Today several southern states still use them for party primaries. Georgia uses them for general elections, too. Polls suggest that a Libertarian may grab enough Georgia voters to deny an outright majority to either Michelle Nunn, the Democrats’ Senate candidate, or David Perdue, the Republican. In Louisiana, unless one candidate wins a majority on general-election day, the top two candidates meet for a run-off.Republicans triumphed in the most recent Georgia Senate run-offs, in 1992 and 2008, as their older, whiter, more affluent voters proved likelier to turn out for a second round of voting. In Louisiana, Senator Mary Landrieu, the Democratic incumbent, has survived run-offs before. This time would be...

from The Economist: United States http://ift.tt/1tTvedo

Lexington: Flags over the Capitol

HIGH above Washington, hidden in the western lee of the Capitol’s dome, stands a clutch of mini-flagpoles. As an ugly, unhappy election grinds to a close, those flagstaffs suggest that Americans have not lost all faith in their democracy. The poles are used to supply members of the House of Representatives and the Senate with flags certified to have flown above the Capitol, whenever constituents request them. Some recipients may assume that their flag snapped in the breeze all day. The truth is more prosaic: each Stars and Stripes flies for a few seconds before being folded and boxed: at the busiest times, staff must fly thousands of flags in a single day.The workload of the Capitol Flag Office is worth pondering. With the odd bump and dip, public confidence in Congress has slipped remorselessly downwards since the mid-1980s, hitting record lows this year. If opinion polls are to be believed, even the scoundrels who write and edit newspapers inspire more confidence. In television advertisements, incumbent congressmen denounce the capital (“I wouldn’t wish Washington on a dawg,” says one), while challengers make Congress sound like a fever-swamp of corruption,...



from The Economist: United States http://ift.tt/103ERcd

The governors’ races: Running after Walker

SCOTT WALKER, Wisconsin’s Republican governor, makes even a painful accident look like a political ploy. Walking into the factory of Blended Waxes Inc, a small firm in Oshkosh, a town best known for making armoured cars, he shakes the hands of workers with his thumb wrapped in plaster. “I was out hunting,” he explains, “and my gun, as I shot, the recoil caught me.” Lest anyone think this indicates a dodgy grasp of firearms, he is quick to add that he hit the pheasant he was aiming at. This segues into a point about how his Democrat opponent, Mary Burke, could not shoot a gun if she tried.Mr Walker has built a reputation as a Republican who can win in a blue state without sacrificing his conservative principles. Most notably, he has curbed the power of public-sector unions, which he sees as an obstacle to good, cost-effective government. A law he signed bars state employees from bargaining collectively over matters other than pay. Wisconsin no longer deducts union dues directly from its workers’ wages. And public-sector unions must be re-certified by their members every year. Organised labour—and the Democratic Party, which relies on donations from unions—were so...



from The Economist: United States http://ift.tt/103EOxb

Rule of law in China: China with legal characteristics

DRAFTERS of Communist Party documents in China are masters of linguistic sleights; Deng Xiaoping invented the term “socialist market economy” to satisfy hardline ideologues while he steered the country towards capitalism. Now the party is trumpeting a new slogan: “Socialist rule of law with Chinese characteristics”. At an annual plenum that ended on October 23rd, the Central Committee promised that it would be implemented by 2020 (see article) and would lead to “extensive and profound” changes. If they are anything like as significant as those that Deng’s catchphrase heralded, then this is a welcome development.This new enthusiasm for the rule of law springs from the campaign against corruption. Xi Jinping, the party leader, aims to restrain officials and prevent their rampant corruption from causing public anger to boil over. The Central Committee has decided to make local courts more impartial and to penalise officials for telling judges what to decide. And, lest everyday laws continue to fail to have the...



from The Economist: Leaders http://ift.tt/1p6jWRN

The politics of tax cuts: Brownbackonomics on the ballot

QUINDARO BLUFFS, a mostly black and solidly Democratic neighbourhood on the edge of Kansas City, would not seem a promising stop for a conservative Republican seeking re-election. Yet here was Governor Sam Brownback, gladhanding local leaders and unveiling a proposal to lure new residents with five-year income-tax holidays and help paying off student loans. Mr Brownback talks a lot about opportunity, growth and Jack Kemp, his mentor and a Republican icon who combined fervour for tax cuts with heartfelt concern for the urban poor. “I want all of Kansas to be the best place in the nation to raise a family and grow a small business,” Mr Brownback declares.

He has been extolling the wonders of low taxes and high growth since taking office in 2011. His 2012 tax cut was the most ambitious by any state. So his re-election battle next week will be a referendum on Brownbackonomics—and closely watched by a whole lot of Americans with strong views on tax policy.Mr Brownback should be strolling to a second term; Kansas is so red it hasn’t voted for a Democratic presidential candidate since 1964. Instead, polls show him tied with Paul Davis, the Democratic...



from The Economist: United States http://ift.tt/1tTvcCa

After Brazil’s election: Diehard Dilma

IT WAS hardly a ringing endorsement. After a dirty and divisive campaign, Dilma Rousseff won a second term in Brazil’s presidential election on October 26th by just three percentage points against her centre-right opponent, Aécio Neves (see article). That is by far the narrowest margin in Brazil’s modern electoral history.If her second term is not to be an even bigger disappointment than her first, Ms Rousseff needs to take heed not just of her supporters but also of those who did not vote for her. They include much of the middle-class, who in 2013 took to the streets in mass protests to demand better public services and less corruption. Mr Neves won easily in much of Brazil’s south-east and south, the country’s economic powerhouse.Ms Rousseff’s victory is not what this newspaper hoped for—we backed Mr Neves—yet it is no great surprise. Brazil remains a country of searing inequality, and poorer voters are grateful to the ruling Workers’ Party (PT) for the improvement in living standards and opportunities...



from The Economist: Leaders http://ift.tt/1vklyE6

Iran: The revolution is over

TALKS to curb Iran’s nuclear programme have less than a month to run. Even now, after 12 years of sporadic argument, Iran insists that it wants civilian nuclear power and not a bomb. But nobody really believes that. If the talks break down, atomic weapons could proliferate in the Middle East; or, in a bid to stop Iran, America or Israel could launch a military attack on its infrastructure. Either outcome would be a disaster.Plenty still separates Iran and, on the other side, the permanent members of the UN Security Council plus Germany (known as the P5+1). Much of the focus is on the mechanics of a deal (see article). The two sides cannot agree on how many centrifuges Iran should be able to use to enrich uranium, how long an agreement should last, or how fast to lift sanctions.The gap would be easier to close if Iran and America trusted each other. One reason why the relationship is so poisonous is that popular Western views of Iran are out of date to the point of caricature. A better...



from The Economist: Leaders http://ift.tt/1p6jXFq

Prospects: We shall overcome, maybe

MILLIONS OF EDUCATED and prosperous Iranians resent being isolated from the rest of the world. Until sanctions started to emasculate trade, life had been gradually improving. Now many people have lost their jobs or seen their pay and savings eroded by inflation. The government, too, is having a difficult time. Oil revenues have dwindled and allies around the region are wobbling. Is relief in sight?After nine months of nuclear talks in Geneva, the broad outlines of a possible deal with the West are becoming clear. The aim is to ensure that Iran would need about a year to build a bomb, giving the West plenty of advance warning. To achieve that, the two sides are talking about limiting Iran’s enrichment of uranium to 5% for the next decade or so, and putting the plutonium programme at Arak to irreversibly civilian use. All this would be monitored closely by international inspectors, but without forcing Iran to acknowledge past weapons tests in any detail. In return, Iran could expect a rolling (though reversible) lifting of sanctions over several years.According to one Western official involved in the negotiations, “technical issues are not the main problem.” The...



from The Economist: Special report http://ift.tt/1zNeM1B

The hardliners: Goon squad

AT THE CENTRE of Iran’s establishment sits a shadowy organisation responsible for defending the ideals of the revolution. The Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps (IRGC) is a paramilitary force rolled into an intelligence agency wrapped in a giant business conglomerate with security-related interests. It is directly controlled by the country’s supreme leader, Mr Khamenei, who is chosen by regime insiders for life and outranks the elected president.Many guard commanders eventually end up in senior government posts, but they exert political influence long before then. Their baseej militia, made up of tens of thousands of youth volunteers, helps to keep domestic order. Baton-wielding militiamen dispersed protesters in 2009. In social clubs across the country they are moulded into conservative storm troopers. Their national snooping hotline is advertised on billboards: call 114.The guards are dedicated to a strong Iran, both at home and abroad. The means by which they pursue their goals are often unconventional, including the funding of terror groups and the exploitation of sectarian tensions, all in the name of revolutionary change for the...



from The Economist: Special report http://ift.tt/1zNeOqf

Sanctions: Shackled

FOR GOVERNMENTS THE world over, slapping sanctions on the Islamic Republic has proved popular and uncontroversial at home. America started it in 1979 in response to its diplomats being taken hostage in Tehran. It added more restrictions after Iranian-sponsored militants bombed its barracks and embassy in Lebanon in 1983, then tightened them further in the 1990s and again after 9/11, for which Iran was not responsible but which heightened sensitivities in the West.After 2005 America got company, thanks to growing worries about Iran’s nuclear programme. Rich European and Asian countries and other governments sympathetic to America, from Australia to India, jumped on the bandwagon, as did the UN. After 2010 the screw was tightened once more until in November last year negotiators agreed to ease sanctions for the duration of talks on Iran’s nuclear programme.

America had previously sanctioned Iran for sponsorship of international terrorism, domestic human-rights abuses and arms proliferation, but over the past decade most sanctions were a response to the nuclear programme. At first they were aimed at some of the companies and individuals involved, then at...



from The Economist: Special report http://ift.tt/1zNeOq1

Domestic politics: Rush to the centre

Rohani, the face of moderation

AYATOLLAH KHOMEINI, THE founder of the Islamic Republic, was essentially an anarchist. Having been persecuted by the shah’s secret police, he despised state structures. Yet after grabbing power he quickly realised that the gains of the revolution could be cemented only with the help of permanent institutions. So he set out to build them, lots of them, sometimes with the explicit intention that they should keep an eye on each other: the army held in check by the revolutionary guard, justice dispensed by clerics as well as by civilian judges in separate courts, militias performing some of the same functions as the police, an elected president facing an appointed supreme leader. Khomeini mimicked America’s Founding Fathers, creating checks and balances and occasional gridlock.Three and a half decades later, Iran’s political system is neither a free-flowing democracy nor a monolithic dictatorship. As one dissident says, “We have freedom of expression, just not freedom after expression.” Public debates are fierce, but often amount to little more than shadow-boxing by an elite that makes decisions behind closed...



from The Economist: Special report http://ift.tt/1tlQxRO

Religion: Take it or leave it

Signal fading

BY LAW, ALL public buildings in Iran must have prayer rooms. But travelling around the country you will find few shoes at prayer time outside these rooms in bus stations, office buildings and shopping centres. “We nap in ours after lunch,” says an office manager. Calls to prayer have become rare, too. Officials have silenced muezzins to appease citizens angered by the noise. The state broadcaster used to interrupt football matches with live sermons at prayer time; now only a small prayer symbol appears in a corner of the screen.Iran is the modern world’s first and only constitutional theocracy. It is also one of the least religious countries in the Middle East. Islam plays a smaller role in public life today than it did a decade ago. The daughter of a high cleric contends that “religious belief is mostly gone. Faith has been replaced by disgust.” Whereas secular Arab leaders suppressed Islam for decades and thus created a rallying point for political grievances, in Iran the opposite happened.The transformation of Shia Islam into an ideology undermined both the state and the mosque. The great irony of the Islamic...



from The Economist: Special report http://ift.tt/1zNeO9t

The revolution is over

FROM THE MOUNTAINS of the Caucasus to the waters of the Indian Ocean, Iranians are watching intently as their government haggles with foreign powers over trade sanctions imposed to restrain its nuclear programme. Pointing to a corner of his office, the owner of a struggling cannery says: “See that television set? I watch it hour by hour, hoping for news that sanctions will be lifted.”Iran says its nuclear programme is for peaceful purposes only. The West, not unreasonably, fears that Iran is building a bomb. In the hope of preventing a nuclear arms race in the Middle East, America and its allies have made it very difficult for Iran to engage in international commerce. The country’s oil exports have dwindled to half their former level. The Iranian government, for its part, has broken a habit of a lifetime and publicly held detailed discussions with countries it regards as hostile, including America. As this special report will explain, its motives are internal as much as external. All sides are keen to find a solution to this long-running stand-off. A deadline of November 24th has been set. An agreement to shackle the nuclear programme would have wide-ranging...



from The Economist: Special report http://ift.tt/1tlQxkP

The neighbours: Moving targets

IRAN’S LEADERS HAVE long had immodest ambitions in the Middle East, pining for the respect of the neighbours who once conquered and converted them and even dreaming of leading a pan-Islamic alliance, however unlikely. In recent decades they have been exporting their revolution, propelled by national pride and an urge to pass on lessons from the long road to independence, but also driven by a deep fear that they—Shia Persians facing mostly Sunni Arabs—are not so much independent as alone in a hostile region.In the 1980s the Islamic Republic set out to cultivate friends in Arab countries after bloodily thwarting an invasion by Iraq. In Syria (pictured above) it became the main sponsor of the Assad regime after the collapse of the country’s traditional patron, the Soviet Union. In Lebanon the Islamic Republic nurtured the Hizbullah militia which became the dominant political force there and, with support from Tehran, repeatedly gave Israel a bloody nose. Iran also sponsored Hamas, the most successful of the Palestinian groups warring with Israel. Support for the fight against the Jewish state won Iran plaudits in the wider Arab world.In the aftermath of 9/11, America...



from The Economist: Special report http://ift.tt/1zNeNCy

The economy: Melons for everyone

ECONOMIC CONSIDERATIONS USED to play a vanishingly small role in Iranian politics. As Ayatollah Khomeini, who led the 1979 revolution, famously said: “We did not rise up to get cheaper melons.” For decades conservative ideologues chased Utopian visions, whatever the cost, while liberals hungered for political reforms.That has changed in recent years. Debate in last year’s election focused on boosting the economy. Mr Rohani won because he was seen as the candidate most likely to achieve that. Conservatives used to be anti-trade, in keeping with the autarkic and socialist sentiment of the revolution. Now even the supreme leader endorses globalised capitalism. Asked why, a senior official laughs and says, “My son is in grade two and was recently standing for election as class president. I had high hopes. He is a popular guy and articulate, too, and yet he lost. I couldn’t believe it. I asked him, ‘what did you campaign for?’ ‘Justice and dignity’, he said. ‘And your opponent?’ ‘He promised the class better lunch and longer breaks between lessons.’ ”Iranians today live much more comfortably than they did a generation ago, but the past three years have been tough....



from The Economist: Special report http://ift.tt/1zNeNmb

Could Kobani spark a new order?

Turkey has switched from calling Kurdish PYD fighters terrorists to supporting them. Could it be a new dawn for relations with the Kurds?



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Stem-cell research: Having the stomach for it

JUST over a year ago, a group of researchers in Austria announced with much fanfare that they had pulled off a spectacular feat of stem-cell science. They had taken induced pluripotent stem cells (which behave similarly to embryonic stem cells, but are made from skin cells and thus do not require the destruction of human embryos) and coaxed them into differentiating and growing into objects known as organoids. An organoid is not a proper organ, but it resembles one in scientifically useful ways, both in the mixture of cells it contains and in its anatomical features. In choosing which organ to mimic, Madeline Lancaster of the Institute of Molecular Biotechnology, in Vienna, who led this research, went for the big one—the brain.Dr Lancaster’s organoid was not the first, however. That honour had fallen, a couple of years earlier and largely unnoticed by the world, to a humbler part of the body, the intestine. Intestinoids were created in James Wells’s laboratory at the Cincinnati Children’s Hospital Medical Centre, in Ohio, in 2011. Now, another group of researchers at Dr Wells’s lab have produced a third sort. As they report in Nature,...



from The Economist: Science and technology http://ift.tt/103DxGd

Genes and behaviour: Next candidate

ONE of the scientific subjects best guaranteed to get people hot under the collar is genetic determinism, especially if what is allegedly being determined is behavioural. Studies of adopted children (and particularly of twins adopted at birth by different sets of parents) suggest some behavioural traits are indeed heritable. Geneticists, though, have had difficulty identifying specific genes whose variants, known as alleles, cause different predispositions in those possessing different versions. That is why a new piece of research on one of the few genes for which such evidence exists is likely to get considerable scrutiny and cause much controversy—not least because the work in question suggests that a second gene, hitherto fingered as a cause of behavioural variability, has no effect, while a third, hitherto unfingered, does.The first two genes are called MAOA and HTR2B. The behaviour they allegedly predispose people to is aggression. The latest data, collected by Jari Tiihonen of the Karolinska Institute, in Stockholm, and his colleagues, and published in Molecular Psychiatry, come from convicted criminals in Finland, some of whom were banged up for violent crimes and some for offences such as theft that involved no violence.Breaking the codeMAOA encodes monoamine oxidase A,...

from The Economist: Science and technology http://ift.tt/103DuKP

Orphan technologies: A phoenix rises

Ready for take-off?

SOME technologies look wonderful on paper but don’t quite make it in the big, bad world. Airships. Autogyros. Hovercraft. They all work. They even have niche applications. But they have never lived up to their promise and been widely adopted.So it is with ground-effect vehicles—aircraft-like machines which skim a few metres above the sea by acquiring part of their lift from aerodynamic interaction with the surface beneath. This means they use less fuel than a true aircraft while travelling faster than a ship.Many attempts have been made to build them. Boeing tried in the 1990s, with the Pelican Ultra Large Transport Aircraft. The Soviet Union tried with the Ekranoplan, whose prototypes now moulder in the naval base at Kaspiysk. Two German engineers even attempted to construct what was, in essence, a ground-effect aquatic sports car. All failed—or, rather, failed to make something that was better than established alternatives. But hope springs eternal, and the Wing Ship Technology Corporation, a South Korean company, is trying to revive the idea. The country’s armed forces have already agreed to buy some and the firm...



from The Economist: Science and technology http://ift.tt/105MFtL

Sex sting nabs sex scandal figure

David Nieland, who helped draw attention to what he said were shortcomings in the government's probe of a Secret Service prostitution scandal, resigned from his job at the Department of Homeland Security inspector general on Aug. 9, months after he was caught up police prostitution sting.



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Hugh Jackman battling cancer

Hopefully, the third time's the charm.



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Rocket debris hunters warned

Souvenir hunters are warned to stay away from potentially hazardous debris from the Antares rocket that exploded shortly after lift-off.



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Could tough new terror laws misfire?

New Australian legislation that will allow the government to lock up foreign fighters runs roughshod over human rights issues and could easily backfire, one analyst says.



from CNN.com - Top Stories http://ift.tt/102iXGd

U.S. child rape suspect arrested

A Massachusetts child rape suspect who was wanted in connection with a cross-country series of sexual assaults, kidnappings and armed robberies has been arrested.



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Jennifer Lopez: I've felt abused in past

Not all abuse leaves physical scars, and that's a reality Jennifer Lopez is exploring in a new memoir.



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What caused the rocket explosion?

CNN's Brian Todd reports on the shocking explosion of a NASA-contracted rocket full of supplies for the Space Station.



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Too many phones from Samsung?

Samsung's many smartphone models was once considered its strength. Andrew Stevens explains how it's now become a weakness.



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Temple Mount closed after controversial rabbi shot

Police kill a suspect in the shooting of a rabbi, pictured, but will keep the Temple Mount in Jerusalem's Old City closed "to prevent disturbances."



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'Chickensh*t': U.S. on Israeli PM

Wolf Blitzer discusses a report alleging a White House official called Israeli P.M. Benjamin Netanyahu "a chickensh*t."



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U.S.-Israel quarrel: Is it serious?

Here we go again. Yet another supposed crisis in the ongoing soap opera between the Obama administration and Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu.



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Sweden recognizes state of Palestine

Sweden recognized a state of Palestine on Thursday, describing the decision as a crucial step it hopes will lead the way for others.



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U.S.: Russian flights 'concerning'

Army Chief of Staff Gen. Ray Odierno tells Wolf Blitzer that Russia flying planes without any communication is 'concerning'.



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How would Bush have handled Putin?

House Speaker John Boehner is trashing President Obama's foreign policy on the campaign trail by talking up someone Republicans have spent years running from: George W. Bush.



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Yazidi women enslaved by ISIS

CNN's Ivan Watson speaks to a Yazidi survivor who was kidnapped and enslaved by ISIS.



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UN: N. Korean officials propose visit

The United Nations Special Rapporteur for North Korea holds a rare and "unexpected" meeting with officials from the reclusive regime.



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Zambia's President dead at 77

Zambian President Michael Sata, who was nicknamed "King Cobra" for his fiery tongue and larger-than-life personality, has died, the country's national radio said Wednesday morning.



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How pope pushes back at creationists

Heidi Schlumpf says Francis isn't the first pope to say the Big Bang and evolution are compatible with Catholicism, but he has set the record straight for those who think Catholics share protestant evangelicals' anti-science stance



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Canseco tweets photo of shot hand

Former baseball slugger Jose Canseco, who accidentally shot himself in a finger on his left hand while cleaning a gun, tweeted a photo of the injured hand on Wednesday.



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U.S.: no plan to admit foreign patients

The State Department discussed plans to transport non-U.S.citizens infected with Ebola to the United States for medical treatment, but decided to shelve the proposal and insists it was never considered at senior levels.



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Chinese general 'confesses to bribes'

A top retired general has confessed to taking bribes, becoming the highest-profile figure in China's military to be caught up in President Xi Jinping's war on corruption.



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Tensions between Obama, Netanyahu

Barack Obama and Benjamin Netanyahu haven't liked each other for years -- they just aren't bothering to hide it anymore.



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U.S. airstrike targets may still be alive

The U.S. intelligence community now believes two key terrorist operatives targeted by the United States in the opening night of attacks in Syria are still alive and could be actively plotting, multiple officials tell CNN.



from CNN.com - Top Stories http://edition.cnn.com/2014/10/29/world/al-qaeda-khorasan-group-syria/index.html?eref=edition

What Obama could learn from Bush

The period since September 11, 2001, will never be described by any historian as a golden age of U.S. foreign policy. I know. I have just written a history on it, and it's not pretty.



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Russian flights concern NATO

An "unusual" uptick in the size and scale of Russian aircraft flying throughout European airspace in recent days has raised alarm bells for NATO officials that come amid other provocations already rattling the West.



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What stimulus move means?

Richard Quest explains the history of the Federal Reserve Bank's quantitative easing program and why they're ending it.



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Who hacked the White House?

U.S. officials tell CNN's Pam Brown that Russian hackers are thought to be responsible for a White House cyber breach.



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Volunteers train for Ebola

CNN's Nic Robertson visits a Red Cross Ebola training center as volunteers learn how to fight the deadly disease.



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NASA footage

An unmanned NASA-contracted rocket carrying supplies to the International Space Station exploded during its launch.



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Go inside bank robbers' tunnel

Robbers cleaned out a bank in India and their plan may have been inspired by Bollywood fiction. Mallika Kapur explains.



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Could Kobani spark a new order?

Turkey has switched from calling Kurdish PYD fighters terrorists to supporting them. Could it be a new dawn for relations with the Kurds?



from CNN.com - Top Stories http://ift.tt/1sFsDgq

Sex sting nabs sex scandal figure

David Nieland, who helped draw attention to what he said were shortcomings in the government's probe of a Secret Service prostitution scandal, resigned from his job at the Department of Homeland Security inspector general on Aug. 9, months after he was caught up police prostitution sting.



from CNN.com - Top Stories http://ift.tt/1wFI0cZ

Hugh Jackman battling cancer

Hopefully, the third time's the charm.



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School bans girl for Nigeria visit

The family of a third-grader in Connecticut has filed a lawsuit against Milford Public Schools, saying their daughter was banned from school for 21 days amid Ebola fears when she returned from a trip to Lagos, Nigeria, for a family wedding.



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Rocket explosion: Teams probe spacecraft failure

Souvenir hunters are warned to stay away from potentially hazardous materials in the debris of the Antares rocket that exploded shortly after lift-off.



from CNN.com - Top Stories http://edition.cnn.com/2014/10/29/us/rocket-explodes-off-virginia/index.html?eref=edition

Highest honor

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Will blast set back space industry?

Orbital Sciences, which built the Antares rocket that exploded in a massive fireball Tuesday, described the explosion as a "catastrophic failure." It certainly looked like it. Will this failure also be a setback for the burgeoning private space industry?



from CNN.com - Top Stories http://edition.cnn.com/2014/10/29/us/rocket-explosion-private-industry-effect/index.html?eref=edition

Can 'lone wolf' attacks be stopped?

Michael Zehaf-Bibeau, the 32-year-old gunman who attacked the Canadian Parliament and killed a soldier last week, had a familiar profile. It is that of a young man alienated from mainstream society, with few friends, without a steady job, drifting from one place to another -- often with a history of petty crime and drug abuse.



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Kim Jong Un 'had cyst surgery'

A South Korean news agency identifies the medical problem they say is behind North Korean leader's disappearance and why it might return.



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Strange activity on W.H. computers

The White House recently detected suspicious activity on its computer network, a White House official tells CNN.



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Ex-dictator loses to 'Call of Duty'

A California judge has dismissed former Panamanian dictator Manuel Noriega's lawsuit against the creators of the "Call of Duty" video game franchise.



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Fighting ISIS 'a global effort'

Albania's Foreign Minister says radical fighters returning from Syria or Iraq could threaten the stability of Balkan countries.



from CNN.com - Top Stories http://edition.cnn.com/video/data/2.0/video/bestoftv/2014/10/29/exp-ctw-bushati.cnn.html?eref=edition

Soccer award: Spat breaks out

Real Madrid boss says it appears FIFA president Sepp Blatter is "unable to keep his mouth shut" in a row about who should be named footballer of the year.



from CNN.com - Top Stories http://edition.cnn.com/2014/10/29/sport/football/football-ballon-dor-ancelotti-blatter/index.html?eref=edition

'Rockets blow up; we move on'

It seems people only pay attention anymore when the rocket blows up.



from CNN.com - Top Stories http://edition.cnn.com/2014/10/29/opinion/chiao-failed-space-launch/index.html?eref=edition

Rehab for jihadists in Denmark

Denmark unveils a controversial "de-radicalization" program for jihadis returning home from Syria that doesn't involve jail time. But not everyone is convinced it will work.



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Ebola: Nurse 'refuses quarantine'

A nurse who was quarantined against her will in New Jersey after treating Ebola patients in West Africa will not obey officials' instructions to seclude herself at home in Maine, she and her lawyers said on the "Today" show and to the Bangor Daily News on Wednesday.



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F1 team looks at fan-funding

The family of three-time world champion Sir Jack Brabham aim to bring his famous team back to the grid through crowdfunding.



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Boko Haram: Will girls be freed?

Hopes soared when Nigeria and Boko Haram apparently agreed a ceasefire but the 200 girls whose abduction sparked global outrage are still in captivity.



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'Dr Strange' confirmed but no star

Marvel announced a huge slate of forthcoming films at an Tuesday press conference -- but left out a bit of "Strange" information fans were waiting for.



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U.S. military quarantine expected

A 21-day quarantine for all military personnel serving in Ebola stricken areas of west Africa is expected to be approved by Defense Secretary Chuck Hagel Wednesday.



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Driven from their homes into misery

Driven from their homes, the Rohingya now suffer in camps.



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Lava inches closer to Hawaii homes

A 2,000-degree river of lava could swallow a dozen Hawaiian homes in the next day or two -- and there's nothing anyone can do about it.



from CNN.com - Top Stories http://edition.cnn.com/2014/10/29/us/hawaii-volcano/index.html?eref=edition

UK 'Schindler' honored in Prague

105 year old Nicholas Winton flew to Prague to receive Czech's highest honor. CNN's Jim Boulden reports.



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Portraits: Last kings of Africa

For the past five years, Austria-based art historian and photographer Alfred Weidinger has traveled across Africa in search of royalty. His photography project, The Last Kings of Africa, is his attempt to capture the beauty and mystique of the region's most powerful sovereigns. So far he has photographed 220 tribal kings and leaders, with many more to go.



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Dying woman completes bucket list

A terminally ill woman who plans to take her own life ticks the last item.



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Arrests over Mexico mass kidnap

Investigators turned up human remains at hidden grave sites and arrested dozens of suspects after 43 students disappeared in Iguala, Mexico.



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White House snubs Israeli official

Israeli Defense Minister Moshe Ya'alon traveled to Washington last week expecting to see top Obama administration officials.



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Hockey great Howe suffers stroke

Hockey great Gordie Howe suffered a stroke this week, his son said Tuesday night.



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What's the best way to treat Ebola?

Ebola virus has landed several times in the United States and at least twice has spread to health care workers.



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Commander: Armed Syrian rebels enter Kobani

About 200 fighters enter the besieged city of Kobani with weapons including mortars and heavy machine guns, a Syrian rebel commander says.



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CNN witnesses 'major battle'

Gunfire erupts in Kobani as Iraqi Peshmerga fighters move in. CNN's Nick Paton Walsh has more.



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Meet U.S's new ally against ISIS

Fighting ISIS in Syria for more than a year, the YPG are now getting help from the U.S. CNN's Ivan Watson reports.



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Ex-ISIS fighters speak from prison

The blindfolded prisoners are brought into the dank gray room, one by one, and begin to tell us their stories.



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300 missing in Sri Lankan landslide

At least six people are dead and an emergency search operation has been launched to find 300 more missing after a landslide ripped through a village in Sri Lanka.



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Footballer sets record for wins

He's not a household name, but Rogerio Ceni is a footballer without equal.



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What will Pistorius face in prison?

Oscar Pistorius began a new life behind bars Tuesday after he was sentenced to a maximum five years' imprisonment for culpable homicide in the death of girlfriend Reeva Steenkamp.



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Australia issues Ebola travel ban

Critics slam the Australian government's move to ban visas for migrants traveling from Ebola-affected countries as "miserly and cruel."



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Unmanned NASA rocket explodes

An unmanned NASA rocket explodes during launch. It was carrying supplies to the International Space Station.



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Explosion seconds into launch

An unmanned NASA rocket in Virginia exploded moments after its scheduled launch to the International Space Station.



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Ritual burials spread Ebola

Freetown triples the number of safe burials for Ebola victims, a bright spot in a grim epidemic. Lynda Kinkade reports.



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UK ends migrant rescues

The UK is the latest country to stop rescue ops for illegal immigrants trying to get to Europe. Isa Soares reports.



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'I escaped N. Korea prison camp'

Prison escapee Shin Dong-hyuk says he had never heard of "human rights" in North Korea.



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Propaganda balloons fly North

Fearing a reprisal from North Korea, South Korean residents tried to stop the launching of propaganda carrying balloons.



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Can 'lone wolf' attacks be stopped?

Michael Zehaf-Bibeau, the 32-year-old gunman who attacked the Canadian Parliament and killed a soldier last week, had a familiar profile. It is that of a young man alienated from mainstream society, with few friends, without a steady job, drifting from one place to another -- often with a history of petty crime and drug abuse.



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Muslim cleric: 'I call to life'

Becky Anderson speaks with Muslim Scholar Sheikh Abdullah bin Bayyah, who has been called a voice of moderate Islam.



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Kim Jong Un 'had cyst surgery'

North Korean leader Kim Jong Un, who recently disappeared from public view for about six weeks, had a cyst removed from his right ankle, a semi-official South Korean news agency reported Tuesday.



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Ex-dictator loses to 'Call of Duty'

A California judge has dismissed former Panamanian dictator Manuel Noriega's lawsuit against the creators of the "Call of Duty" video game franchise.



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Brazilian voters 'hope for the best'

Uncertainty normally comes with the new. This year's Brazilian presidential elections, though, have been like no other. After Sunday's polls gave President Dilma Rousseff, from the left-wing Worker's Party (PT), another four-year term with a narrow margin of victory, Brazilians embarked on a guessing exercise about what her next government will look like.



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Student kills teacher in Estonia

A 15-year-old student shot and killed a teacher inside a classroom in southern Estonia on Monday, police said.



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Jihadists offered rehab

Denmark unveils a controversial "de-radicalization" program for jihadis returning home from Syria that doesn't involve jail time. But not everyone is convinced it will work.



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ISIS hostage in new video

ISIS releases a new video of British hostage John Cantlie showing him in the battle-scarred city of Kobani and "reporting" for ISIS on the fighting there.



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Boko Haram: Will girls be freed?

Hopes soared recently when the Nigerian government said it had reached a deal with the terrorist group Boko Haram to free more than 200 girls and young women still missing after a mass abduction in April.



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'Dr Strange' confirmed but no star

Marvel announced a huge slate of forthcoming films at an Tuesday press conference -- but left out a bit of "Strange" information fans were waiting for.



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'Sherlock' tipped to be superhero

Marvel may have found the person to play "the mightiest magician in the cosmos."



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U.S. inmates 'died of gangrene'

One prisoner died of alcohol withdrawal. Constipation killed another. A third succumbed to gangrene.



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Court: Tsarnaev's friend lied to agents

Robel Phillipos, a friend of Boston Marathon bombing suspect Dzhokhar Tsarnaev, was convicted Tuesday on two counts of lying to federal agents investigating the 2013 bombing, according to the U.S. Attorney's office.



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Walmart sorry for 'fat girl' costumes

Walmart found itself sending apology tweet after apology tweet Monday after the Twitterverse raked it over the coals for a major goof on its website.



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'Disclose tortures' plea to Obama

The White House confirmed Monday that it has received a letter from 12 Nobel Peace Laureates calling on the U.S. to disclose torture methods allegedly used by American forces following the 9/11 terror attacks on the U.S.



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Hostages 'tortured before beheadings'

American James Foley and other captives held by ISIS were threatened with execution, tortured and starved ahead of their beheadings, report says.



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Boko Haram 'kidnaps 30'

Boko Haram has been accused of abducting more children. CNN's Isha Sesay reports.



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Iraqi Kurds set to enter besieged city of Kobani

Kurdish fighters from Iraq will enter Kobani "today or tomorrow" to reinforce anti-ISIS forces there, a Peshmerga general tells CNN.



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Can crowdfunding bring back F1 icon?

Can crowdfunding help an iconic team return to the Formula One grid after a 20-year hiatus?



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Rapist cleric sentenced to 20 years

An Afghan cleric who was found guilty of raping a 10-year-old girl has been sentenced to 20 years in prison.



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What's the best way to treat Ebola?

Ebola virus has landed several times in the United States and at least twice has spread to health care workers.



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Is mandatory quarantine risky?

The Exec. Director of Doctors Without Borders tells Anderson that mandatory quarantines provide a false sense of security.



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N.J. gov.: 'We're not moving an inch'

New Jersey Gov. Chris Christie tried to stamp out criticism Tuesday of his policy to quarantine health care workers returning from Ebola hot zones, describing his rule as "common sense" and vowing that he won't move "an inch" on the standards his state has set forth.



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Security slip: Man barges into PM

A man shoved British Prime Minister David Cameron in Leeds.



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The impact of Cuba's new reforms

CNN's Patrick Oppmann looks at government reforms that are gradually having a big impact on many Cubans lives.



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Footballer Ceni claims 590 wins

He's not a household name, but Rogerio Ceni is a footballer without equal.



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U.S. nurse Vinson 'free of Ebola'

A second Dallas nurse who contracted Ebola is now free of the virus and will be released from the Atlanta hospital where she's been treated, the hospital said Tuesday.



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Shooter invited victims to lunch

Police say the popular student who opened fire on five of his friends sent them a text message suggesting they meet in the school cafeteria.



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Latest on the outbreak

The CDC issues new quarantine guidelines. U.S. troops are being monitored in Italy. And details emerge about the first person infected during this Ebola outbreak -- a 2-year-old boy.



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U.S. victim tweets: I forgive shooter

How does a 14-year-old high school student, shot in the face and told he can never play football again, feel about his attacker?



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Quarantined nurse going home

After a heated weekend of sparring between a quarantined nurse and New Jersey Gov. Chris Christie, the nurse is being discharged, the state's Department of Health said in a statement Monday morning.



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Body found in sunken Sewol ferry

Six months after a passenger ferry sank off the coast of South Korea, a victim's body was discovered inside the wreckage Tuesday.



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Iraq make gains against ISIS

Iraqis hoping to turn the tide against ISIS are getting a sliver of good news. Ben Wedeman reports.



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S. Africa's football captain killed

Police offer reward in hunt for killers after soccer star Senzo Meyiwa was gunned down by intruders in an apparent botched robbery.



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Teacher admits Syria terror role

A British science teacher admitted Monday to trying to help anti-Assad regime fighters commit acts of terrorism in Syria.



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Ebola: Who is patient zero?

Before the virus ravaged West Africa, before the deaths soared into the thousands, before the outbreak triggered global fears, Ebola struck a toddler named Emile Ouamouno.



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Rob Ford wins Toronto council seat

Torontonians love Rob Ford. His brother? Not so much.



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Belief in Islam doesn't cause terrorism

Reza Aslan says the interplay between beliefs and actions is a lot more complicated than critics of Islam portray



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Lava inches closer to homes

With a mixture of resignation and dread, residents here are watching this gray and orange advance, this 2,000-degree river of molten rock.



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Jailed Pistorius faces appeal

The South African state is to appeal both judgment and sentence after athlete Oscar Pistorius was jailed for five years for shooting his girlfriend.



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Is $500m stadium's beauty 'skin deep?'

Futuristic. Space-age. A 'world symbol.' An 'icon for an icon.'



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Skepticism over N. Korean moves

Murder, torture, slavery, sexual violence, mass starvation -- North Korea's leaders have been accused of employing all sorts of abuses to prop up the state and exercise control over its citizens.



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Police: Ottawa gunman made video

More details emerge about gunman Michael Zehaf-Bibeau who police say made a video of himself shortly before opening fire in Canada last week.



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Teen injured in school shooting dies

A 14-year-old girl shot in the head by a gunman who opened fire on a crowded Washington school lunchroom dies from her injuries.



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Watch full interview with nurse

Kaci Hickox, a nurse placed under mandatory quarantine in New Jersey strongly criticized the policy.



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Quarantined nurse going home

After a heated weekend of sparring between a quarantined nurse and New Jersey Gov. Chris Christie, the nurse is being discharged, the state's Department of Health said in a statement Monday morning.



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Nurse tells of quarantine 'ordeal'

Kaci Hickox, a nurse placed under mandatory quarantine in New Jersey, went on CNN on Sunday and criticized the "knee-jerk reaction by politicians" to Ebola, saying "to quarantine someone without a better plan in place, without more forethought, is just preposterous."



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Iraq make gains against ISIS

Iraqis hoping to turn the tide against ISIS are getting a sliver of good news. Ben Wedeman reports.



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S. Africa's football captain shot dead

Police offer reward in hunt for killers after soccer star Senzo Meyiwa was gunned down by intruders in an apparent botched robbery.



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Syria terrorism: Teacher admits role

A British science teacher admitted Monday to trying to help anti-Assad regime fighters commit acts of terrorism in Syria.



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Daughter's tattoo tribute to Williams

Robin Williams' daughter chose a hummingbird to honor her late father.



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China warns on 'weird architecture'

The Chinese leadership has called for less "weird architecture" to be built in the country. Does it mean the end of unusual structures like these?



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Belief in Islam doesn't cause terrorism

Reza Aslan says the interplay between beliefs and actions is a lot more complicated than critics of Islam portray



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Zakaria: The problem within Islam

When the news flashed last week that a man had shot and killed a Canadian soldier in front of the National War Memorial in Canada, what most people were wondering -- but not saying out loud -- was, "Is it another radical Muslim?"



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6-pound gold chunk sells for $400K

The term nugget doesn't quite do it justice.



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Oscar Pistorius faces verdict, sentence appeal

The state is to appeal the judgment and sentence in the Oscar Pistorius case, South Africa's national prosecuting authority says.



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Steenkamp's parents 'satisfied'

Reeva Steenkamp's parents said Tuesday they are "satisfied" with the sentence handed down to their daughter's killer, as Oscar Pistorius started his first full day in a South African prison.



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Public critical of sentence

Oscar Pistorius gets up to 5 years in prison for girlfriend's killing, but some say it's not enough. Robyn Curnow reports.



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What will Pistorius face in prison?

Oscar Pistorius began a new life behind bars Tuesday after he was sentenced to a maximum five years' imprisonment for culpable homicide in the death of girlfriend Reeva Steenkamp.



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Brazilian president wins re-election

Brazilian president Dilma Rousseff thanks voters for their support after clinching just over 51% of the vote in a hotly contested presidential runoff.



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Ukrainian leader hails 'vote for Europe'

Ukraine President Petro Poroshenko hailed exit poll results of Sunday's parliamentary elections, saying the projected outcome gives "a powerful and irreversible backing to Ukraine's path to Europe."



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Van Persie rescues Man Utd

Robin van Persie salvaged a point for Manchester United against English Premier League leaders Chelsea with an injury-time equalizer in a 1-1 draw at Old Trafford Sunday.



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College sports 'cheat student athletes'

Sally Kohn says the UNC report highlights how some colleges exploit student athletes while offering little in return



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Federer closes in on No.1 spot

It seemed an unlikely prospect at the start of the year but Roger Federer has the very real prospect of ending 2014 at the summit of the men's game for the sixth time.



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Halloween costumes to avoid this year

Freeze! Step away from the stack of face masks and hazmat suits.



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800 killed in 40-day Kobani fight

At least 815 people -- most of them ISIS militants and Kurdish fighters -- have died in the 40-day fight for control of Kobani, Syrian observers say.



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Football world mourns star player

The world of football is mourning the loss of Senzo Meyiwa after the South Africa captain was shot and killed Sunday during a botched robbery, according to authorities.



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How do we stop 'lone wolf' attacks?

Michael Zehaf-Bibeau, the 32-year-old gunman who attacked the Canadian Parliament and killed a soldier last week, had a familiar profile. It is that of a young man alienated from mainstream society, with few friends, without a steady job, drifting from one place to another -- often with a history of petty crime and drug abuse.



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Giant gold nugget discovered

Five-pound nugget is 90% gold, believed to be worth between $350,000 and $450,000. KTVU has the story.



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Iran executes woman despite pleas

Reyhaneh Jabbari, an Iranian woman convicted of murder in a killing human rights groups called self-defense against her rapist, is hanged despite pleas.



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Brazilian voters 'hope for the best'

Uncertainty normally comes with the new. This year's Brazilian presidential elections, though, have been like no other. After Sunday's polls gave President Dilma Rousseff, from the left-wing Worker's Party (PT), another four-year term with a narrow margin of victory, Brazilians embarked on a guessing exercise about what her next government will look like.



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Tunisian vote raises democracy hope

Elections in Tunisia on Sunday are about much more than one country. They could mark a big step toward democracy.



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Iran nukes: Solution, not deadline, key

Another round of nuclear talks ended late Thursday in Vienna. Nothing good, bad or even surprising has publicly emerged from the two-day talks between Iran and the P5+1 countries.



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A surprising truth about serial killings

The case of Darren Deon Vann, who police say confessed to murdering as many as seven women in northwest Indiana over the past couple of years, is just the latest example of a kind of crime spree that has become all too familiar. At a time when television crime dramas like "CSI," "Criminal Minds," and "Law and Order" record high ratings with lurid plot lines about repeat killers, it is easy to come away believing that serial killings are as prevalent as they have ever been.



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Should Ebola workers be quarantined?

When doctors risk their lives and sacrifice their livelihoods to go to West Africa and provide desperately needed treatment to those suffering from Ebola, what should be their reward upon coming home?



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UK ends Afghanistan combat mission

Britain formally ended its combat mission in Afghanistan on Sunday, when it handed over its last base to Afghan forces, the Ministry of Defense said.



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10 Commandments statue smashed

Though he told authorities that the devil made him do it, Satanists disapproved, after a man allegedly shattered a stone copy of the Ten Commandments last week.



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Death penalty plea for South Korea ferry captain

South Korean prosecutors are seeking the death penalty for the captain of the Sewol, the ferry which capsized leaving at least 294 people dead.



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Sewol disaster: 6 months of pain

6 months after the Sewol ferry sank off South Korea, many still wait for the bodies of loved ones. Paula Hancocks reports.



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