A decapitated pig's head wrapped in a blanket and accompanied by a death threat directed at the mayor of Ciudad Juarez, Mexico, was found in a suburb of Juarez early Wednesday, a municipal police spokesman said.
When former in-house defense attorney Dimitrios Biller resigned from his top post at Toyota, he walked out with something potentially more valuable than his nearly $4 million severance package.
He took some 6,000 internal documents, including memos and e-mails potentially damaging to his former employer.
A background check conducted in 2009 on an Ohio State University employee suspected of opening fire Tuesday on his co-workers turned up no criminal record, even though he apparently served five years in prison.
Former Minnesota Gov. Jesse Ventura wants a receipt.
The author of "American Conspiracies: Lies, Lies, and More Dirty Lies that the Government Tells Us," as well as host of a cable television show on CNN's sister network TruTV, recently questioned the validity of votes cast using electronic election machinery. Ventura told CNN's Larry King that voters "have no idea...if your vote was actually recorded to the candidate of your choice."
Karl Rove calls the invasion of Iraq "the most consequential decision" of former President George Bush's two terms, and Bush's former political adviser devotes a chunk of his new memoir to defending it.
In the nearly 600-page book, "Courage and Consequence," Rove takes two chapters to attack the belief that the Bush administration exaggerated the case for the invasion of Iraq. One attacks former U.S. Ambassador Joseph Wilson, who first argued in July 2003 that the Bush administration had "twisted" the evidence that Iraq was re-arming, and a second, titled "Bush Was Right on Iraq," criticizes Democrats who followed suit.
A look at the day’s highlights in business news:
Stocks post modest gains
Stocks rose Wednesday, with the Nasdaq ending at its highest level in more than 18 months, on strength in the financial services sector and an upbeat report on wholesale inventories.
The Dow Jones industrial average rose 3 points, or less than 0.1%, at 10,567, according to early tallies. The S&P 500 index added 5 points, or 0.5%, to 1,145.
The Nasdaq composite rose 18 points, or 0.8%, to 2,358.
University of Colorado geologist Roger Bilham, who recently returned from Haiti, told The Associated Press that earthquakes have caused "four times as many deaths in the last 10 years than in the previous 10 years."
Given the high death toll of the Haitian earthquake, and the substantial death toll of the Chilean earthquake, did Bilham get his numbers right?
The number of homeless military veterans on the street each night in the United States has declined 18 percent from last year, the Department of Veterans Affairs said Wednesday.
VA officials estimate the current number of homeless veterans to be 107,000, down from last year's figure of 131,000. In 2007, the VA's homeless veteran estimate was 154,000.
Just days after Defense Secretary Robert Gates said he would review allegations of misconduct in Afghanistan by the company formerly known as Blackwater, his department announced a company subsidiary had won another multimillion-dollar contract to operate there.
Forbes magazine released its annual list of the world's richest people Wednesday, and for only the second time since 1995, Microsoft founder Bill Gates' name was not at the top.
This year, the title of "World's Richest" went to Mexican telecom mogul Carlos Slim, with a net worth of $53.5 billion. It marked the first time since 1994 that the top spot has been held by a non-U.S. billionaire, Forbes said.
See a gallery of Forbes' "World's richest people"
Gates is the world's second richest person, with a net worth of $53 billion. Warren Buffett came in at number three this year, with a net worth of $47 billion.
House Democrats said Wednesday they will ban earmarks directed to for-profit companies.
Vice President Biden is visiting the Middle East this week
Here's a look at some of tomorrow's news events:
Biden in the Middle East
Vice President Joe Biden will speak at Israel's Tel Aviv University about the ties between the two countries, before taking questions from students in the audience. Later, he heads to neighboring Jordan where he will meet with King Abdullah.
Sen. Blanche Lincoln, D-Arkansas, is gearing up for what many believe will be a tough re-election campaign as she vies for her third term in the U.S. Senate. Recent polls indicate that Lincoln's approval ratings have dropped over the past year, and she represents a state that voted for Republican presidential candidate John McCain by a margin of 20 percentage points in 2008.
Last week, Lincoln kicked off her ad campaign for the upcoming Democratic primary with a commercial that said, "I don't answer to my party, I answer to Arkansas." In the 30-second-spot, Lincoln depicts herself as a Washington outsider by listing four issues that she says she voted against even though they were generally backed by Democrats. The Fact Check Desk decided to see if these claims are consistent with her voting record.
Fact Check: What's Lincoln's voting record like when it comes to the issues outlined in her newest commercial?
The Senate on Wednesday approved a wide-ranging bill that would push back the deadline to file for extended unemployment insurance until year-end and extends dozens of expired tax breaks.
A British man was charged with "terrorist-related" offenses Wednesday, Britain's Metropolitan Police Service said in a statement.
New York Democratic Rep. Eric Massa walked out of Congress and straight into the scandal spotlight this week, offering a laundry list of reasons for resigning as he made the rounds on evening talk shows. When CNN's Larry King asked, "Why did you resign - health, ethics, Democratic leadership, what?" his response was "All of the above." Amid questions about cancer and "groping" male staffers, Massa repeated his assertion that he was pushed out by the Democratic leadership to improve the party's odds of passing health care reform - an allegation House Majority Leader Steny Hoyer calls "absurd."
Regardless of whether he was pushed out or not, Massa's departure changes the dynamics in the House by reducing the number of votes needed for a majority. And if it comes down to one or two votes, he says, "You'd better believe it makes a difference."
Fact Check: Could Eric Massa's resignation from Congress be the key to passing health care reform?
Corey Feldman, left, and Corey Haim in 2007.
[Updated 2:18 p.m.] Corey Feldman’s publicist Stacy Hess issued a statement from Feldman on the death of his friend Corey Haim:
"I was awakened at 8:30 this morning by my brother and sister knocking on my bedroom door. They informed me of the loss of my brother Corey Haim. My eyes weren't even open all the way when the tears started streaming down my face. I am so sorry for Corey, his mother Judy, his family, my family, all of our fans, and of course my son who I will have to find a way to explain this to when he gets home from school.
"This is a tragic loss of a wonderful, beautiful, tormented soul, who will always be my brother, family, and best friend. We must all take this as a lesson in how we treat the people we share this world with while they are still here to make a difference. Please respect our families as we struggle and grieve through this difficult time. I hope the art Corey has left behind will be remembered as the passion of that for which he truly lived."
A former lawyer with Toyota is accusing the company of having a systematic disregard for the law because it withheld information on safety issues sometimes even when it was required for lawsuits.
Toyota disputed the claims, calling the accusations "inaccurate and misleading."
Recent Comments