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"Saudi Arabia has urged Iran to allow a daughter of Osama Bin Laden to leave the country after the Iranians acknowledged she was in Tehran. The Saudi Foreign Minister, Prince Saud al-Faisal, said his government was in talks with Iran over freeing the fugitive al-Qaeda leader's daughter. Iman Bin Laden, 17, is said to have recently escaped from a compound where she and others were under house arrest. She took refuge in the Saudi embassy in Tehran. Iman and five siblings have been held under house arrest by Iran since the US-led invasion of Afghanistan in 2001, Saudi newspaper Asharq al-Awsat reported last month. The newspaper, which is owned by a cousin of Prince Saud, says the embassy has issued her with a travel permit to allow her to return to Saudi Arabia. It also quoted Zaina Bin Laden, the wife of Bin Laden's fourth son Omar, as saying that Bin Laden children and Bin Laden's wife Khayriyah were living in a residential compound on the outskirts of Tehran. The "Bin Laden children... more... - Wallace from Bookmarklet

"December 23, 2009 The Senate is set to pass a landmark health bill early Thursday morning that would bring President Obama and Democrats a step closer to the most sweeping change in the nation's health system since Medicare was created more than four decades ago. Despite unflinching Republican opposition and late carping by liberals that compromises to forge a 60-vote bloc went too far, Senate Democrats closed ranks behind legislation that would expand coverage to tens of millions of Americans, restrict the ability of private insurers to deny coverage and eventually trim the nation's budget deficit. Senators voted 60-39 Wednesday to end debate on the health bill, clearing the way for the last vote on final passage, now set for 7 a.m. Thursday. Only a majority of 51 votes is needed to pass the bill, which isn't in doubt. Sen. Max Baucus (D-MT), chairman of the Finance Committee, declared, "It is now only hours until this Senate will pass meaningful health care reform." President Obama... more... - Wallace from Bookmarklet

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"Here he was, being sworn in again as mayor of one of northern Mexico's most exclusive communities, and he had wonderful news to share: ''Black Saldana, who apparently is the one who was asking for my head, was found dead today in Mexico City,'' he told his cheering supporters Saturday in San Pedro Garza Garcia, near Monterrey. The problem was that the barefoot, blindfolded corpse of ''Black Saldana'' -- whose real first name is Hector -- wasn't found for another 3 1/2 hours, according to Mexico City prosecutors. And he wouldn't be identified for two days." - Wallace from Bookmarklet

"NEW YORK (Reuters) - Warren Buffett's Berkshire Hathaway Inc will pay $26 billion to buy out railroad Burlington Northern Santa Fe Corp in what the billionaire investor called a bet on the U.S. economy. The deal, Buffett's biggest-ever acquisition, marks new interest in a storied but highly cyclical American industry that has tried to reinvent itself by emphasizing its ability to move goods cheaply and efficiently. The deal is priced at a premium of 31.5 percent over BNSF's closing stock price on Monday and values the railroad at $34 billion. BNSF shares jumped 28 percent in morning trading; other U.S. and Canadian rail companies also rose." - Wallace from Bookmarklet

"RAWALPINDI: A large blast Monday morning has killed at least 10 people and injured at least 25 in the garrison city of Rawalpindi, near the capital Islamabad, according to police and local rescue services. According to reports, the explosion occurred when a car standing in the parking lot of the Shalimar Hotel exploded. The hotel is located on Mall Road, within the high-security safe zone of Rawalpindi. Pakistan Army’s headquarters, GHQ, and the State Bank of Pakistan building are several hundred metres away. Security forces have cordoned off the area, while military personnel have also arrived at the scene of the explosion. Rescue services have begun rescue efforts for those trapped under the debris and several injured people have been taken to nearby hospitals. The government has declared emergency in hospitals across the twin cities of Rawalpindi and Islamabad. The attack comes amidst a deadly wave of terrorist attacks which have killed over 190 in the last month. —DawnNews" - Wallace from Bookmarklet

"Italian police have captured one of the country's most wanted mafia fugitives during a raid on a chicken farm near the southern city of Naples. Salvatore Russo, 51, is the head of a Camorra clan which bears his name. He has been on the run since being sentenced in 1995 to life in jail for murder and links to organised crime." - Wallace from Bookmarklet

"(CNN) -- A former "enemy combatant" who was held in a South Carolina Naval brig for six years with no charges was sentenced Thursday to eight years and four months in prison, a Justice Department spokesman said. Ali al-Marri pleaded guilty in federal court in Illinois in May to conspiring to provide material support to a terrorist organization. He could have received a maximum of 15 years in prison." - Wallace from Bookmarklet

"ISLAMABAD: Security forces have surrounded Kaniguram, an important base of Uzbek militants in South Waziristan, from three directions and preparing to storm the town." - Wallace from Bookmarklet

"Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad, right, talks with Turkish Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdogan, left, during their meeting at the presidency in Tehran, Iran, Tuesday, Oct. 27, 2009. An unidentified translator sits at center. Turkey's Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdogan arrived in Tehran late on Monday. Erdogan and his 200-member delegation were expected to discuss a wide range of various bilateral, regional and international issues during his two-day visit, including Iran's nuclear activities. (AP Photo/Vahid Salemi)" - Wallace from Bookmarklet

"Reporting from Baghdad - Car bombs exploded in Baghdad this morning next to two key government buildings, killing at least 106 people and wounding more than 600. The explosions occurred as political leaders were preparing to meet to try to resolve a fierce dispute that could delay national elections, ranked as pivotal to Iraq's long-term stability. The car bombs, at least one of them a suicide bombing, according to police, blew up by the justice ministry and a Baghdad provincial office, sites separated by one broad city block. The attacks hit the nerve center of Baghdad's national and local governments, shattering windows, sending debris flying and tearing down parts of buildings." - Wallace from Bookmarklet

"TEHRAN (Reuters) - A team from the U.N. nuclear watchdog inspected a nuclear site in Iran on Sunday that has heightened Western fears of a covert program to develop atomic bombs, the semi-official Mehr news agency reported. Iran added to global concerns over its nuclear intentions in September by revealing the existence of the site in central Iran after Western spy services penetrated a three-year veil of secrecy. "The inspectors ... visited the facility in central Iran. They are expected to visit the site again," Mehr reported, without giving a source. There was no immediate confirmation from the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA)" - Wallace from Bookmarklet

"UN inspectors have arrived in Iran where they are due to visit a previously secret nuclear facility. The plant is near the city of Qom and the UN officials are expected to remain in the country for three days. The visit comes as further difficulties are experienced by the major powers trying to agree a deal with Iran over its nuclear programme. Under a new proposed plan, Iran would send its enriched uranium away to be turned into fuel. The inspection will be the first time monitors from the United Nation's nuclear watchdog, the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA), have been allowed access to the enrichment plant. BBC Tehran correspondent Jon Leyne says Iran announced the existence of the new facility last month, apparently because Western intelligence had already discovered it. Our correspondent says that Iran would have had plenty of time to remove anything that might be incriminating ahead of the inspectors' visit." - Wallace from Bookmarklet

"VIENNA, Oct. 23 (UPI) -- Austrian police are investigating the circumstances involving the death of a British nuclear expert involved in Iranian talks at a U.N. building in Vienna. Timothy Hampton died on the scene when he fell from the 17th floor of the Vienna International Center. Hampton had been a member of the Comprehensive Nuclear Test Ban Treaty Organization and joined the U.N. team in negotiations on the Iranian nuclear program. Anne Thomas, a spokeswoman for the United Nations in Vienna, told the Austrian Times that Hampton was discovered dead at the bottom of a stairwell Tuesday morning. "Vienna police are investigating the incident and there is nothing else we can say," she said. Mohamed ElBaradei, the head of the International Atomic Energy Agency, described the latest talks with Iran as positive. Iran on Friday, however, balked on the deal that would allow some uranium development without the risk of weaponization. Sources to British tabloid The Sun described the... more... - Wallace from Bookmarklet

"October 23, 2009 In the ongoing health care overhaul drama, the Obama administration and the health insurance industry have gone from uneasy allies to bitter adversaries. One result is that health insurers stand to lose a privilege their industry has enjoyed for the past 64 years: They, like Major League Baseball, have been exempt from federal antitrust laws. Congressional Democrats are now pushing to strip the health insurance industry of that exemption. Things turned ugly earlier this month after the health insurance industry rejected the health care makeover it once supported. President Obama dedicated his most recent weekly address almost entirely to blasting those insurers; he accused them of skimming big profits off ever-escalating premiums. "They're earning these profits and bonuses while enjoying a privileged exception from our antitrust laws, a matter that Congress is rightfully reviewing," the president said." - Wallace from Bookmarklet

"More than 300 suspects have been arrested in a series of drug raids across the country that law enforcement officials say is the largest single strike at a Mexican drug cartel operating in the United States. The arrests are aimed at the U.S. operations of the La Familia cartel, two officials said Thursday, speaking on condition of anonymity because they were not authorized to discuss the results of the operation. Over the past two days, more than 3,000 federal agents and police officers carried out arrests in more than a dozen states, as part of a long-running anti-drug operation that has netted nearly 1,200 arrests over almost four years." - Wallace from Bookmarklet

"As Pakistani soldiers fought their way into the forbidding heartland of the Mehsud tribal territory on Tuesday against Taliban and Al Qaeda militants, they faced the most ferocious fighters in Pakistan, men whose ancestors were legendary for never succumbing to the British." - Wallace from Bookmarklet

"In this photo released by Pakistan's Inter Services Public Relations, Pakistani troops hold their positions at a hilltop post in Shingwari, an area in the troubled tribal region South Waziristan along the Afghan border, Wednesday, Oct. 21, 2009. The five-day-old offensive in South Waziristan is considered a critical test of the nuclear-armed country's campaign against Islamist extremists blamed for soaring attacks at home and on Western forces in neighboring Afghanistan. (AP Photo/Inter Services Public Relations)" - Wallace from Bookmarklet

"Pakistani helicopter gunships attacked Taliban bases near the Afghan border on Wednesday as the army urged NATO forces to seal the frontier to stem cross-border movement of militants." - Wallace from Bookmarklet

"Taliban militants are engaged in street fighting with Pakistani soldiers as the army tries to break the militants' grip on South Waziristan. Both sides claim to have suffered few casualties but residents in the remote area say dozens have died. The army, on the second day of its offensive, is reported to be facing battle-hardened militants, supported by Uzbek fighters linked to al-Qaeda. At least 20,000 people have fled the area over the last week. Reports from the region are sketchy as it is difficult and dangerous for foreign or Pakistani journalists to operate inside South Waziristan" - Wallace from Bookmarklet

"TEHRAN, Oct 18 (Reuters) - A suicide bomber killed at least two senior commanders of Iran's Revolutionary Guards in the country's southeast Sunday during an attack in which 60 people died or were wounded, Iranian media reported. State television suggested that a Sunni rebel group called Jundollah (God's soldiers) -- linked by some analysts to the Taliban -- was the likely suspect for the most severe attack on the Revolutionary Guards in recent years" - Wallace from Bookmarklet

"For Pakistan's much-maligned security forces, this offensive in South Waziristan is a chance to prove to the world how committed they are in the battle against militancy. "There are bombs going off everywhere - you must tell the world what is happening," Sher Gul, a terrified resident of Tiarza in South Waziristan told the BBC after arriving in Dera Ismail Khan." - Wallace from Bookmarklet

"Two million people fled the Swat Valley during this summer's offensive against the Taliban. Now a new exodus is expected as the government prepares to step up its fight against the extremists. Thousands of people have already left their homes and after Thursday's multiple terror attacks, the expectation is that the military will soon move in." - Wallace from Bookmarklet

"Billionaire hedge fund founder Raj Rajaratnam and executives from some of the most prestigious U.S. companies were charged on Friday with the largest hedge fund insider-trading scheme ever. Investigators said they used court-approved telephone wire taps for the first time in a Wall Street insider trading case, sending shivers through the hedge fund industry which has traditionally picked up and shared trading tips to make big profits." - Wallace from Bookmarklet

"TEGUCIGALPA – Representatives of ousted Honduran President Mel Zelaya and the de facto regime led by Roberto Micheletti reached agreement Wednesday on the draft of an accord to restore the elected head of state to office. “We have managed to achieve a consensus on a unified text that will be submitted to the discussion and analysis of President Manuel Zelaya Rosales and Mr. Roberto Micheletti,” a member of the deposed leader’s Cabinet, Victor Meza, told reporters outside the Tegucigalpa hotel hosting the talks." - Wallace from Bookmarklet

"PESHAWAR, Pakistan (Reuters) - Pakistani aircraft bombed militants in the South Waziristan region on the Afghan border Tuesday as government forces prepare for a ground offensive against the militant hub, security officials said. The government says most attacks in the country -- including four big ones over the past week that killed more than 100 people -- are plotted in South Waziristan, the main bastion of al Qaeda-linked Pakistani Taliban and their allies. "There's been a heavy bombardment. They targeted some militant hideouts as well as pro-Taliban tribal elders," said an intelligence agency official in the region, who declined to be identified. Two ethnic Pashtun tribal elders were said to have been killed, he said." - Wallace from Bookmarklet

"NEW YORK (CNN) -- A man accused of playing a role in the 1968 hijacking of a Pan Am flight from New York to Puerto Rico was captured Sunday, federal officials said. Luis Armando Pena Soltren surrendered to federal authorities at New York's JFK International Airport. Luis Armando Pena Soltren, 66, surrendered to federal authorities at New York's John F. Kennedy International Airport after exiting a flight from Havana, Cuba, officials said. It's the same airport from which Pan Am Flight 281 took off more than 40 years ago." - Wallace from Bookmarklet