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It seems that the more that lawmakers learn of Nancy Pelosi's CIA briefings, the less the public does. Members of the House and Senate intelligence committees spent the past week poring over the notes from Nancy Pelosi’s CIA briefing in 2002, but it hasn’t gotten them anywhere close to consensus as to what happened. Republicans who have seen the documents are, of course, saying that they precisely lay out that Pelosi knew about waterboarding, but Dems argue that the briefing memos are far from specific. Though accounts of the briefing differ, congressional officials say there may have been a don’t-ask-don’t-tell mentality when it came to discussing how the CIA was getting its information -- a strategy that may have resulted in vague notes from the meeting. And, maybe having learned from the release of some other memos, both Pelosi and top Republicans say they want to keep their briefing memo classified.
On Monday the Sri Lankan government declared an end to the 25-year-old civil war against the Tamil Tiger rebels, but the devastation has just begun as the country continues to be in severe need of water and supplies for its displaced citizens. U.N. Secretary General Ban Ki-moon visited the region on Saturday and told CNN, “I have traveled around the world and visited similar places, but this is by far the most appalling scenes I have seen. I sympathize fully with all of the displaced persons.” Nearly 250,000 to 300,000 people are refugees in the coastal villages, although the Sri Lankan government does not believe many civilians were injured in the fighting.
The U.S. may have gotten Europe into the recession, but Europe may keep the world from getting out. Yesterday Britiain announced that its economy was at its worst in 30 years, joining Germany and Italy on the list of European countries with increasingly bleak economic outlooks. As the financial sector ails across the continent, leaders are considering following the States’ lead and conducting stress tests on European banks. Until it improves however, experts are saying that Europe is going to hold the rest of the world back from economic recovery. Said Treasury Secretary Tim Geithner on Thursday: “Recovery here depends on recovery abroad. Our financial reform effort in the United States must be matched by similarly strong efforts elsewhere in order to succeed.”
As a Marine, Charles Bolden "flew more than 100 sorties in Vietnam," and as an astronaut he weathered zero-gravity twice. Now, the retired Marine general is earning the ultimate wings: President Obama has nominated Bolden to head NASA. The African-American veteran is expected to leave his job at JackandPanther LLC, a private military and aerospace consulting firm, to helm the agency. Obama announced Bolden's nomination on Saturday along with the nomination of Lori Garver, one of Obama's civil space policy advisers, to be Bolden's deputy.
Morgan Stanley finally found how to get around federal bonus restrictions on TARP-supported banks. Though the investment bank is cutting bonuses, the majority of their executives will get raises this year, reports Bloomberg. And they're not the only ones: UBS AG raised bankers' base pay 50 percent this year and Bank of America recently said they might increase salaries, too. Several Morgan Stanley executives, including Chief Financial Officer Colm Kelleher, Chief Legal Officer Gary Lynch, and Chief Administrative Officer Thomas Nides will see their salaries double--or more. Previous pay disputes on Wall Street have given rise to spirited to discussions on results-driven pay and the roll of bonuses in bankers' gross pay; this time, however, Morgan Stanley has no comment.
It’s a safe bet that Jon Peters will never eat lunch in his town again. Peters, once the head of Sony Pictures, was circling a $700,000 advance from Harper Collins to publish an autobiography detailing the former hairdresser’s life with one-time girlfriend Barbra Streisand. Perhaps a victim of too much hype, the book deal has been canned after controversial excerpts were distributed on Friday. “Unfortunately leaks of the proposal have created a firestorm in the press, from Page Six to CNN and seemingly every other gossip page and entertainment news show in between,” Peters wrote in a letter. “I have been besieged by lawsuits and threatened litigation by some of the most important figures in the world of show business.” Streisand chimed in on her Web site: “The claims and statements attributed to me in Jon Peters' book proposal are either completely distorted or simply untrue.”
Maybe his speech on torture worked, after all: President Obama may lead Senate Democrats to close the prison at Guantanamo Bay after all, reports the Associated Press. Though a 90-6 vote resoundingly denied Obama's attempt to appropriate money to shut down the controversial home of 240 terror-related detainees, Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid indicated on Saturday that he is "wanting and willing to work with" Obama on a solution. Though many Senate Republicans complained about Obama's plan on its fundamental merits, touting the value of Guantanamo as a whole, Democrats like Hawaii's Daniel Inouye expressed concern primarily about logistics, arguing that the administration lacked a "coherent plan." If Reid and Obama can work one out, ending Guantanamo could still happen; Democrats who voted against Obama's measure, like Delaware's Tom Carper, say they are ready "to have a conversation." But 20-ton elephant in the room—where the detainees will go, and whose Congressional districts will be affected—will have to be settled, first.
The voice that captured a nation and sparked a YouTube frenzy—and then just as quickly fell off everyone’s radar—returns to television this weekend. Not surprisingly, Susan Boyle, everyone’s favorite muumuu-wearing Scot, made the semi-finals of Britain’s Got Talent on Saturday evening. The next hoop for the 48-year-old spinster to jump through is a vote by the public and judges to see who will advance to the grand finale. Competition for the “I Dreamed a Dream” singer includes three farmers, a violinist, an 11-year-old street dancer, a 73-year-old breakdancer, and 12-year-old Shaheen Jafargholi, whose performance of “Who’s Lovin’ You” was praised by Demi Moore. Brits, for the love of Les Miz, ready your dialing fingers—we can’t take another reality show upset.
Former South Korean President Roh Moo-hyun committed suicide by jumping off a cliff while hiking with a bodyguard near his home in Pusan on Saturday, The New York Times reports. The 62-year-old, who once prided himself on his squeaky-clean record, was questioned on April 30 for involvement in a corruption scandal for which some of the former leader's aides and family members have already gone to jail. Prosecutors believed that Roh solicited $6 million from a shoe manufacturer while he was president. In a manner consistent with Korean political etiquette, Roh expressed grave regret for his transgressions. On April 22 he posted on his website, "You should now discard me." Before his prosecutorial questioning, he told reporters, "I can't look you in the face because of shame." Roh, a former human rights and labor lawyer, came into power in 2002. He is known for negotiating a free trade deal with the United States (to mixed responses from his countrymen) and for reform. Early in his career, opponents impeached Roh for violating a minor election law, but the Constitutional Court over turned the case. The deceased's lawyer said that the corruption investigation had left the former leader in a state of anguish, and that he left a brief note before taking his own life. His wife and son survive him.
The Pakistani military announced on Saturday that its troops were on the offense in Mingora, the largest city in the contested Swat Valley as part of an effort to win the strategically vital region back from the Taliban. Pakistan's Army says seventeen militants have been killed in the last 24 hours. The New York Times explains, "The fight in Mingora is being seen as a test of the ability of the Pakistani military to defeat the Taliban in Swat." While previous Swat Valley clashes have been in rural mountainous regions, "Mingora could prove to be the toughest challenge as militants have ensconced themselves in urban neighborhoods, where they command the rooftops of houses and buildings." Though many fled the city when the Taliban first seized it earlier this month, an estimated 10,000 remaining civilians constrains the military's ability to use aerial strikes and artillery.
President Obama is set to name his pick for the Supreme Court any day now, but already he is warning Congress to hurry up with the confirmation process. In an interview with C-SPAN, Obama pointed to the "approximately 70 day" period that Chief Justice John Roberts and Justice Samuel Alito faced before being confirmed under Bush as a model. “I think that's a fair timeframe for us to work with as well,” Obama said. As to what kind of justice the president is looking for: "I want somebody who has the intellectual fire power, but also a little bit of a common touch and has a practical sense of how the world [works].”
Nearly nine million people watched Farrah Fawcett's NBC special about the 70's siren's battle with cancer, but ex-husband Lee Majors wasn't one of them. Fawcett's first and only husband, the couple wed in 1973 and stayed together for the better part of a decade. Nonetheless, Majors told a TMZ report that he didn't watch his ex-wife's televised cancer special because the "whole thing was a little bit over done."
How much, exactly, has Wall Street cost Main Street? According to Bloomberg, possibly a total of $185 billion in wages and profits—or $600 for every single American. Bankers’ lifestyles may have been undeserved and ostentatious, but they also employed a lot of people. Barbers who charged $125 for haircuts are finding themselves without clients; Wall Street restaurants have empty tables. 255,441 finance jobs have disappeared since January 2008. For each of those losses, another 3.3 jobs in other industries will vanish.
April showers bring May flowers, but what about April weddings? For supermodel Gisele Bundchen and NFL quarterback Tom Brady, the answer is babies: the Brazilian babe is pregnant with her first child (Tom's second) Radar Online reports. The couple has wed twice: once in Santa Monica in February, and again in Costa Rica in April. Brady's first child, a son, was born to ex-girlfriend Bridget Moynahan.
We interrupt our usual fashion reports and film gossip to bring you the hottest trend in agriculture: minicows. Faced with rising feed prices, farmers around the country are turning to these small, stocky cattle breeds in order to cut costs. The genetically engineered cows eat about half as much as a regular cow, but produce up to 75 percent as much steak and plenty of milk each day. "We get more sirloin and less soup bone," one Nebraska rancher told the LA Times. "People used to look at them and laugh. Now, they want to own them."
American Idol runner up Adam Lambert's flamboyant rock style may not have been enough to garner top honors in the contest, but it has caught the attention of one of Lambert's favorite bands. According to Rolling Stone, Queen is considering making Lambert, whom they played with for an episode of Idol, their new frontman. "Amongst all that furor, there wasn't really a quiet moment to talk," Queen guitarist Brian May told Rolling Stone in an interview. "But [he] and I are definitely hoping to have a meaningful conversation with at some point. It's not like we, as Queen, would rush into coalescing with another singer just like that. It isn't that easy. But I'd certainly like to work with Adam."
Communism is spreading, and the Nepalese are thrilled. Nepal has elected Madhav Kumar Nepal, leader of the nation’s Marxist-Leninist communist party, as the new prime minister. Madhav had the support of 22 political parties and more than half of parliament. He has been a well-known political figure in the country for more than a decade, and was met with cheers and flowers when he walked out of parliament. But he didn’t have his predecessor’s support: the former prime minister was the Maoist rebel chief, and his party members boycotted Madhav’s election by walking out of Parliament during the process.
Belligerent and eccentric North Korean dictator Kim Jong-Il may be laying the groundwork for his successor, though U.S. officials are not sure who, exactly, it will be. Kim's brother-in-law, Jang Seong Taek, has recently taken a greater public role in the country's military, fueling rumors that Jang is either ready to take over if necessary or set to guide one of Kim's children to the throne. As unpredictable and dangerous as North Korea's leadership is considered, the power jockeying over replacing Kim is believed to be pushing their policies even further to the fringe—recently the country test-fired a rocket over the objections of the rest of the world and U.S. officials are predicting a second nuclear test soon.
President Obama gave another rousing commencement speech on Friday—his third in three weeks—and praised over 1,000 graduates of the United States Naval Academy. Addressing the crowd in Annapolis, the President said, “I will only send you into harm's way when it is absolutely necessary, and with the strategy, the well-defined goals, the equipment and the support you need.” He continued with high praise: “In an era when too few citizens answer the call to service—to community or country—these Americans chose to serve.” One familiar name on the program was John S. McCain IV, a fourth generation Academy graduate and son of the defeated Presidential candidate. John McCain sat in his front-row seat wearing a NAVY baseball cap and watched Obama present diplomas and hug the graduating midshipman.
Might Wall Street’s latest round of bonuses have been its last? “I don’t think we can go back to the way it was,” Treasury Secretary Timothy Geithner said on Bloomberg TV today. “We’re going to need to see very, very substantial change.” Geithner said that Wall Street’s pay practices, including end-of-the-year bonuses, “encouraged excessive risk-taking and helped precipitate the financial crisis,” according to Bloomberg. Geithner has ruled out setting caps on compensation, and said that he will reveal a new plan to realign pay with performance in June.
What a homecoming this must be: Roxana Saberi, the 32-year-old journalist recently freed from her 100-day jail sentence in Iran, arrived in Washington D.C. on Friday after recuperating in Vienna. Saberi was held in prison for four months on allegations of spying after she was sentenced in a 15-minute closed-door trial. The Iranian-American journalist told reporters she sang the national anthem while in jail: “It may sound corny, but I’m so happy to be home in the land of the free.” She also thanked President Obama, Secretary of State Hillary Clinton, congressmen from her home state of North Dakota, human rights groups, and the Japanese government for their assistance in getting the charges dropped.
