The stock market has been quietly ascendant over the past week, but that doesn’t mean the Federal Reserve’s rescue efforts are over: The central bank will purchase an additional $750 billion worth of government-guaranteed mortgage-backed securities, as well as buying $300 billion worth of longer-term Treasury securities over the next six months. "Job losses, declining equity and housing wealth, and tight credit conditions have weighed on consumer sentiment and spending," the Fed said, adding it's planning to "employ all available tools to promote economic recovery and preserve price stability." The Fed's surprise move, along with its decision to keep the benchmark interest rate at virtually zero, pushed stocks higher today, and on the bond markets, prices rose and yields dropped sharply.

Actress Natasha Richardson has died after a skiing accident, ET reports. In a statement, her family said: “Liam Neeson, his sons, and the entire family are shocked and devastated by the tragic death of their beloved Natasha. They are profoundly grateful for the support, love and prayers of everyone, and ask for privacy during this very difficult time.” Earlier today, Liz Smith reported: "Word is in at 1:30 p.m. Wednesday they have taken Natasha off of life support." Smith reported that the 45-year-old's husband, Liam Neeson, their two sons, and her mother, Vanessa Redgrave, were by her side at New York's Lenox Hill Hospital. "Insiders felt yesterday, on learning they were flying Natasha in to Lenox Hill, that this meant her condition was hopeless and they were just finding a place to be together with her and to say good-bye," Smith says. Richardson was reportedly brain dead after the accident in Quebec on Monday.

In a reversal, Senator Chris Dodd said this evening he was responsible for the language added into the stimulus bill that allowed for the AIG bonuses. The Senate Banking Committee chairman and a Treasury Department official told CNN the Obama administration pushed for the language—which ensures that already existing contracts for bonuses at bailed out companies were honored—because they were afraid the government would be slapped with lawsuits without it. “The administration had expressed reservations,” said Dodd. “They asked for modifications. The alternative was losing the amendment entirely.” They “seemed like innocent modifications” at the time, he added. “I agreed reluctantly. I was changing the amendment because others were insistent.”

The death penalty is no more in New Mexico—Gov. Bill Richardson has signed a law abolishing it. “This has been the most difficult decision of my political career,” he said as he signed the law making New Mexico the 15th state to ban capital punishment. “I do not have confidence in the criminal justice system as it currently operates to be the final arbiter when it comes to who lives and who dies for their crime,” Richardson said. “If the State is going to undertake this awesome responsibility, the system to impose this ultimate penalty must be perfect and can never be wrong.” Supporters of a repeal of the death penalty, which was reinstate in 1976, hailed the decision, calling it a “great day for New Mexico.” The state’s most severe punishment now will be life in prison without the possibility of parole.

With the Obama administration scrambling to comply with plans to close the prison at Guantanamo Bay by next year, Attorney General Eric Holder is saying some detainees may end up being released in the US. Officials are reviewing individual cases of the 250 detainees to determine which will be put on trial and which may be released, said Holder, who’s also still working to assemble his senior leadership at the Justice Department. European justice ministers are pressing Holder for details on how many Gitmo prisoners the US plans to release domestically, “as part of any agreement for allies to accept detainees,” The Wall Street Journal reports. Still up in the air is the fate of 17 ethnic Uighurs, from China’s Central Asian region, who have been ordered released by a judge—but the US won’t turn them over to China, which considers them part of a separatist group.

A victory for Andrew Cuomo: A judge has ruled that Merrill Lynch employees who received $3.6 billion in bonuses in December can be publicly identified as part of the New York attorney general’s investigation. Justice Bernard Fried today rejected Bank of America’s argument that compensation information was a trade secret: “The Martin Act vests in the Attorney General the discretion to decide whether to keep the information that he gathers in the course of his investigation secret or public,” he wrote. Cuomo—who’s been seeking the information as part of his probe of the bonuses, granted in late December before Merrill was bought by BofA—called the decision “a victory for taxpayers.” He added: “Let the sun shine in.”

Once again taking a distinctly un-Bushlike approach to war, President Obama is ordering a “civilian surge” in Afghanistan that will complement the extra troops on the ground. The change in direction is part of the broad review of strategy in Afghanistan and Pakistan the president ordered in his first weeks in office. According to The Washington Post, “high level” discussions among diplomats and military personnel reached the conclusion that a substantially larger diplomatic presence focusing on “agricultural, rule-of-law and local governance development” was necessary to win the war. Important note: Obama has downgraded the definition of “winning the war” from Bush’s goal of a democratic Afghanistan to simply not leaving a haven for terrorists.

Speaking in Canada on the first leg of his speaking tour, George W. Bush reflected on his time in office and, in contrast to Dick Cheney, said he wouldn't criticize Obama. "He deserves my silence," Bush said. "If he wants my help and I agree with him, I'll give it." The former president did weigh in on the AIG bonus scandal, though, saying he agrees "with the angst being expressed in Washington." Bush also gave a plug to his forthcoming book, which he said will revolve around 12 decisions he had to make while in office.

Bernie Madoff's guilty plea was only the beginning. Prosecutors in New York charged the ponzi schemer's longtime accountant, David Friehling, with securities fraud this morning. The accusation shows prosecutors are expanding their net of inquiry as they trace the scale of the "sprawling fraud," the Associated Press reports. "Friehling ran an accounting office in a nondescript suburban building north of New York City, and quickly drew scrutiny after the Madoff scandal broke." If convicted, he could face over 100 years in prison.

Another change for troops in Afghanistan and Iraq: According to the Associated Press, the Army will “substantially reduce of the unpopular practice of holding troops beyond their enlistment dates.” Defense Secretary Robert Gates is expected to announce the plan to end so-called “stop loss” later today. The military has also agreed to pay $500 per month to troops forced to serve beyond the end of their enlistment terms.

We suppose it's worth a try: In testimony before Congress today, the AIG chairman and CEO, Edward Liddy, said he's asked the insurance company executives to return their bonuses. Liddy said that the bonuses were "distasteful" and that he "shares" the anger of the American public. Liddy also said, however, that the $165 million in bonuses paid out over the weekend should be honored as a legal commitment of the federal government. Meanwhile, Obama absolved his administration of any guilt in the economic fiasco, but said he aimed to fix it.

Echoing the outrage of aid agencies around the world, the French Foreign Ministry today said Pope Benedict’s statements condemning condom distribution were “a threat to public health policies and the duty to protect human life.” Before his arrival yesterday in Cameroon, the pope reaffirmed the Roman Catholic Church’s stance against contraceptives, saying condoms actually worsen the HIV/AIDS epidemic in Africa. His statement runs contrary to a number of studies that have found that condoms slow the spread of the disease. France, with its rich secular tradition, is the first nation (and probably not the last) to openly criticize the pope’s comments.

In a particularly goofy moment yesterday, Irish Prime Minister Brian Cowen stepped away from a podium at the White House red-faced—not because of too many drinks, but because he accidentally read President Obama’s speech off the teleprompter. He opened with “We begin by welcoming today a strong friend of the United States” and continued for about 20 seconds before realizing his mistake. Later, when Obama spoke, the teleprompter once again malfunctioned, showing the Taoiseach’s speech. Always on his toes, the president joked, “First, I’d like to say thank you to President Obama!” Obama is becoming known as the “teleprompter president,” a moniker that somewhat diminishes his reputation as an excellent orator.

If drowning yourself in Dancing With the Stars was the only way to get your mind off the doom and gloom of the papers, you should probably pick another hobby. President Obama is “quietly in talks” with networks to show up on your televisions next week with addresses reminiscent of FDR’s fireside chats during the Great Depression. One network confirmed that there have been “informal talks” about him taking over the airwaves for 10 minutes to help sell his economic recovery plan straight to the people. Is nothing, not even the glowing black box, sacred?

Sarah Palin's populist mission to thwart big oil in her home state of Alaska may be undermining the energy interests of the United States as well as her own political ambitions for a 2012 presidential run. Despite the governor's pride in championing a $40 billion natural-gas pipeline (which the Obama administration has called for to increase domestic energy supply), no such pipeline even exists yet--and it's all thanks to Palin's anti-corporate policies. "The only thing standing in the way of an Alaska gas pipeline is the Sarah Palin administration," says the Republican co-chairman of Alaska's House Finance Committee. In fact, Palin has constructed a regulatory structure so hostile to big-oil--the most capable pipeline developers--that the possibility looms that America's largest private-infrastructure project could be doomed to fail.

With her husband in jail for the next few decades, Ruth Madoff is off to bask in the Florida sun. In an attempt to save what's left of their assets, Ruth is declaring her $9.4 million Palm Beach estate as her primary residence. Feds, meanwhile, are trying to takeover the Madoff's $7 million New York apartment and the Florida home. Ruth purchased the home in 1994 for $3.8 million. "The two big drawing cards to Florida were sunshine and affordability," a consultant said. "Now it's for sunshine and the protection of your primary mansion."

Someone has CNBC host Jim Cramer’s back: His boss. NBC Chief Jeff Zucker recently complained to a keynote audience that Jon Stewart’s lambasting of Cramer was “totally unfair” and “completely out of line,” adding that, :Just because someone who mocks authority says something doesn’t mean it's true." He defended CNBC against Stewart’s broader attacks, asserting that for the Daily Show host “to suggest that the business media is responsible for what’s going on now is absurd.”

The last bastion of the war in Iraq is in the northern city of Mosul, where a volatile combination of insurgent groups and religious diversity has created an environment difficult to reign in. Troops arriving at the city are shocked to see how out of control the city remains. "I certainly didn't know that there was a place as kinetic as west Mosul that still existed in Iraq right now, but it does," one commander told Time. Al-Qaeda, Saddam loyalists holed up in nearby Syria, a powerful minority Kurdish population, and a lack of basic services make for an ideal recruiting ground for insurgent groups. Most importantly, locals in Mosul have yet to turn against the insurgents out of fear for the consequences.

One would think the set of a Lifetime TV movie was the last bastion of fidelity, but no. Country singer LeAnn Rimes was caught having an affair with married costar Eddie Cibrian while working on their new flick. Us Weekly touts the affair on its new cover, complete with surveillance footage that shows the two kissing while on a dinner date. Rimes, 26, married dancer Dean Sheremet when she was 19 years-old, while Cibrian—best known for appearances on Ugly Betty and Samantha Who?—has two children with model Brandi Glanville. Meanwhile, the country chanteuse has taken to her Web site to respond to the damning cover, saying, "This is a difficult time for me and my loved ones, but I appreciate all your continued support," and that "not everything in our lives is always black and white."

President Obama continues to wade into social issues: The Associated Press reports that “The Obama administration will endorse a U.N. declaration calling for the worldwide decriminalization of homosexuality that then-President George W. Bush had refused to sign.” The United States, under President Bush, was the only western nation not to sign. 70 U.N. members outlaw homosexuality.

Ladies: Have you ever wondered “During the menstrual period is a woman allowed to dye her hair with henna? And is the use of an artificial dye for the same purpose allowed?” Good news! The Ayatollah Khomeini has an answer on his new website: “It is permissible, yet disliked.” Men: Want out of your new marriage because it turns out your wife is not a virgin? Too bad. Ayatollah says: “By itself, the said defect does not entail revoking the marriage contract.” Other questions include killing insects (“It is not a problem”) and whether running over a cat with your car makes its tires impure.

Desperate times, desperate measures: In Japan, so-called "marriage hunters" are on the prowl, searching for a husband to support them through economic decline. They apply to dating agencies and network, spreading the word that that they are available and anxious to settle down. The marriage hunters have become so common that there is even a shrine where women buy good luck charms and receive blessings that improve their odds of tying the knot. The phenomenon marks a return to Japan's more traditional roots, as many Japanese women distance themselves from the gains made by the previous generation. One young woman, referring to her elders, elaborated, "They didn't have to depend on men and that's cool, but it's not the path I want to follow."

Do you want to bet against him? Filling out his bracket for ESPN, President Obama chose Louisville, North Carolina, Memphis, and Pittsburgh for the Final Four—a rather unimaginative crop, which is all number one seeds except Memphis, which is a number two.

Might America’s most popular radio host also be America’s most unpopular man? According to a poll from CBS News, Rush Limbaugh’s favorability rating is at 19 percent—a number that might even have former president Bush offering to buy him a drink. 40 percent had an unfavorable view, while 41 percent didn’t know. President Obama’s rating is 43 points higher. Even less than half of all Republicans—47 percent—had a favorable opinion of Rush.

About FARCing time: The Associated Press reports that the Revolutionary Armed Forces of Colombia, better known by its acronym FARC, has released its last known foreign hostage: a 69-year-old partially paralyzed Swede named Erik Roland Larsson. Paralyzed in half his body, Larsson was kidnapped with his Colombian wife in May 2007. (She escaped that same month following a gunbattle between guerillas and police.) FARC had sought a $5 million ransom for Larsson, but it’s unclear if it was actually paid.

Time for a new obsession: In a shocking reversal, Austrian dungeon dad Josef Fritzl pleaded guilty to all charges today, The Times of London reports. The 73-year-old electrical engineer was being charged with rape, incest, slavery and murder for locking his daughter in a basement for 24 years, raping her about 3,000 times and fathering 7 children with her, one of whom died a newborn for lack of health care. Fritzl had already pled guilty to incest and partially guilty to the rape charge, but had contested the other charges, which hold longer prison sentences. When the judge asked Fritzl why he had changed his plea, Fritzl replied, "My daughter's video taped testimony," and added that he was "sorry" and referred to his behavior as "sick" and "cruel.”

The answer’s not the only thing blowin’ in the wind: The Independent reports that Bob Dylan “has become embroiled in a gloriously petty dispute involving the allegedly noxious smell emanating from a portable lavatory sited in the grounds of his sprawling cliff-top home overlooking the Pacific Ocean in Malibu.” One family, which the news has described as “tangled up in poo,” has said that it must abandon the upstairs bedrooms of its house on some nights. The porto-potty was installed for the security guards that protect Dylan’s estate.

The government giveth, and the government shall taketh away. Lawmakers are moving to tax away the $165 million in bonuses paid to AIG employees. Senators including Finance Committee Chairman Max Baucus are proposing a special tax as high as 100 percent on the “retention bonuses” paid to 73 employees in the insurance giant’s financial products subsidiary, 11 of whom no longer work at the company. Some lawmakers, The Wall Street Journal reports, see the tax as a pressure tactic to goad the AIGers into giving up the bonuses voluntarily. Other senators, including Chuck Schumer of New York, have signed a letter to AIG CEO Edward Liddy demanding he renegotiate the bonuses, while the Obama administration is seeking to use a clause in the stimulus that would allow Treasury Secretary Tim Geithner to claw back the payments if they were “inconsistent with the purpose” of the TARP.

Hello children, and welcome to your new life as paparazzi fodder. Two of Nadya Suleman’s octuplets traveled to their home in La Habra, California last night, after extensive tests to make sure they were well enough to leave the Bellflower hospital. Noah Angel and Isaiah Angel were released from the hospital after their housing was deemed safe and slightly loony Suleman adequately able to provide childcare. The remaining six children remain at Kaiser Permanente.

Days after FBI agents raided Vivek Kundra’s former office at the District of Columbia’s technology department, he’s back on the job as President Obama’s chief information officer. Kundra, who’d taken a leave of absence in the wake of the raid, was not a target of the raid, but his former employee Yusuf Acar has been charged with bribery. The New York Times’ Caucus blog reports Gov. Tim Kaine of Virginia, a former boss of Kundra’s, pleaded his case to the White House to get him reinstated. “Mr. Kaine said that since Mr. Kundra was not under investigation, he should be reinstated,” The Times reports. “Otherwise, he said, Mr. Kundra’s reputation would be ruined and the administration would miss out on having someone with valuable skills help with its important task of making the government more transparent.”

President Obama’s ongoing overture to Russia about halting Iran’s plans for nuclear weapons may not be so far-fetched after all. Analysts are now noting that Iran’s missile test launch last month provoked Russian President Dmitry Medvedev’s concern. The head of a bipartisan group tasked with studying U.S. policy toward Russia, said, “Medvedev felt it was a clear challenge to both Russian and American interests and said he would like both countries to work on this challenge together." Another positive sign: Russia’s reluctance to sell its own advanced missile system to Iran. "If they have to sacrifice their special relationship with Iran, they want to see a change in their relationship with the United States,” said the analyst.

President Obama may be drawing down troops in Iraq, but a further sign that things in Afghanistan are only heating up: According to The New York Times, the Obama administration is “considering expanding the American covert war in Pakistan far beyond the unruly tribal areas to strike at a different center of Taliban power in Baluchistan, where top Taliban leaders are orchestrating attacks into southern Afghanistan.” Baluchistan is under the Pakistani government’s direct control, and some fear that any raids will worsen tensions between the U.S. and Pakistan.

Bernard Madoff’s sons may not have known about their father’s Ponzi scheme, but that doesn’t mean they didn’t enjoy its fruits: The New York Post reports that federal prosecutors are claiming for the first time tens of millions of dollars that Bernard Madoff lent to his sons—$31.55 million between 2004 and 2008, to be exact—while also targeting real estate investments Ruth Madoff made with the owners of the Mets. The last of the loans to the sons was made two months before Madoff told his sons that his investment business was a Ponzi scheme. Bernard, in an earlier filing, had claimed to have only lent his sons $4 to 7 million.

The Times of London notes conflicting reports in the media of actress Natasha Richardson's condition, after she fell and hit her head during a ski lesson in Canada yesterday—the New York Post quoted friends as saying she is"brain-dead" while TMZ.com said she is sedated and suffering from brain swelling. Richardson's husband, Liam Neeson, rushed to her side from the set of his new film Chloe, in Toronto and at the family's request, Richardson was transferred to a hospital in New York City. Richardson comes from one of the world's most famous line of actors with a screen and stage lineage that stretches back at least five generations. Her mother, Vanessa Redgrave is one of the only actors to have won an Oscar, Golden Globe, Emmy, Tony and an Olivier.

Does the AIG bonus-gate mean the end of Treasury Secretary Tim Geithner? Some traders on the market prediction site Intrade are betting so. While it's a long bet, 15 percent are betting that he will be out of a job by the end of June. With pressure mounts, more pundits will be left wondering: Will he stay or should he go?