At a summit of South American leaders in Trinidad today, President Obama asked his fellow world leaders to avoid blaming the US for their woes — and in return, got a book from Venezuela's firebrand president, Hugo Chavez, called Open Veins of Latin America: Five Centuries of Pillage of a Continent. Though Obama expressed a desire to loosen America's embargo and strict policies on Cuba, he noted that the change will take time, and implored his audience of democratically-elected leaders to consider Cuba's tyrannical leadership. Obama aides say their boss is seeking to "turn the page" on US-Latin American relations by being mindful of history and open to the future. On the policy side, American representatives met with Colombia's president and finance minister to work on the pending US-Colombia free-trade agreement that Obama opposes due to Colombia's dicey record on labor. As for Obama's interactions with Chavez, The Wall Street Journal notes that the socialist leader "railed against the US just days ago but seems to be reveling in interacting with Mr. Obama at the summit." The gift book—a Latin American history penned by famed Uruguayan writer Eduardo Galeano—was inscribed by Chavez: "For Obama, with warm regards." But will Obama read it? Probably not, say aides: The book is in Spanish, which Obama is not known to read in.

In a simple decision to skip a meeting, the Obama administration has made several powerful statements on its positions on Israel, international race relations, and diplomacy. The State Department announced Saturday that, "with regret," it will be boycotting the United Nations' conference on racism next week due to fears that the meeting's pre-established agenda will unfairly damage Israel and free speech. The meeting's text contains implied support for speech restrictions and the findings of the 2001 World Conference Against Racism—a conference that Israeli and American envoys walked out on to protest an attempt to liken Zionism to racism. Obama's administration's boycott of the U.N. meeting signals that it will stick to the Bush administration's ideological foothold when it comes to race relations and Israel. American officials were reportedly considering attending the conference until the announcement that Iran's Holocaust-denying president, Mahmoud Ahmadinejad, would attend. Though the U.N. boycott is likely to please pro-Israel and Jewish groups in the U.S., human rights organizations and members of the Congressional Black Caucus urged the U.S. to attend and will likely be disappointed.

Former administration officials like Dick Cheney have defended torture as a valuable intelligence-gathering tool, but experts and experienced interrogators are much less confident of its returns. According to a review of documents and interviews with former intelligence officials by The New York Times, CIA officials used waterboarding on Al Qaeda operative Abu Zubaydah even though his interrogators believed he had already divulged everything he knew in standard interrogations. Much of the torture inflicted on Zubaydah came despite later indications that his value to Al Qaeda had been highly exaggerated. One official told The Times that the harsher interrogations, unlike their more mild predecessors, produced no major intelligence breakthroughs but took a terrible toll on U.S. officials. “Seeing these depths of human misery and degradation has a traumatic effect,” the official told The Times.

Britain's Got Talent star and YouTube insta-sensation Susan Boyle—the cat lady with the "voice of an angel"—said on television that she had "never been married, never been kissed." But now a male neighbor of the Scottish singer says it's not true: "I've given her many a peck on the cheek to say 'Don't worry, everything's going to be all right.' She comes to me when she needs help or a shoulder to cry on." The neighbor spoke to the Daily Mirror of Susan's generosity and kindness but also of her hardship: Ridiculed by neighborhood children and plagued by learning disabilities, the singing talent shouldered on to care for her blind mother single-handedly for years. The Daily Mirror also reports that Susan trained her voice by imitating Donny Osmond, that the judges who originally scoffed at her are now apologizing, and that Susan wants to meet the Queen.

President Obama's been talking up budget cuts to curb government waste for weeks, but today he's finally getting ready to put his lack of money where his mouth is. He said today in his weekly video address that at a Cabinet meeting on Monday, he’ll ask each of his agency heads to scale back. Every department will be expected to produce specific proposals for budget cuts, and he has tapped Jeffrey Zients, a CEO and entrepreneur, to manage the administration’s performance. Obama announced that Homeland Security Secretary Janet Napolitano will end consulting contracts for new logos, saving upward of $3 million, and that Defense Secretary Robert Gates will reform contracting procedures to eliminate “hundreds of billions” in wasteful spending. “All across America, families are making hard choices, and it's time their government did the same,” Obama said.

Less than four months after being arrested in Iran, Iranian-American journalist Roxana Saberi has been convicted of being an American spy and sentenced to eight years in prison. Her lawyer says she is appealing the case. Saberi, who has worked for the BBC and NPR and whose accomplishments include not only two master's degrees but a Miss North Dakota crown as well, has been working on a book in Iran for the past six years. Secretary of State Hillary Clinton has strongly denied the charges against Saberi and called for her release. Her conviction puts a further strain on U.S.-Iran relations as President Obama seeks to strengthen diplomatic efforts to convince Iran to curb its nuclear program.

When an exasperated Gov. Rick Perry suggested this week that Texas should leave the United States over its tax rates, reporters at The Dallas Morning News got to wondering: Does Texas actually have the right to secede? A shocking 31 percent of Texans believe that their state retains the right to become an independent country, and 18 percent said that if they could, they would want Texas to secede. Who's going to tell them that Texas doesn’t retain the right to secede—a fact laid out in the treaty on which it signed itself into statehood? The stir Perry has created may be nothing more than a little Civil War folklore, and a distraction from real issues Texas faces. The News reports. "We are an independent group. But the secession talk, Perry is just really trying to be a little bit too clever on this," one Republican consultant told the paper. “I don't think it's a good long-term strategy."

Bad news: Andy Roddick is officially off the market. In an intimate ceremony on Friday evening, the hunky tennis star wed Sports Illustrated model Brooklyn Decker at his home in Austin, Texas. Elton John, a friend of Roddick's through their charity work, performed at the ceremony. And the wedding wouldn’t be complete, of course, without a few tennis luminaries in the audience—Steffi Graf and Andre Agassi joined the couple at the event, which was followed by dinner at the Roddick’s local country club, where presumably no tennis was played.

Although some griped Sarah Palin was never appropriately vetted as John McCain’s running mate, the lawyer in charge of choosing her said he was “very impressed” by the Alaska governor. And after a campaign of shockers, A.B. Culvahouse insists the McCain campaign knew everything about Palin when they chose her. “Everything except the pregnancy of her daughter was on a response to the written questionnaire,” Culvahouse, McCain’s attorney, said of the process. “She told me there was one issue she wanted to talk about when we went in for the interview. We knew everything going in.” And Culvahouse says Palin hit a question about why she wanted to be vice president “out of the park”...don’t tell that to Katie Couric.

In country after country, U.S. diplomacy is sending a powerful message: our bad. Secretary of State Hillary Clinton, in Trinidad and Tobago for this weekend's Latin American summit, has been leading the charge for the newly repentant America, delivering speeches around the globe offering candid assessments of previous policies. On Friday, she said America's Cuba sanctions had not worked, using the acknowledgment to justify removing some travel restrictions. Previously, she's told China that America's notorious polluting ways give it added responsibility in combating global warming, and in Indonesia she said sanctions against Myanmar were failing to influence the government. The New York Times reports that Clinton's emphasis on contrition has so far been a hit with foreign audiences and leaders tired of former President Bush's strained diplomatic efforts. It's also been a source of criticism from conservatives at home, some of whom have argued that American leaders should focus on selling America's strengths.

More drama on the high seas: Dutch NATO commandos have boarded a fishing vessel seized by pirates a week ago in the Gulf of Aden and freed 20 Yemeni hostages. NATO forces seized the pirates’ weapons and detained the pirates, but eventually let them go free—a move required under Dutch law. Meanwhile, the BBC is reporting that a Belgian vessel, the Pompei, has also been hijacked almost 400 miles off the Somali coast. It sent out alarms early this morning, and appears not to be moving.

In the wake of the EPA’s groundbreaking announcement that greenhouse gases pose a danger to the public, House Energy Committee Chairman Henry Waxman is getting down to business. While Obama has announced a 14 percent reduction of greenhouse gases by 2020, Waxman is proposing a bill that would cut greenhouse gases by 20 percent by using a strict cap-and-trade system. And he won't budge: “I want to keep those caps in place,” he tells Bloomberg. Waxman also doesn’t approve of Obama’s plan to fund middle-class tax cuts. “By and large it should be spent on green technologies,” he said of the federal budget. Critics say Waxman’s measure would dramatically raise costs; they warn that the economy could suffer as a result. But Waxman’s message is clear: “It’s what the scientists are telling us we must do.”

President Obama won over reluctant world leaders in Latin America yesterday. "We cannot let ourselves be prisoners of past disagreements," Obama said at the Summit of the Americas in Trinidad. Several leftist leaders, including Cuban President Raul Castro and Venezuelan President Hugo Chavez, rejected the meeting's draft proposal before the summit began. The countries protested the exclusion of Cuba, but Obama addressed the country in his speech, saying he wants to engage with them on human rights, migration, and economic issues in a "new beginning." Castro said his government was willing to talk about "everything" with the United States. The speech seemed to endear Obama to the leaders: Long-time U.S. antagonist Chavez said, "I want to be your friend," as the two shook hands. Before the meeting started, a White House spokesman called on Cuba to release political prisoners and stop taxing remittances sent from the United States.

Until now, the Taliban has controlled radio waves and chat rooms in Pakistan, broadcasting intimidating messages and threats to residents. But not anymore: The Pentagon is stepping in and jamming radio stations and Web sites to keep the Taliban’s message from getting out. The 150 illegal FM radio stations the Taliban used to read lists of people it was going to behead are now being blocked by American military personnel. In addition to cutting off the Taliban’s message, this "psychological operation" marks an attempt to control how the United States is perceived in Pakistan. Said one senior U.S. official: "The Taliban aren't just winning the information war—we're not even putting up that much of a fight. We need to make it harder for them to keep telling the population that they're in control and can strike at any time."

President Obama and Fed chair Ben Bernanke have tried to talk up signs of economic improvement in recent days, but it seems the banks they cite as cause for optimism are less sure that things are getting better. Despite a series of positive earnings from Citigroup, JPMorgan Chase, and Wells Fargo, bank executives are warning investors to manage their expectations. "We don't see the light at the end of the tunnel," Edward "Ned" Kelly, Citigroup's chief financial officer, told The Washington Post, referring to the state of the economy. Because unemployment has yet to hit its low point, banks are worried that an increasing number of defaults on loans could cut into their profits. JPMorgan Chase's CEO, Jamie Dimon, is also warning that loan losses have yet to peak. "They're going to continue going up in all the home lending areas, mortgage and home equity and credit cards," he told The Post.

Message to indie rockers: Respect your elders. When hipster music fans heard that Paul McCartney would play at Coachella Valley Music & Arts Festival last night, they complained he was too old. But soon they were eating their words: McCartney delivered a fiery performance that drew thousands, and some fans had to settle for standing room more than a quarter-mile away. McCartney performed James Bond theme song “Live and Let Die,” with fireworks, and gave tributes to old bandmates George Harrison and John Lennon. Reports the Los Angeles Times: “Never underestimate the power of a Beatle.”

Not so fast. Though Steve Rattner has been drawn into a New York state pension fund kickback scandal through his former firm Quadrangle, The Business Insider's Henry Blodget reports that Rattner, who heads Obama's auto industry team, is probably clean. The SEC's report on the scandal makes it sound like Quadrangle bribed a now-indicted state official into allocating the state retirement fund with the firm. Quadrangle reportedly paid a $1.1 million "finder's fee" to a placement agent, and then a Quadrangle affiliate bought distribution rights to a D-list movie produced by the state fund employee's brother for $89,000. Blodget says it’s not as bad as it looks: Quadrangle hired the placement agent before they ever met with the state fund official, meaning the firm probably hired multiple placement agents and weren't in a pay-to-play deal with the fund. In regards to the film, Rattner referred the fund employee's brother to GT Brands, which then bought the distribution rights. He says this is a typical act of mutual backscratching that characterizes the business world, though the timing certainly looks suspicious.

The only gunman captured in the Mumbai terror attacks, Mohammed Ajmal Kasab, claimed he was only 17 years old at his trial yesterday. Kasab's lawyer asked that his client be tried in a juvenile court, but the judge rejected the request, noting that in earlier reports Kasab said he was 21 and doesn’t look like a teenager. Kasab is charged with 12 crimes and could face the death penalty if he is convicted of being one of 10 men who killed more than 160 people in last November’s terrorist rampage. In another unforeseen twist, prosecutors attempted to implicate military Pakistani officials in the attacks by pointing to their level of sophistication. Additional evidence includes a trace of one of the conspirator's email addresses to a military-backed phone company.

The man who died at the G-20 summit in London after being hit and shoved by an unprovoked policeman died of internal bleeding, not a heart attack, a second post-mortem autopsy has revealed. The masked police officer caught on tape outside the summit pushing and hitting Ian Tomlinson, who was not a protester, is being questioned under suspicion of manslaughter. Two officers have been suspended for police brutality after inquiries into policing during the summit. The first pathologist to examine Tomlinson said he died from a heart attack. Police originally mentioned nothing of their violent interaction until video and photographic evidence poured in. The hedge fund manager who filmed the video said he's happy he came forward or the death "would have been swept under the rug."