Send in the cavalry. Bill Clinton arrived in North Korea Tuesday morning to negotiate the release of the two jailed American journalists who were caught reporting in the oppressive nation, according to a South Korean news agency. The two freelancers were working for Al Gore's Current TV when they were arrested on the wrong side of the China-North Korea border, quickly convicted of "grave crimes," and sentenced to 12 years in the dreaded North Korean labor camps. The talks come during a time of increasing tensions between the country and the U.S. over its nuclear ambitions.

Looks like the Democrats have finally decided to start flexing their strong majorities in the House and Senate. Party elder Senator Chuck Schumer of New York alluded Monday to "contingencies" that will be used as a "last resort" should bipartisan negotiations over health care yield no results. The backup plan likely involves initiating a "procedural maneuver" that will get the health bill to pass with only 51 instead of 60 votes in the Senate. The move, however, would likely limit the scope of the bill. A bipartisan committee of three Democrats and three Republicans faces a September 15 deadline to present a health-care bill that will satisfy both parties; very little positive news has emerged from the closed-door dealings. "If we cannot produce a bipartisan solution by then, you have to wonder if the Republicans will ever to be willing to agree to anything," Schumer said.

Secretary of State Hillary Clinton will be visiting Africa beginning Wednesday, and the presidents of Senegal, Rwanda, Botswana, and Liberia have sent her a clear message to ponder on the trip. In an article in Forbes, the presidential quartet demands "partnership, not patronage.” They expect Clinton to commit to ramping up the U.S.’s efforts to prosecute illegal offshore accounts, where many choose to deposit their money earned through corrupt means. The leaders also echo a complaint heard from much of the developing world—that the U.S. must reduce its agricultural trade subsidies, which put African countries at an unfair disadvantage. (This complaint has always proven a tough sell given the powerful agricultural lobby in the U.S.) The leaders' article also calls for President Obama to expand the AIDS-relief program begun during the George W. Bush era. America's first black president has excited Africa like never before, they say, now is the time for "substantive action that realizes [his] promise."

Americans just can't get enough of their pills. A new study finds that the number of Americans on antidepressants doubled from 1996 to 2005, sending the total number of people using the medications to 27 million. Interestingly, the percentage of people seeking psychotherapy while on antidepressants dropped over the same 10-year period—80 percent of antidepressant users were prescribed their pills by doctors other than psychiatrists. The study also finds that half of the users are taking the pills for reasons beyond their intended purpose, including "back pain, nerve pain, fatigue, sleep difficulties, or other problems." A major reason for the increase is that doctors are “more comfortable prescribing antidepressants," one expert told USA Today.

The Securities and Exchange Commission has accused Bank of America of lying to investors over its acquisition of Merrill Lynch, the New York Times reports. In November, Bank of America told investors that Merrill Lynch had agreed to not pay year-end performance bonuses and other incentive-based compensation without Bank of America's consent—but later agreed to let Merrill Lynch pay up to $5.8 billion in bonuses. While neither  confirming nor denying the allegations, Bank of America has agreed to pay the penalty fee of $33 million. The settlement "represents a constructive conclusion to this issue," Bank of America said in a statement.

A major terrorist plot has reportedly been averted in Australia. Four Australian men are accused of planning a suicide attack on an army base in Melbourne. More than 400 officers were involved in searching 19 properties in the city during the bust, the BBC reports. The four men are of Somali and Lebanese descent and are accused of involvement with al-Shabab, the insurgent movement in Somalia that is thought to have ties with al Qaeda. An Australian police official said "The men's intention was to actually go into the army barracks and to kill as many soldiers as they could before they themselves were killed." The raid was the product of seven months of surveillance.

Throughout his campaign and in the early days of his presidency, Barack Obama has repeated again and again that he will not raise taxes on the middle class, specifically families making less than $250,000. But Treasury Secretary Tim Geithner and Obama's chief economic adviser Lawrence Summers went off message when they hinted at the possibility of a tax hike during appearances on the Sunday talk-show circuit. On Monday, Press Secretary Robert Gibbs was in full damage-control mode, reaffirming the president's campaign pledge that a tax hike for the majority of Americans was not on the horizon "in the clearest terms possible." Gibbs could not explain, however, why Geithner and Summers had strayed from the White House line. "Promising that everybody is going to be on-message may be a bar that is too high for me to leap over," Gibbs said.

Could diminishing oil supplies doom global economic recovery? According to Fatih Birol, the chief economist at the International Energy Agency, global oil resources are declining at a significantly faster rate than previously forecast. In an interview with The Independent, Birol says that of the 800 oil fields studied, which make up threequarters of the global oil supply, most have already passed their peak production. Oil-rich Middle Eastern nations such as Saudi Arabia can expect an economic boom in the coming years, he added. Meeting demand is simply impossible, Birol said, pointing out that "six Saudi Arabias" would be necessary to meet the estimated amount of oil needed in 2030. The global economic recovery will be adversely affected by the looming oil crisis, as the price at the pump will begin climbing in 2010, he predicted.

Birthers, rejoice. The concrete proof you've been looking for has finally surfaced: Barack Obama's Kenyan birth certificate is making the rounds on the Internet. Just one problem, though—it is an obvious forgery. The document completely ignores key aspects of Kenyan history—Obama’s supposed birthplace was not a part of Kenya in 1964—and also refers to the "Republic of Kenya" though it was not a republic at that time. Perhaps most damningly, the template for the forgery appears to be easily available on a genealogy site. Meanwhile, the “birthers’” kook-in-chief, Orly Taitz, had a full-blown meltdown on MSNBC. How much longer before this story goes away?

Israeli authorities have busted a tax fraud scheme that is accused of swindling tens of millions of dollars from U.S. tax agencies, the New York Times reports. Nine men stand accused of filing "fraudulent requests for tax refunds in the name of prisoners in federal penitentiaries, without the prisoners’ knowledge." The alleged ring leader is Rabbi Marvin Berkowitz, of Chicago. In 2003, the shady holy man fled the U.S. after being convicted of another plan involving tax fraud. The team that uncovered the ring was composed of both Israeli and U.S. authorities who apparently had a sense of humor: the name of their operation was "American Pie."

Think Ryan O'Neal was a less than stellar father before? Farrah Fawcett's on-again, off-again boyfriend sat down with Vanity Fair for an interview in their September issue and spoke candidly about his torrid romance, parenting regrets—and accidently hitting on his daughter at Fawcett's funeral. "I had just put the casket in the hearse and I was watching it drive away when a beautiful blonde woman comes up and embraces me," O'Neal said. "I said to her, 'You have a drink on you? You have a car?' She said, 'Daddy, it's me—Tatum!' I was just trying to be funny with a strange Swedish woman, and it's my daughter. It's so sick." O'Neal went on to tell the magazine that he doesn't think he should have ever been a father, calling Tatum a "bitch" and declaring "I hate him" in reference to his son, Griffin. Griffin told Vanity Fair that O'Neal gave him cocaine when Griffin was 11 years old and insisted he take it. "He was violent all the way through my upbringing," Griffin said. "He was a very abusive, narcissistic psychopath. He gets so mad he can't control anything he's doing."

The "Cash for Clunkers" rebate program helped fuel Ford's sales in July—but the success may be short-lived. The company's sales rose 2.3 percent last month, marking the company's first monthly sales jump in almost two years, Ford announced Monday. After Congress voted to fuel the program with $2 billion more on Friday, all eyes fall on the Senate to determine whether the program will continue. Though "Cash for Clunkers"—which gives consumers up to $4,500 for turning in old vehicles—only started on July 24, Ford says it was already heading for better results.

At least a few public figures try to operate on the straight-and-narrow. The Wall Street Journal reports that Google CEO Eric Schmidt has resigned his position on Apple's board, a position he's held since August 2006. According to a statement put out by Apple CEO Steve Jobs, Google had entered "more of Apple's core businesses, with Android and now Chrome OS," and that as such, Schmidt would "have to recuse himself from even larger portions of our meetings due to potential conflicts of interest." Jobs called Schmidt an "excellent" board member. Schmidt's role wasn't under the radar of suspicions, however. As the Journal reports, back in May, Schmidt decided to stay on Apple's board "despite reports of a federal inquiry into whether board ties between the companies violate antitrust laws."

What’s Russia's advice on how to avoid catching the H1N1 virus? Drink hard liquor, of course. Russian soccer fans trekking to Wales next month for the World Cup qualifier have been instructed to drink copious amounts of Welsh whiskey to keep the virus at bay, Reuters reports. According to Alexander Shprygin, head of the country’s supporter association, this particular booze fights off infection, and drinking “should cure all symptoms of the disease.” The health ministry in Russia has advised against traveling to Wales altogether, but acknowledges that many fans will attend the game regardless. “Health officials say this virus is very dangerous, but being a fan myself I can tell you that for a real fan nothing is more important than the well-being of the team,” Shprygin said.

An earthquake measuring a magnitude of 6.9 on the Richter scale struck the state of Baja California in Mexico today, according to the U.S. Geological Survey, though there have been no reports of damage. The quake was one of a series of four, the strongest of which ocurred 76 miles from Santa Isabel, a town on the peninsula, and was 9.3 miles deep. Authorities are warned to watch out for possible tsunamis and tidal waves.

Apparently, flight attendants aren't joking when they tell you to fasten your seat belt. The Associated Press reports that four people are in serious condition and 22 people with bumps and bruises are in stable condition after intense turbulence rocked a Continental Airlines flight from Rio de Janeiro to Houston. The flight, which had 168 people aboard, safely landed this morning after being diverted to Miami.

Is Omer Bhatti the illegitimate child immortalized in Billie Jean? Video footage obtained by ABC's Good Morning America shows Michael Jackson and his preteen protégé yukking it up on jet skis, a parasail, and even meeting with Nelson Mandela—startling evidence that raises the question of whether Bhatti, now a 25-year-old aspiring rapper, is Jackson's fourth child. Many people close to the King of Pop deny that Bhatti (who is referred to in the footage as "Little Michael") could be related, except for Jackson's father, Joe, who counts Bhatti's dancing skills as proof positive that the pair are flesh and blood. And while Us Weekly reported in 2004 that Jackson and Bhatti's mother, a Norwegian woman named Pia who was the Jackson children's first nanny, once "had a one-night stand," allegations of paternity remain pure speculation. "[Bhatti's] parents worked at Neverland for a while," a former Jackson associate told ABC News. "It wasn't Michael's kid. This elaborate 'Billie Jean' scenario is ridiculous. Don't you think he would turn up in the will?"

Iran's election turmoil has soured Ayatollah Ali Khamenei's relationship with Mahmoud Ahmadinejad slightly. Although Iran's supreme leader formally endorsed Ahmadinejad Monday during a ceremony, the public display of affection between the two was notably muted, the Associated Press reports. During Ahmadinejad's first presidential term four years ago, he kissed Khamenei's hand and cheeks during the endorsement ceremony. This time, Ahmadinejad went for the hand-kiss, but Khamenei stepped back, and after a few words, Ahmadinejad smiled and kissed the Ayatollah's robe on his shoulder. Evidently, the supreme leader is paying attention to public perception. The event cleared the way for Ahmadinejad's inauguration, but underscored Iran's deep political divides, as two former presidents as well as defeated pro-reform candidates Mir Hossein Mousavi and Mahdi Karroubi boycotted the ceremony.

Down with the king of the birthers: Media Matters has released an advertisement calling for CNN’s Lou Dobbs to give the subject of President Obama’s supposedly illegitimate birth certificate a rest. The commercial— set to air on CNN during Dobbs’s program Tuesday night as well as on Fox News and MSNBC—calls the notion that Obama is not a legal U.S.-born citizen “racially charged paranoia” and asks that “'the most trusted name in news' live up to its slogan.” Dobbs called Media Matters "a rabid, left-wing operation."

The world of classical music is atwitter at the discovery of piano compositions written by Mozart at age 8. The Times of London reports that the four-minute concerto and one-minute prelude must have been played by the boy, but notated by his father Leopold. A representative of the International Mozarteum Foundation in Salzburg said, "You break into a sweat if you try to imitate what this boy could play when he was 8 or 9 years old." The pieces were found in a notebook of music that Leopold created for Mozart's five-year-old sister. Researchers realized that the musical structure of the pieces was not in-keeping with Leopold's style, and additional documentation backed up the work as that of Mozart. According to the Mozarteum representative, the concerto is "an important link between the miniature pieces in the Notenbuch and the great forms of Mozartian instrumental works" that occupied the composer from 1763.

It seems Jude Law's last contact with Samantha Burke was when he her got pregnant in February. The New York Daily News reports that all of the arrangements about child support and media coverage have been made by their respective lawyers. According to an unnamed friend of Burke's, Law and the model had a week-long purely sexual fling and then Law stopped returning her calls. Upon discovering she was pregnant, the friend said Burke "decided to keep the baby but never expected Jude to have any part in the child's life. So she had her lawyer contact him in April, where they negotiated a settlement that should keep her pretty comfortable."

What a relief for 11 Indonesian sailors captured by Somali pirates last December aboard the Malaysian tugboat Masindra 7 as it sailed toward Malé, Maldives. On Saturday, the captives were freed evidently after a ransom was paid. It isn't hard for pirates to make a move. There are only a few dozen patrols—including from Russia, China, the U.S., and Malaysia—patrolling about 2 million square miles off the tumultuous Somali coast. According to the BBC, "Many of the piracy attacks end with the payment of ransom."

Congressmen who proclaimed “not in my backyard” during the debate over where to house terror detainees once the Guantánamo facility is shuttered are in for an unpleasant surprise. The Obama administration is “looking at creating a courtroom-within-a-prison complex in the U.S. to house suspected terrorists,” the Associated Press reports. A state prison in Michigan and the 134-year-old military penitentiary in Fort Leavenworth, Kansas are both possible locations for the site, which would hold the 229 suspected terrorists from Guantánamo prison. "The administration is going to face a severe public backlash unless it shelves this plan and goes back to the drawing board," said the spokesman for Rep. John Boehner (R-OH). Congress shot down the White House’s $80 million request to bring detainees home earlier this year, citing safety concerns. Since the courtroom would be inside the prison, the estimated 80 detainees who can be prosecuted would not have to be transported out of the facility for trial. A host of legal questions surrounds the proposal, such as how the courts will select juries and how the White House will get around jurisdiction laws in moving the prisoners.

A great sports rivalry is developing outside of the arena. Shaq recently called out soccer star David Beckham for refusing to participate in his upcoming ABC show Shaq Vs., which will feature Shaq competing against athletes like Michael Phelps, Serena Williams, and Ben Roethlisberger at their own sports. Shaq tweeted: "Official, today is david beckham is scared of shaq day, he should b scared, he can never score a goal on me.” Beckham replied on Sunday night, saying "I don't see him calling Kobe out ... I think Kobe could score against him."

A disturbing reports out of Australia: The Times of London reports that an 11-year-old girl is suing KFC for $8.3 million on the grounds that a contaminated chicken sandwich gave her brain damage and crippled her. At age 7, Monika Sumaan developed salmonella encephalopathy and salmonella septicaemia brain damage, allegedly after consuming a contaminated chicken twister at a Sydney outlet that made her whole family sick. She is currently confined to a wheelchair with spastic quadriplegia. During the same month that Sumaan became sick after allegedly eating the sandwich, 10 others also reported food poisoning after eating at the same restaurant.

Scientists have discovered a new strain of HIV in a Cameroonian woman. Unlike the HIV-1 strain, which infects 33 million people worldwide and originated from a virus in chimpanzees, this strain comes from gorillas. The 62-year-old woman is being treated in France and is the only person known to be infected with the new strain. Lab studies show the virus can replicate in human cells, and since the woman had no contact with gorillas or bush meat, scientists think she caught the virus from someone else. Scientists do not know if the virus will lead to AIDS in the patient, but say because routine tests do not pick up on the new strain, the virus could be spreading “cryptically” throughout the population.

Israeli police are recommending that Foreign Minister Avigdor Lieberman be indicted on charges of "bribery, fraud, money laundering, witness harassment and obstruction of justice," reports Haaretz. The attorney general must approve the charges, which could put away the minister for 31 years. "For 13 years, the police have conducted a campaign of persecution against me," the foreign minister said in a statement denying wrongdoing. "In a country governed by civil laws, a person—even if he is a minister—is innocent until proven guilty." The investigation, which began in 2006, alleges Lieberman set up multiple front businesses through which he laundered millions of shekels. He is also accused of changing the shell companies' names when he suspected police had found out about them.

Though Funny People topped the box office, bringing in $23.4 million over the weekend, the movie is a disappointment for both Judd Apatow and Universal Pictures, who were banking on a blockbuster. The two-and-a-half-hour dramatic comedy, following the life of a dying comedian, cost about $75 million to make, an increase from what Universal spent on Apatow's earlier movies, T he 40-Year-Old-Virgin and Knocked Up, which were both smash hits. Much was riding on the success of Funny People: Films that flopped like Land of the Lost and Drag Me to Hell have cost Universal this summer. But the studio is backing the much-hyped director. “It was a pleasure to be supportive of Judd’s move into a more serious and dramatic kind of film,” said Universal’s president for marketing and distribution. “No regrets.” Apatow signed a three-picture deal with the studio last week.

In a move that may drive a further wedge between the Anglican church and its Episcopalian counterpart in the U.S., two priests in same-gender relationships have been nominated for assistant bishop of Los Angeles. The Associated Press reports that Los Angeles Bishop Jon Bruno was "pleased by the wide diversity" of the field. The nominations come two weeks after the Episcopal General Convention voted to drop a pledge to act with "restraint" when considering gay candidates for bishop. No openly gay bishop has been consecrated since 2003, when V. Gene Robinson became bishop of New Hampshire, as Anglican leaders asked Episcopals for a temporary ban on the practice in order to keep the 77-million strong Anglican Communion together.

Iran is now able to create and detonate a nuclear warhead and is only waiting for its supreme leader, Ali Khamenei, to approve the project, reports The Times of London. Western intelligence sources say the country could produce a bomb within a year, taking six months to enrich the uranium and another six to assemble the warhead. Though U.S. intelligence said they thought Iran ended its nuclear-research program in 2003 because of the American invasion of Iraq, sources say Iran halted the program because they had figured out how to detonate a warhead on a long-range missile. If Tehran doesn’t agree to talks with Washington on nuclear disarmament within the next month, the U.S. plans to build a coalition and enforce tough sanctions on the country.

Anticipating a new memoir is torture for Bush officials. The Washington Post reports that Bush White House officials are feeling anxious about Bush speechwriter Matt Latimer's forthcoming memoir. Among the tidbits reportedly in the book: what senior White House aides said privately about Harriet Miers; Bush confessing that his dog, Barney, was the son he never had; National Security Adviser Stephen Hadley's penchant for eating off a silver platter and how Karl Rove mocked Hadley by serving him off a silver tray himself; and what the Bushies really thought about everyone from Bill Clinton to Obama to Palin.

Someone give them a reality show already: The New York Post reports that black Harvard Professor Henry Louis Gates Jr. and the white cop who arrested him are getting along like Laurel and Hardy. Gates said at the Martha's Vineyard Book Festival that "I should have been funnier in the kitchen of my house on July 16," and joked that he offered to get Crowley's kids into Harvard, "if he doesn't arrest me again." The two men are planning to catch dinner or a Red Sox game together.

Is Wall Street playing the federal government for a fool? “Wall Street banks are reaping outsized profits by trading with the Federal Reserve, raising questions about whether the central bank is driving hard enough bargains in its dealings with private sector counterparties,” according to the Financial Times. In the interests of transparency, the Fed will often announce its intentions to buy particular securities in advance, which allows banks on Wall Street to inflate their prices. “The resulting profits represent a relatively hidden form of support for banks, and Wall Street has geared up to take advantage,” writes the FT. According to a former official at the Treasury and the Fed, “everyone games them. Their transparency hurts them. Everyone picks their pocket.”

Might taxes rise in order to pay for health care? Treasury Secretary Timothy Geithner and National Economic Council Director Larry Summers refused to rule out the possibility on Sunday. "If we want an economy that's going to grow in the future, people have to understand we have to bring those deficits down. And it's going to be difficult, hard for us to do. And the path to that is through health-care reform," Geithner said, adding, "We're not at the point yet where we're going to make a judgment about what it's going to take." Summers, meanwhile, said, "There is a lot that can happen over time … It is never a good idea to absolutely rule things out, no matter what."

Watch out, Lady Liberty. A brand new Ghengis Khan is on the rise in Mongolia--this time in the form of a 131-foot-tall giant on horseback, made of 250 tons of stainless steel. The new statue, located an hour away from the capital of Ulan Bator, is part of a resurgence in national pride for the 13th-century conqueror. Khan's image now beams from energy drinks, vodka bottles, and cigarette packs, according to Monday's New York Times. The airport, university, hotels, and bars bear the leader's name too. Of course, the rise in replicating Khan's name and image have come with a debate within Mongolia's parliament over ownership rights. “He was a cruel man but he led our country to greatness,” a bank teller said. “If you look at Lincoln, Hitler and Julius Caesar, it’s kind of the same thing.”

Maintaining anonymity in today's wired world is quite a tall order. Yet somehow, most readers of The New York Times Dining section probably wouldn't be able to describe the appearance of the paper's most famous restaurant critic, Frank Bruni. Those days have now passed. An interview in Publishers Weekly with Bruni promoting his new book is accompanied by a photo of him. As the food blog world reels, some are saying that the photo confirms that Bruni is done with restaurant criticism. Others say everyone in the New York food scene already knew what Bruni looked like anyway.