The U.N. Security Council is apparently a lot warmer to President Obama than the U.S. Congress: The group unanimously adopted a resolution that is a first step toward Obama’s goal of ridding the world of nuclear weapons. Obama, who became the first U.S. president to chair the Security Council on Thursday, says the measure will lead to tighter controls on weapons states and end loopholes exploited by countries like Iran. “The historic resolution we just adopted enshrines our shared commitment to a goal of a world without nuclear weapons,” Obama said. “And it brings Security Council agreement on a broad framework for action to reduce nuclear dangers as we work toward that goal.”

Dry your tears, Michael Dukakis fans: Massachusetts Governor Deval Patrick has appointed Paul Kirk to serve as an interim senator for the seat of Teddy Kennedy. Kirk is a longtime Kennedy friend and former aide—he was chosen as the master of ceremonies at Kennedy’s memorial service before his funeral last month. Kirk, a former DNC chairman, will take the oath of office on Friday and will not seek reelection in January.

Supreme Court Justice Ruth Bader Ginsburg was hospitalized after feeling sick after work Thursday night. Ginsburg, who is 76, fell ill after getting her intravenous treatment for iron deficiency, which is part of her ongoing treatment for pancreatic cancer. The Washington Post reports that Ginsburg felt better after being attended to by a physician for the court, but went to the Washington Hospital Center just to be safe. Ginsburg has kept a busy schedule throughout her cancer battle, and says she has no plans of retiring for years to come.

Could Lockheed Martin, Boeing and Raytheon become casualties of the law of unintended consequences? A House bill meant to de-fund the nonprofit group ACORN in the wake of hidden-camera videos showing the group’s employees chatting criminally with a fake pimp and prostitute might have farther-reaching consequences than intended. Florida Rep. Alan Grayson, a Democrat, says that, yes, ACORN must be held to a high standard, but “there are bigger fish to fry.” The bill in question bans federal contracts with "any organization that has filed a fraudulent form with any federal or state regulatory agency." That, Grayson says, is “like a who's who of government contracting." KBR, for example, installed faulty wiring on military bases that led to a Green Beret’s death, ruled by the Army a “negligent homicide.”

The G-20 will take over the G-8’s role as the “permanent council for international economic cooperation,” the group will announce Friday. The decision, a “reflection of the world economy today and the players that make it up,” was pushed by President Obama after the G-8 Summit in July. The president argued then that it was “wrongheaded” to wrestle with huge global challenges without input from countries like China, India, and the entire Southern Hemisphere. The G-8 will continue to meet on major security and donor issues.

Denver resident Najibullah Zazi, 24, was indicted Thursday on federal terrorism charges. What exactly was he planning? According to the federal indictment, Zazi had been stockpiling chemicals and hair-care products he bought at beauty parlor supply stores in order to build a series of bombs. The chemicals in the products he purchased matched those listed in nine page of handwritten bomb-making instructions that he allegedly received at an al Qaeda trading camp in Pakistan last year.

Gesturing to photocopied Nazi documents from the Holocaust, Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu gave a scathing rebuttal of the anti-Semitic speech Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad delivered to the United Nations on Wednesday night. The documents were minutes of a Nazi meeting where plans were made for the Holocaust. “Are these protocols lies?” Netanyahu asked. “Yesterday the president of Iran stood at this very podium and spewed his anti-Semitic rants. … The question facing the international community is whether it is prepared to confront these forces or just accommodate them.” On Wednesday, Ahmadinejad said, “It is no longer acceptable that a small minority would dominate the politics, economy, and culture of major parts of the world by its complicated networks, and establish a new form of slavery… to attain its racist ambitions.”

Al Gore—former vice president, Oscar-winner, Nobel laureate, and self-proclaimed inventor of the Internet—is jumping into the auto industry. The Wall Street Journal reports that a “tiny” Gore-financed car company specializing in hybrid luxury vehicles just got a $529 million loan from the U.S. government. Produced by a pair of Californian companies, the Karma will be a four-door plug-in electric hybrid featuring a lithium-ion battery slated to achieve 100 MPG fuel efficiency. Its audience, says car designer Henrik Fisker, is people like Gore: wealthy, environmentally enlightened drivers looking to ditch the Mercedes in favor of an environmentally P.C. ride. Naturally, Karma—and its hefty federal loan—already has critics. Citizens Against Government Waste notes, “This is not for average Americans,” a claim Fisker does not deny. The goal, he says, is to imitate the flat-screen television market: Start with something expensive and breathtaking, then work the price down.

Twitter may not yet have generated any revenue, but that doesn’t mean it’s worthless: The online messaging site is nearing a deal to secure as much as $100 million from up to seven investors, according to The Wall Street Journal. The investors are valuing Twitter at about $1 billion; earlier this year, investors valued it at about $255 million. Twitter is expected to have 25 million users by the end of 2009.

“In a curious way, it is a good thing that a little of the gilt has worn off the Obama presidency,” writes Sir Harold Evans in the London Evening Standard. Though he’s endured a brutal summer, “Now there's a more sensible appreciation of the limits of power but it is accompanied by an appreciation that will grow of the quieter advances of his administration" in areas such as the environment and public education. Evans notes that, even now, at his most unpopular, Obama is off to a better start than both Bill Clinton and JFK. (Evans is married to Daily Beast editor in chief Tina Brown.)

A fine film of water coats the particles that make up dirt on the Moon, and though the quantity of water is small, it's generating great excitement. BBC News reports that data from three spacecraft, including India's Chandrayaan probe, have confirmed the presence of water, although it would take a cubic meter of lunar dirt to squeeze out a liter of water. The U.S.' earlier Apollo missions found lunar soil that was "damp" but couldn't rule out the possibility that water got into the samples after they returned to Earth. The quantity of water increases nearer the poles, where the Apollo missions never reached. Scientists suspect that water is created in the soil via a chemical reaction involving solar wind and oxygen atoms already in the soil. Next month, a NASA probe will bomb the moon in order to see if the dust that is kicked up includes water vapor.

Former Federal Reserve Chairman Paul Volcker, who serves as the head of Obama’s Economic Recovery Advisory Board, has said that the administration’s planned overhaul of financial rules preserves the policy of “too big to fail.” By designating some companies as critical to the financial system, Volcker said, the administration was implying those companies “will be sheltered by access to a federal safety net.” Volcker said he supports the bailing out of banks during financial crises, but that nonbank companies like insurance firms and automakers should not be saved with federal money.

Unicycles aren't just for clowns anymore. The Telegraph reports that Honda has unveiled an electric version of the clown-car for the commuters of the future. The sleek, silver figure-eight-shaped U3-X has internal balance control that makes it constantly stand upright, a concept designers borrowed from Asimo, the company's humanoid robot. In order to ride the unicycle, a driver only has to lean slightly in the appropriate direction. The gadget weighs about 20 pounds, stands 25 inches tall, and can attain a maximum speed of 3.7 mph, about the pace of a brisk walk. Target markets for the unicycle, which is still in development, include commuters and the elderly—a major population in Japan, which is the world's most rapidly aging society.

Jude Law is now four times a daddy. On Tuesday night, model and aspiring actress Samantha Burke, 24, gave birth to a 5 lb. 12 oz. girl named Sophia. Two months ago, Law acknowledged that the model, whom he had briefly dated, was in fact pregnant with his child. At that time, his spokesman said that Law "intends to be a fully supportive part of the child's life" despite the fact that he's "no longer in a relationship" with the mother. Law already has three children with ex-wife Sadie Frost, and is stepfather to her eldest son.

At first blush, it seems like the history of Facebook would be more appropriately told via profile feed, but director David Fincher is putting the web legend's start on the silver screen. Variety reports that production on the Aaron Sorkin-scripted drama will begin next month in Boston before moving to Los Angeles. Jesse Eisenberg will play founder Mark Zuckerberg, with Justin Timberlake as Napster co-founder and Facebook founding president Sean Parker, and Andrew Garfield as co-founder Eduardo Saverin—who famously had a falling out with Zuckerberg as the venture took off. The film will focus on the evolution of Facebook, begun in 2004 as a social network on the Harvard campus, and on how overnight fame and wealth affected the trio.

Members of New York Gov. David Paterson's own party apparently threw him under the bus. Politico reports that the White House asked Paterson to step aside in 2010 after members of congress and state legislators warned the administration that Paterson would drag down the 2010 Democratic ticket. The Democrats are particularly vulnerable in New York next year, with appointed Sen. Kirsten Gillibrand up for reelection along with a half-dozen House members with tenuous holds on their seats—including five freshman members. Evidently, concerned parties made their case to Rahm Emanuel in closed-door meetings, worried that the deeply unpopular Paterson would cause election turn-out among Democrats to sharply drop across the state.

Experts warn our world-beating president that he may be facing insurmountable challenges in trying to start negotiations between Israeli and Palestinian leaders this week. There's finger pointing on both sides. Israelis say they can't make progress on Jerusalem or borders until institutions grow stronger within Palestinian society. Meanwhile, Palestinians say talks should begin with issues that Israel had once placed on the table but now have removed, like the question of the return of Palestinian refugees. "If Obama thinks he can finish it fast—it is much more complicated," an Israeli member of parliament said.

Last month, a video of actor couple Eric Dane and Rebecca Gayheart romping nude in a hotel room with beauty queen Kari Ann Peniche appeared on Gawker and Gawker media affiliate Fleshbot—and now, Dane and Gayheart are getting even. TMZ reports that the pair are suing for more than $1 million in damages and demanding that Gawker pull the plug on the sexually explicit tape. Gawker publisher Nick Denton remains blithe as ever, tweeting on Thursday: “To quote the great Marty Singer—Eric Dane’s lawyer—if you don’t want a sexy tape on the internet, don’t make one!”

In a move that will please liberal allies, the Obama administration has decided not to push for new indefinite detention legislation. The move means that the White House will stay within guidelines, established in 2001, to hold terrorism suspects. The announcement has the ACLU applauding. "This is very welcome news and very big news," a leader at the civil liberties organization said.

Besides all the speech making, there was some real business to deal with at the United Nations Wednesday. President Barack Obama managed to get Russia to agree to tougher sanctions against Iran. He also convinced Moscow and Beijing to support a Security Council resolution to curb nuclear weapons. “I told His Excellency Mr. President that we believe we need to help Iran to take a right decision,” Russian President Dmitry Medvedev said. He added that “sanctions rarely lead to productive results, but in some cases, sanctions are inevitable.” White House officials were thrilled. “I couldn’t have said it any better myself,”one Obama senior adviser said.

Sex researchers say that middle schoolers are increasingly coming out to friends or family, according to this week’s New York Times Magazine cover story. And not just in progressive enclaves either: Benoit Denizet-Lewis reported from Tulsa, Oklahoma, where a community of gay tweens has developed. While bullying and worse continues, one professor said the lives of gay middle-schoolers would be “nearly incomprehensible to earlier generations of gay youth.” The result is the first generation of adolescents in a demographic that has often been seen as exclusively adult.

On Wednesday, 300 of the world's richest and most powerful women gathered at Cipriani in New York to throw the spotlight on the world's poorest and most deprived women. According to the New York Post, the likes of Nicole Kidman, Martha Stewart, Tina Brown, Geri Halliwell, Diane von Furstenberg, and Shania Twain turned out at the Important Dinner for Women, which was co-hosted by Wendi Murdoch, Queen Rania of Jordan and Pepsi CEO Indra Nooyi. The Daily Mail reports that Carla Bruni and Michelle Obama missed the event so they could look bored during their husbands' speeches to the U.N. The dinner highlighted the Millennium Development Goal of reducing death from childbirth by 75 percent by 2015, saving 10 million lives. British First Lady Sarah Brown gave the keynote address on maternal mortality, noting, "When a mother survives, a lot survives with her, and when women come together, they are an unstoppable force for change."

In Mackenzie Phillips' new book High on Arrival, she says she had an incestuous affair with her father, Mamas and Papas singer John Phillips. According Michelle Phillips, John's ex-wife and fellow Mamas and Papas singer, that's just not true, The Hollywood Reporter writes. Michelle claims that in 1997, stepdaughter Mackenzie told the entire family that she'd had an affair with John, but called ex-wife Michelle back to say, "You know I'm joking." Michelle went on to excoriate Mackenize, adding, that Mackenzie has experienced "a lot of mental illness," spent 35 years with "a needle stuck up her arm" and was "arrested for heroin and coke just recently." Michelle also said Mackenzie was "jealous of her siblings, who have accomplished a lot and did not become drug addicts."

Can Gordon Brown catch a break? Looking to prove that he's a player on the international stage, the beleaguered British Prime Minister asked President Barack Obama at least five times if the two could have a private meeting this week while U.N. and G-20 gatherings take place. Obama's answer? Nope. Perhaps playing a part in the snub is the White House's displeasure at Brown's handling of the decision to allow the Lockerbie bomber to be released. Downing Street denied any spurning. Brown said, "I do say that the special relationship is strong, it continues to strengthen."

Green living has never been so intimate. The Washington Post reports that, for Americans, one of the most extraneously wasteful consumer products—ultra plush multi-ply toilet paper—is also one of the hardest to give up. While environmentally enlightened Europeans are content to wipe with recycled paper products, Americans find themselves unable to give up the soft caress of freshly harvested virgin paper. Together with facial tissue, toilet paper accounts for 5 percent of America’s forest-products industry—which environmentalists say is too much. “It’s like the Hummer product for the paper industry,” said one scientist. “We don’t need old-growth forests… to wipe our behinds.” Resistant to recycling as Big T.P. may be, some small manufacturers are tiptoeing into the recycled toilet paper niche: “At what price softness?” asked one Marcal executive. “Strength of toilet paper is more important,” anyway.

At least eleven delegations to the United Nations, including France, Canada and the United States, walked out during a speech given by Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad Wednesday night. Although Ahmadinejad said that his country is ready to shake all hands "that are honestly extended to us," he said of Israel, "It is no longer acceptable that a small minority would dominate the politics, economy and culture of major parts of the world by its complicated networks, and establish a new form of slavery… to attain its racist ambitions." A spokesman for the American mission to the UN called the comments "hateful, offensive and anti-Semitic rhetoric." Hot Air responded with exasperation: "Every year this degenerate does his same Jew-baiting shtick... and every year our moronic media lines up to interview him." The media in question are the Washington Post and Newsweek, the latter of which began their new interview of Ahmadinejad by asking why, if he wants to work with the West, he continues to deny the Holocaust.

A U.S. Census field worker was found hanged—with the word "Fed" scrawled across his chest—in a cemetery in Kentucky's Daniel Boone National Forest. The body of Bill Sparkman, 51, a single father who worked for the Census Bureau part time, was found September 12, though the details of his death were not widely reported until Wednesday. The FBI said it is investigating the case, while the Census has suspended door-to-door operations in Kentucky’s rural Clay County while law enforcement figures out whether his death was the result of foul play—and whether his Census work was part of it. The mysterious death comes as a slew of conspiracy theories involving the Census have made their way into the mainstream, including one U.S. congresswoman announcing she would boycott the Census to protect herself from invasive government questions, even though refusing to answer the Census is illegal.

Major news out of Thailand—for the first time ever, an experimental vaccine has cut the risk of contracting HIV by more than 31 percent, a modest benefit, but the first evidence that a preventative vaccine could be possible. The trials, run by the Thailand Ministry of Public Health, involved more than 16,000 volunteers in Thailand and used a two-vaccine combo in a "prime boost" approach, where the first shot primes the immune system to attack HIV and the second shot boosts immune response. The study followed HIV-negative Thai men and women at an average risk for infection over three years. All study participants received condoms, treatment for sexually transmitted diseases, counseling, and free treatment for HIV. Over three years, 51 people of the 8,197 given the vaccine developed HIV, compared with 74 of the 8,198 in the control group. It's unknown whether the vaccine would work against HIV strains in the U.S., Africa, or elsewhere.