Drones may be integral to Vice President Joe Biden's preferred strategy in Pakistan, but they may not be as safe as previously thought. A new report from the New America Foundation estimates that some 31 to 33 percent of all casualties from the CIA's Taliban-targeting drone strikes in Pakistani tribal areas are civilians. The paper, authored by Peter Bergen and Katherine Tiedmann, reports that somewhere between 750 and 1,000 have been killed by the strikes, including between 250 and 320 noncombatants and only 20 "leaders of al Qaeda, the Taliban and allied groups"; those figures were derived by compiling the available data from a variety of news sources, including The New York Times, The Wall Street Journal, the BBC, and major English-language papers in Pakistan. Though the report claims that some 66 to 68 percent of casualties were "militants," Spencer Ackerman, writing at the Washington Independent, points out that defining a "militant" can be difficult: "There's a spectrum here, running from insurgent to civilian effectively held hostage." Meanwhile Jane Mayer, whose report on civilian deaths in Pakistan in the New Yorker dropped today, points out that "the embrace of the Predator program has occurred with remarkably little public discussion."

Will it stay or will it go? Washington Democrats are resuscitating the public option and refashioning it with more flexibility, including allowing states to opt out of the program. Senate Finance Committee Chairman Max Baucus—the moderate Blue Dog Dem whose public-option reticence has repeatedly driven health-care reform to a grinding halt—confirms that “the issue is alive, and we're looking at it." Three weeks ago, the Senate Finance Committee rejected two versions of the public option in favor of nonprofit cooperatives. Since then, the Congressional Budget Office has expressed doubt about the cooperatives' ability to "establish a significant market presence," and private insurers’ demands began to irk some. The Washington Post breaks down the shift in public support for a government-run health-care plan, citing that 57 percent of Americans now favor a public option, while 40 percent oppose it. That's an increase in support from August, when a bare majority supported the plan.

Nuclear talks between Russia, France, the U.S., and Iran have hit a snag. A state-owned Iranian TV channel reported that Iran wants to import enriched uranium for its research reactor in Tehran. In principle, Iran had agreed to send its low-enriched uranium to Russia and France, which would treat the fuel, turn it into rods, and send it back to Iran. Under that deal, Iran would get the fuel it needs and evade new sanctions while the West would get a guarantee that Iran's as not being diverted into nuclear bombs. If the TV report is true, Iran's desire to buy highly-enriched uranium from the US, France, or Russia could scuttle the West's hopes of a new dialogue. A meeting hosted by the International Atomic Energy Agency in Vienna on Monday will test the diplomatic process under way.

Was there an MIT-educated mole in the Department of Defense? Stewart David Nozette, a DoD scientist from Chevy Chase, Maryland, was arrested Monday on charges of transmitting classified information to an undercover FBI agent posing as an Israeli intelligence officer. Prosecutors say that, after meeting with the undercover agent, Nozette agreed to provide information and access to U.S. security information in exchange for cash payments “under ten thousand” to avoid tax issues. Nozette’s position as a government scientist granted him top-security clearance to atomic and nuclear-related material. When agents requested confidential information from Nozette about U.S. satellites and defense strategy, they say he delivered top-secret, classified papers. Since 1989, Nozette has worked in varying capacities for the Energy Department, NASA, and the National Space Council, among other government science agencies.

Apple's numbers are in, and industry analysts are abuzz with the untouchable company's higher-than-expected profits. The Cupertino, California-based firm surged ahead of other technology heavyweights, such as Google, posting a 47 percent increase in profits. The numbers are mostly owing to sales of iPhones and Macintosh computers, which rose 7 and 17 percent, respectively. In the past, Apple has had a hard time keeping up with demand for these products. The company's overall profit hit a record $1.67 billion, which caused its share price to jump 6 percent in after-hours trading. Just in time for the holiday season, Apple is also expected to announce updates to its product line in the upcoming weeks.

In the same weekend that his movie Where the Wild Things Are banked more than $30 million at the box office, director Spike Jonze had another, unintended, release: an 11-minute short film he collaborated on with Kanye West. Shot over two days in L.A. back in January, the film was supposed to debut on iTunes last month and mysteriously found its way to West’s Web site on Sunday evening before it was pulled down, with the rapper noting: “Sorry I had to take it down :(” Titled We Were Once a Fairy Tale, the mysterious video shows a highly inebriated West stumbling around a nightclub, hitting on girls and vomiting in a bathroom, where he proceeds to stab himself and pull a Wild Things-esque creature out of his stomach. West metaphorically slaughtering his ego? In lieu of West’s interrupting of the cherubic Taylor Swift at the Video Music Awards this fall, the film could serve as an effective PR stunt.

The former Miss California USA is back in the headlines, this time for the unusual demand of repayment for her breast augmentation. The production company that runs the pageant is requesting $5,200, the amount fronted to the erstwhile beauty queen for her surgical enhancement. The action is a cross complaint to Prejean's own lawsuit, which accuses the company of religious discrimination, defamation, and public disclosure of private facts. Those private facts refer to her not-so-secret breast augmentation, which became public fodder after her anti-gay-marriage Q&A session with celebrity blogger and pageant judge Perez Hilton. That debacle eventually led to Prejean's dethroning.

Though Monday night’s game didn't start out well for the Angels, with the Yankees hammering out three home runs in the first half of Monday night's game, the underdogs from Los Angeles finally pulled out a win in Game 3 of the American League Championship Series. The Yankees started out strong, leading 3-0, but the Angels managed to hold them off after the fourth inning. The final score was 5-4, with all of the Yankees' four hits racked up from home runs. The game total of six home runs tied a previous American League Championship Series record. After two straight wins by the Yankees, the Angels renewed hope at the bottom of the 11th inning when Jeff Mathis hit a walk-off double off the Yankees' Alfredo Aceves. "These type of series, they change in a heartbeat," said Angels manager Mike Scioscia.

Democratic Representative Jared Polis of Colorado isn't the youngest member of Congress (that title goes to Illinois' Aaron Schock), but he's breaking barriers as the first openly gay freshman congressman in the House. Polis and his partner of more than six years, Marlon Reis, have been figuring out how to navigate the conservative waters of Washington, "a place steeped in traditions, some fine, others deplorable," Reis writes. In a co-authored piece for CNN.com, Polis opens with a lighthearted tribute to one of his childhood heroes, Jackie Robinson. While Polis insists that the "gender of my spouse has little to do with the overall experience of the congressional life," Reis seems to have a different take. Though he's been bestowed a "Congressional Spouse" pin, which he wears proudly on his lapel, Reis doesn't miss the sideways glances and occasional snubs on the Hill. Once, when Reis lost his "spouse" ID, Congress issued him one with the very ambiguous status of "designee." Luckily, his original ID was recovered, and Reis promises that with his, and his partner's, position in Congress, such slights will slowly be quelled. "Each time we encounter injustice is an opportunity to be uncompromising, to prove a point, to not back down, but to pave the way."

In what appears to be a replay of last year, The New York Times will again be cutting 100 newsroom positions by the end of the year. Executive Editor Bill Keller broke the news to staff today. The paper is offering voluntary buyouts to all staff effective Thursday. If they don't reach critical mass, management will be forced to resort to layoffs. "I hope that won't happen, but it might," Keller wrote. Budget cuts are also imminent for the editorial, op-ed, and business staff. The paper was already surviving on slimmed-down production costs, and staff had been dealt a mandatory 5 percent pay cut earlier in the year. Today's blow, Keller admits, has come sooner than expected. Despite the cuts, The New York Times will still remain the largest newsroom in the country. But who knows how much of the storm its journalists can weather. "Like you," Keller wrote, "I yearn for the day when we can do our jobs without looking over our shoulders for economic thunderstorms."

It's a match made in reality-television heaven—or hell. Octomom Nadya Suleman thinks Jon Gosselin is hot. Walking to her car after a shopping trip to J.C. Penney, the tabloid-bait mother of 14 caught up with a reporter from Radar, who asked for her thoughts on Jon and Kate's divorce. "They're divorced?" Suleman squealed. "I might kind of have a crush on Jon Gosselin—is that his name?—I think he's hot." Later she added, "He looks cute in purple, too." Suleman said she thinks the media should stop exploiting the Gosselins, adding that Kate is "strong." But is love in the cards for Jon and Nadya? Unlikely: "Choosing to be celibate, to be single, is subjective. My reality," Suleman said.

After eight weeks of investigating the country's presidential election results, a five-member audit committee submitted its report Monday, and a Western official said it seemed to indicate that President Hamid Karzai had won roughly 48 percent of the vote. If that number is indeed correct, a runoff between Karzai and his main opponent, Abdullah Abdullah, is mandated by the country's constitution to take place within two weeks. However, some are worried that Karzai, whose representatives have criticized the audit committee's work, will reject the findings. Still, one Western official said Karzai seemed to accept the committee's findings: "Enough is enough," the official said, adding that "in the last 72 hours, I think even Karzai got the message."

Those relieved by the announcement this morning that the U.S. Chamber of Commerce has reversed its opposition to global warming should hold the celebrations: It turns out that the press conference announcing the Chamber’s reversal was a hoax, staged by a group called the Yes Men and the Avaaz Action Factory. "The U.S. Chamber of Commerce is a parody of itself in running circles around its own position on climate," said Avaaz organizer David Sievers. "So Yes Men took the opportunity to parody them." The Washington Post, New York Times, and Reuters all originally reported on the press conference as though it were real. At one point, a spokesman from the actual Chamber showed up and yelled, “This is fraudulent!”

Perhaps Mitch McConnell’s been watching Mad Men? “When you don’t have any power, delay,” a character intoned a few weeks back, and that seems to be the GOP’s new strategy on health care. According to Roll Call, the GOP has acknowledged that it cannot block a health-care bill outright and instead is implementing “a comprehensive political strategy to delay, define, and derail.” They’re hoping to define the plan as “a combination of Medicare cuts, tax increases, higher insurance premiums, and rising costs overall.” The piece notes that the GOP no longer expects to pick off moderate Democratic votes, even on measures like the public option.

Here's a tip for anyone who wants to perpetrate a hoax involving silver balloons: don't email your friends about it. Investigators want to interview Robert Thomas, a Denver man who is an associate of Richard Heene, father of the now-infamous balloon boy. In a story he sold to Gawker, Thomas claimed that he exchanged emails with Heene about a proposed reality series—and a stunt to promote it—in which Heene would play a mad scientist carrying out various experiments. According to the show proposal posted on Gawker, "This will be the most significant UFO-related news event to take place since the Roswell Crash of 1947." Larimer County Sheriff Jim Alderden, who is seeking felony charges against Richard Heene and his wife, also said that a media outlet that blurs "the line between entertainment and news" agreed to pay Heene regarding the balloon incident.

Malaysian conservatives are not crazy in love with Beyonce. The singer has postponed her October 25 performance in Kuala Lumpur after the Pan-Malaysian Islamic Party, Malaysia's largest opposition group, called for the show to be canceled because it would promote "Western sexy performances." It's not the first time she's had trouble in Malaysia. In 2007, Beyonce canceled a concert following protest threats by the opposition Islamic party. Instead, she performed in largely Muslim, but less stringent Indonesia. Malaysia has laws governing the behavior of performers. The government requires that female artists cover themselves from shoulders to knees and swath their cleavage completely.

President Obama announced Monday that his administration will shift policies on Sudan, moving from isolation to engagement. While the government will renew tough sanctions against the regime of Omar al Bashir, Obama said that "If the government of Sudan acts to improve the situation on the ground and to advance peace, there will be incentives; if it does not, then there will be increased pressure imposed by the United States and the international community.” He is hoping to end both the genocide in Darfur and to repair relations between the country’s Muslim north and its Christian and animus south, the latter of which will hold a referendum on secession in 2011. On Monday, peacekeepers in Darfur reported an unusual increase in activities by the Sudanese government and Darfurian rebels.

When Daily Beast contributor Lizzie Stark learned from her oncologist that she possessed a genetic mutation called the "BRCA1 gene," which considerably increases her risk of ovarian and breast cancer, she was forced to make a decision many women would find impossible. Stark shared her story on TodayShow.com, writing about her experience from the moment she found out to her ultimate decision to undergo a double mastectomy. "It took a few tablespoons of blood, a six-week wait to determine the results, and only an instant to change my world," she writes. With a limited number of options following what she calls the "cruel joke" of the BRCA test—including menopause-inducing chemoprevention, frequent medical surveillance, and a double mastectomy—Stark weighs her desire to nurse her future children and her happiness with her body against her fear of developing cancer, eventually deciding on the surgery that would "spare [her] future children the pain of a hospitalized and sick mother." She writes, "unlike my mother or my grandmother, I will be removing my breasts on my own schedule."

Even astronomers find the solar system surprising. Astronomers in Chile have found 32 new “exoplanets” beyond our own solar system. Some of the newly discovered planets have masses 10 times the size of Jupiter. “This is really important because it means that low-mass planets are everywhere,” said one expert. The new planets bring the total number of known exoplanets to more than 400. The astronomers who found this recent group expect to find a similar collection within six months; the ideal result would be to discover a rocky exoplanet with temperatures that could sustain liquid water.

Does your business need a former vice-presidential candidate? You’re in luck. Sarah Palin has posted her resume to LinkedIn, the professional social-networking site, and she’s interested in “job inquiries.” Her credentials include “Governor, State of Alaska” from December 2006 to June 2009, and “Vice Presidential Candidate” from “2008-2008.” For her education, Sarah Palin only lists the University of Idaho, though she attended four other universities before earning her degree.

It looks like the Chamber of Commerce is joining Fox News on the White House’s black list. The Obama administration and the congressional Democrats are seeking to marginalize the nation's largest business lobby by going around it and dealing directly with the CEOs of major corporations. Since June, Politico notes, senior White House officials have met directly with the CEOs of more than 55 companies, including Pfizer, Eastman Kodak, and IBM. “We prefer the approach — particularly in this climate — where the actual people who are on the front lines, running businesses, trying to create jobs, come and advise us on policy,” senior White House adviser Valerie Jarrett. The Chamber of Commerce—which recently lost members like Apple and Nike due to its opposition to climate-change action—claims that the White House is trying to divide the business community so it can push its agenda.

Expect to hear about this on Glenn Beck: President Obama made a surprise visit to an elementary school in Silver Spring, Maryland on Monday. According to a school spokeswoman, the visit lasted 30 to 45 minutes, and Obama dropped by during lunch because he “really just wanted to interact with students.” Obama chose Viers Mill Elementary School because it became the first Montgomery County school with a large number of low-income students to become a National Blue Ribbon School for closing the achievement gap between white and minority students.

Cancer patients should soon feel freer to toke up to ease their pain. The Justice Department is about to issue a new policy on medical marijuana emphasizing to prosecutors that it is a waste of resources to arrest people who use or sell medical marijuana, but who are in strict compliance with state law. Medical marijuana is legal in 14 states. The forthcoming memo represents a change in policy from the Bush administration, which said it would enforce federal anti-pot laws regardless of state rules. Not all pot-dealers or pot-users are equal, though. The memo urges prosecutors to tackle marijuana cases involving violence, illegal guns, selling pot to children, money laundering, or other crimes.

Was a high-profile hedge-fund arrest over the weekend just the first domino to fall? Bloomberg reports that the Feds are preparing to file charges against “a wider array of insider-trading networks”—some of which are connected to the hedge-fund manager Raj Rajaratnam, who was arrested on Friday in the biggest insider-trading case in decades. The crackdown is based on at least two years of investigation, and targets hedge-fund managers, lawyers, and other Wall Street figures. It relies on wiretaps and an SEC data-mining program that pinpoints similar well-timed investments—signs that the Feds are targeting insider traders with more aggressive tactics. Rajaratnam, the founder of the Galleon Group, stands accused of reaping $18 million based on tips from a hedge fund, a credit-rating firm, and employees at companies like Intel and IBM.

Don’t be fooled, Paul Krugman warns in latest column: Despite the large profits reported by banks like J.P. Morgan and Goldman Sachs last week, the banks are not OK. Citigroup and Bank of America both reported losses again and “while the wheeler-dealer side of the financial industry, a k a trading operations, is highly profitable again, the part of banking that really matters—lending, which fuels investment and job creation—is not.” The administration, for its part, has begun to take a harder line against the banks. “Administration officials are furious at the way the financial industry, just months after receiving a gigantic taxpayer bailout, is lobbying fiercely against serious reform,” Krugman writes.

Is Pakistan going to war? The series of attacks from the Tehrik-i-Taliban and other jidahi groups in Pakistan the last two weeks are capable of inciting civil war, says the Financial Times. The jidahi offensive, which has blatantly targeted the U.N. and Pakistan’s police and army, comes directly in the wake of the assassination of Pakistan Taliban leader Baitullah Mehsud, and overlaps with the army’s attacks in South Waziristan (a response to the Taliban’s attack on army headquarters in Rawalpindi 10 days ago). The targeting of the pluralist Punjab, the army’s alliance with jihadi groups, and the decline of mainstream Islamist parties in political polls have all contributed to a fertile breeding ground for war.

As Afghanistan awaits a recount of the disputed Aug. 20 elections and President Hamid Karzai takes a hard line on the possibility of a runoff, the White House has signaled it will hold off on its decision to send more troops to the area. The president's chief of staff, Rahm Emanuel, cited his concern for a secure Afghanistan administration to support the increase in troops, and suggested that a preemptive surge in troops would be "irresponsible" and "reckless." His words echoed Senator John Kerry's advice in his recent spot on Face the Nation. Karzai won a majority vote in an August election that was marred by fraud. The White House is reportedly unsupportive of Karzai, whose government and family have been accused of corruption. If the recount shows that Karzai received less than 50 percent of the vote, it will trigger a runoff, though Karzai's camp has already suggested that it won't accept one.

Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad has accused Pakistani agents of being involved in a suicide attack that targeted a group of elite Revolutionary Guards in southeast Iran Sunday that killed at least 35 people. A Pakistani spokesman condemned the attack, which is thought to be the work of the Sunni resistance group Jundullah. He refuted the claim that Jundullah's leader is in Pakistan. "We were informed that some security agents in Pakistan are co-operating with the main elements of this terrorist incident," Ahmadinejad said to the state’s semi-official Fars news agency. He demanded the criminals from Pakistan, and said Pakistan must apprehend those who planned the attack and shouldn’t allow terrorists to use its land. Earlier, an Iranian official blamed "U.S. action" for contributing to the attack. Jundallah says it's fighting against the political oppression of Iran's Sunni minority. Five Revolutionary Guards were killed by the bomb, and the group has vowed revenge.

A preliminary probe into two explosions in southern Lebanon seemed to indicate that Israel had planted spy gear in Lebanese territory, a violation of a cease-fire agreement between the two countries. The explosions, according to the UNIFIL peacekeeping force, were caused by the detonation of two Israeli underground sensor devices, apparently planted during the 2006 war with Hezbollah. Though UNIFIL is still investigating the reason behind the detonation, a Lebanese official said they were activated remotely from Israel after being discovered by Lebanese security forces. Israel didn’t comment specifically on the Lebanese accusations, but an Israeli military statement claimed that the explosions proved a Hezbollah presence in southern Lebanon. Israel also came under fire from UNIFIL for sending drones over the blast area while the peacekeeping force and the Lebanese army were investigating on-site.

Baja California is bracing itself for what is shaping up to be the strongest eastern North Pacific storm to hit in a decade. Hurricane Rick, a Category 5 hurricane, is making its way over parts of Mexico, threatening to veer into resorts on the Baja California Peninsula by midweek, though forecasters say it could weaken to a Category 2 before hitting land. On Sunday, winds were clocked at 160 miles per hour, a slight drop from its peak of 180 miles per hour. As of late Sunday, the eye of the storm hovered about 450 miles south of resort town Cabo San Lucas. Local authorities have planned to open storm shelters in anticipation of evacuations. Forecasters say the storm will first touch land in Cabo, disrupting a fishing tournament schedule for the area. "Rick is probably going to go into the record books as one of the most rapidly intensifying hurricanes," a meteorologist said.

Who's the real bully in the war of words between the White House and Fox News? In a public battle playing out over political talk shows on Sunday, both are pointing fingers at the other. White House Communications Director Anita Dunn recently dismissed the network, saying that it is "like a wing of the Republican Party," and Obama eschewed Fox News Sunday when he appeared on five other morning news shows last month. The White House seems to have grown particularly sensitive to Fox after its recent coverage of health-care demonstrations, Van Jones, and ACORN. Fox executives penned a public letter that stated the White House was getting sidetracked from the country's real issues since members of the administration are "declar[ing] war" on the network. Fox News regular Karl Rove said it was "undignified" of the president to get involved in criticizing the network. On Sunday, Rahm Emanuel and David Axelrod reiterated that the administration doesn’t really view Fox News as a news organization. Though Fox had earlier accused the White House of freezing them out, David Axelrod said on ABC's This Week that administration officials are open to appearing on the network in the future.

Falcon Heene may not have even made it out of his attic, but one young’un set off on a real adventure this week: Jessica Watson, a 16-year-old Australian, began her attempt at solo circumnavigation on Sunday when she left Sydney in her yacht. She plans on spending the next eight months at sea sailing some 28,000 miles around the world on her 10-meter boat, hoping to become the youngest person to circumnavigate the globe alone. Her departure was not without controversy, however: the government in her home state of Queensland, as well as some of Australia’s most experienced sailors, have urged her not to try. Watson’s attempt comes just a few months after 13-year-old Laura Dekker of Holland was ordered into state care to scuttle her own plans to break the record; the current record-holder is 17-year-old Mike Perham, who completed his circumnavigation in August.

It's proof that the King didn't wear a toupee...at least in 1958. Some lucky fan went home from Sunday's Elvis auction at Hindman Auctioneers in Chicago with a clump of his hair, believed to be trimmed from Presley's head when he joined the army in 1958. The hair went for $15,000, plus $3,300 in auction house fees, but the big-ticket item was a shirt he once owned that went for $52,000. Photos from Elvis and Priscilla's wedding reception, Christmas cards he sent, and records were also up for sale along with Elvis dolls and Pez dispensers. The cache of items belonged to Gary Pepper, a friend of Elvis' who ran a fan club and died in 1980.

Artistic vision doesn't come cheap. Director James Cameron has presided over the first film to cost $100 million, Terminator 2, the first film to cost over $200 million, Titanic, and now, Avatar, a $230 million sci-fi adventure that's taken four years to produce. According to a profile in The New Yorker, Cameron himself developed the camera system used to shoot this film, which is due out December 18th and will be "the first big-budget action blockbuster in 3-D." “All directors have a God complex,” Dana Goodyear writes. “Cameron takes his unusually seriously. For Avatar, he worked with a linguist to develop the Na’vi language, inspired by fragments of Maori he picked up in New Zealand years ago…He hired a team of artists to execute his ideas, but reserved one creature for himself: the thanator, a six-legged black pantherlike beast, twenty-four feet long, covered in plate scales, with a reptilian double set of jaws and a threat display resembling that of a fan lizard.” The profile paints Cameron as a perfectionist who will do anything to realize his vision. As actor Bill Paxton put it, "The words 'No' and 'That's impossible' and phrases like 'That can't be done'— that's the stuff that gives him an erection."

Rudy Giuliani waxed nostalgic at an event for New York City Mayor Michael Bloomberg on Sunday. “I worried daily [in his last days in office] that the city might be turned back to the way it was before 1993—and you know exactly what I'm talking about," Giuliani told a group of Orthodox Jews in Brooklyn. “This community remembers the fears, the worries and the crimes—and the great fear of going out at night and walking the streets." Critics accused Giuliani of hinting to the audience that they should fear electing a black mayor in Bloomberg’s opponent, Bill Thompson. “Giuliani’s comments verge on race-baiting,” said City Councilman Bill de Blasio. “Bloomberg should disavow those comments and show that he doesn’t buy into that kind of rhetoric.”