A deadly car bomb made from over 250 pounds of explosives killed 91 people, including 60 women and children, in a marketplace in Peshawar, Pakistan on Wednesday, at the same time Hillary Clinton was meeting with officials in Islamabad, a three-hour drive away. Coincidentally, the goal of Clinton’s unannounced visit—her first as secretary of State—was to expand the United States’ “lopsided” relationship with Pakistan beyond “security and the counterterrorism agenda.” Clinton was defiant: “These attacks on innocent people are cowardly; they are not courageous.” Pakistani Foreign Minister Shah Mahmood Qureshi echoed Clinton’s sentiments following the attacks, issuing a pledge to terrorists: "We will not buckle. We will fight you. We will fight you because we want peace and stability in Pakistan." The bombing was the worst of all the militant suicide bombings, assassinations, and attacks that have occurred in Pakistan this year.

Worried about heavy investments in bailed-out corporations, the federal government has outgrown the moniker “big brother”—and is now a helicopter parent. Lawmakers are citing it as their "patriotic duty" (as Montana Rep. Denny Rehberg put it) to butt into business affairs at GM, Chrysler Group LLC, and Bank of America. “The simple fact is, when GM took federal dollars, they lost some of their autonomy,” Rehberg explains. Congressmen have pushed for caps on executive pay, forced out top managers, been vocal critics of business decisions—and, sometimes, promoted local agendas. For instance, both Minnesota Sen. Amy Klobuchar and Arizona Rep. Gabrielle Giffords convinced GM to rescind closure orders for dealerships in their regions, while others push for pet technologies or processes that bolster their districts. Executives complain that the government's heavy-handed involvement is rocking the boat and interfering with business, which is one reason some have rushed to return their money to Washington. GM has received the brunt of this unwanted attention, and the Journal details dozens of D.C.-initiated ideas and business decisions in its report.

Watered down or reasonable? House Speaker Nancy Pelosi finally presents a health-reform bill to the House on Thursday. Rather than a Medicare-like plan, which many liberal Democrats pushed for, in this version doctors will be able to negotiate their rates with the government. Pelosi was unable to stir up the 218 votes necessary for the more aggressive government-sponsored option, which many believe would have been shot down by the Senate. Despite liberal Democrats' hard-line stance on the public option, reality may have forced a compromise after a nearly yearlong battle with Blue Dog Democrats. “They did everything possible,” said New York Representative Jerrold Nadler. “There’s no sense pushing back for something that can’t be done.”

There are currently more than 300,000 troops in Afghanistan—approximately 104,000 international troops, including 68,000 Americans, and 200,000 Afghan forces. Stack that up next to a mere 25,000 Taliban rebels—and discounting that Afghan troops have less training than allied forces—and you get a 12-1 advantage. "In the end this (conflict) cannot be solved by military means alone, and in that sense a precise figure of Taliban fighters is not the point," said a NATO spokesman. October has been the war’s most fatal month so far, and the Obama administration is reportedly close to concluding its assessment of the need for more troops.

After the first swine flu outbreak this spring, the makers of Tamiflu decided to focus on manufacturing the pill form of the drug, which allows the company to produce 25 times as much of the medicine. But for children, and their parents, that decision has been a tough pill to swallow. It has resulted in a shortage of liquid Tamiflu, a syrupy, easy-to-swallow form of the medicine that children can easily ingest. Children are the most vulnerable to the H1N1 virus, and the medicine is most effective when administered within the first 48 hours. Spot shortages are sending panicked parents rushing from one pharmacy to the next. The government, the Food and Drug Administration, and the Centers for Disease Control are suggesting that pharmacies mitigate the shortage by coming up with a homemade concoction: cracking open the tablets themselves and mixing them with a syrup.

Look out Glenn Beck: There's a new crier in politics, and this one's a lefty. Rep. Alan Grayson (D-FL) broke into tears several times on the House floor Wednesday while reading letters from people who say their loved ones died due to their lack of health insurance. The testimonies were from Grayson's Web site namesofthedead.com, which he unveiled on the House floor last week as a way to draw attention to the human cost of inaccessible health care. The Web site’s name also reigniting his first high-profile foray into health reform's limelight, when his accusation that the GOP wants ailing Americans to "die quickly" drew national uproar. After his teary testimony, Grayson said, "For god's sake, I look forward to a time when we have finally done our jobs" securing universal health care in America.

This time it was high winds and shoddy repairs, not an earthquake, that caused California's Bay Bridge to come crashing down Tuesday night—and now authorities say the commuter thoroughfare won’t be back in action until Thursday. A steel crossbeam and two steel tie rods snapped off the eastern span of the bridge to land on the upper deck, shutting down passage between Oakland and San Francisco. The three faulty pieces were installed over Labor Day weekend, when officials discovered a crack in one of the structural beams while performing planned work on the bridge. Commuters who rely on the bridge are now stuck with public transportation or other routes. Some highway arteries experienced 40 percent heavier traffic than usual. Winds in the San Francisco area reached 30 mph Tuesday, causing the rods to swing back and forth. "Basically, it's like taking a paper clip and working it back and forth until it breaks," said a Caltran chief engineer.

Apparently, this really is it. This Is It, the highly publicized Michael Jackson documentary made more than $2.2 million in sales on Tuesday’s opening night, and Wednesday matinees have done even better. Sony thinks the news is “terrific” and called yesterday "an unprecedented number for a Tuesday in October." The new film is playing in 97 countries and the studio expects “great worldwide opening day numbers to report.” Rotten Tomatoes’ aggregated reviews ran the documentary with a smashing 86% in positive reviews from top critics. At the L.A. premiere, director Kenny Ortega called the film, the "last sacred documentation of our leader and our friend,” reports the Associated Press.

Barack Obama likes his date nights with Michelle and doesn’t like when they become a political issue. He teases his wife by calling her “Flotus” (First Lady of the United States). He quotes Michelle in Oval Office meetings. Friends have spied them making out in the White House halls. But things weren’t always so picture perfect, Jodi Kantor reports in this week’s cover story for The New York Times magazine. When Barack first turned to politics, Michelle felt abandoned. “The bumps happen to everybody all the time,” Michelle said. “She was in a lot of ways a single mom,” a friend said of Michelle’s life when Barack first became a state senator, “and that was not her plan.” If their biographies more resemble those of Bill and Hilary Clinton than any other First Couple, their personalities often work in the opposite way. “She is really Bill,” a friend told The Times, “and he is really Hillary.”

Litte Miss Sunshine is going to Broadway: Oscar-nominated child star Abigail Breslin is bringing her talents from the silver screen onto the big stage. The 13-year-old has been cast as Helen Keller in the Broadway revival of William Gibson's "The Miracle Worker," which won the Tony for best play in 1960. Breslin's costar will be another award contender, Tony nominee Alison Pill. Hilary Swank starred in a 2003 version of the play, which was killed before it made its way to Broadway. Breslin's revival debuts March 3.

Speak softly and carry an acrostic? San Francisco assemblyman Tom Ammiano told Governor Arnold Schwarzenegger to "kiss my gay ass" early this month—and now, he says the governator has retaliated with an X-rated message encoded into a personal note. Schwarzenegger's office sent Ammiano a note explaining why the governor was putting the kibosh on a bill to finance the Port of San Francisco, but Ammiano's staff says the peculiarly worded note is meant to be read as an acrostic. The first letter of each line stacks up to read "I FUCK YOU." Schwarzenegger's press secretary calls it a "weird coincidence." For his part, Ammiano seems amused rather than offended by Schwarzenegger's message: "I think it was very creative, and it's time to bury the hatchet." Ammiano made his "gay ass" comment verbally at a Democratic Party function on October 7 where he accused the governor of passing over gay rights and cutting social services.

Hollywood wild child Lindsay Lohan is joining the ranks of celebrities with causes. She's teamed up with the BBC to make a pilgrimage to India next month, where she'll front a documentary about child trafficking. The starlet recently met with billionaire and philanthropist Richard Branson in Dubai. "I like to support charities," Lohan said, adding, "I think it's important to kind of have a voice when you can have one, and make a difference." Lohan is still on probation for a 2007 DUI arrest, and has been reprimanded for missing court-appointed rehabilitation programs.

It sounded like parody, and maybe it was. On Wednesday In Touch reported that Jon Gosselin and octomom Nadya Suleman have agreed to star in a reality show together, where they'd date—but now Us Weekly is reporting that Jon's representative says it's a lie. In Touch reported that Bobby Goldstein, producer of Cheaters, said the pilot will be called Jon – Kate = Jon + Octomom and that the show will follow Jon "as he contemplates what hooking up with Octomom could really be like." When Jon first heard that Suleman had a crush on him, he was reportedly "creeped out," but In Touch's press release says that now "Octomom's brood may start calling him 'Daddy.' If this doesn't make Jon lose it, then Octomom modeling her bikini body for him will." Like the long-rumored Jon Gosselin-Michael Lohan reality show, looks like it may just be a pipe dream.

Diverting attention from his upcoming Playgirl photoshoot, Levi Johnston says he’s hiding some big secrets about former Alaska governor Sarah Palin, the grandmother of his son. "There are some things that I have that are huge—and I haven't said them because I'm not gonna hurt her that way,” Johnston said Wednesday morning in the first portion of a two-part exclusive Early Show interview. Though he wouldn’t answer whether what Palin allegedly did while serving the state of Alaska was illegal or immoral, he went on to say the secrets would get her in trouble, and could hurt her... If I really wanted to hurt her, I could, very easily." But it looks like Palin's already her: Her camp fired back that afternoon, accusing Johnston of "mean-spirited, malicious and untrue attacks." A Palin spokesperson asked the press to "consider the source of the most recent attention-getting lies: those who would sell their body for money." Johnston says he isn't worried about what he assumes is coming for him in Palin's upcoming memoir: "I don’t have anything to hide." As for Playgirl, he says the photos will be done "tastefully… I'm not gonna just go out there and get naked."

Sen. Joe Lieberman (I-CT) is making waves with his opposition to including a public option in health care as his vote in a Republican filibuster could block a bill entirely. But it's only the latest of many examples where Lieberman, who endorsed Republican candidate John McCain's 2008 campaign, has shocked Democrats by turning on his party. The Huffington Post compiled 15 incidents in which the Connecticut senator made liberals' heads explode across the country. Who could forget the time, for example, when he said whether President Obama was a "Marxist" was "good question" for people to ask? Or, reaching way back, when he criticized Democrats' heath care reform efforts in 1993 as "too governmental, too regulatory and too costly?"

Attackers armed with suicide vests and assault rifles killed six U.N. workers at a guest house in Kabul in an early-morning attack on Wednesday. Six others were killed. Only a day earlier, eight U.S. troops and an Afghan civilian died in two roadside bombings, making October the deadliest month of the eight-year war for U.S. forces with at least 53 deaths. The escalating violence comes less than two weeks before Afghanistan's presidential run-off election, and as Gen. Stanley McChrystal is trying to convince President Obama to send a reported 40,000 additional troops to the region. Two months ago, before the initial round of voting in the presidential election, violence also increased; July and August were previously the deadliest months for American forces, with 45 and 51 deaths respectively.

Will Michelle Obama and Dr. Jill Biden dine on peanuts and Cracker Jacks Wednesday night? The first and second ladies are headed to the new Yankee Stadium to catch the first game of the World Series. While Obama isn't expected to root for either team, Biden is apparently a big Phillies fan. Major League Baseball is dedicating the series' first four games to a theme. Game 1 will feature Iraq and Afghanistan veterans, while Games 2 through 4 will promote community service, cancer awareness, and encouraging sports for inner-city children. In keeping with Game 1's theme, Biden and Obama will be headed to a veterans medical facility in the Bronx before the game, and a 20-year-old wounded Marine from the Bronx, a veteran of the Iraq War, will sit with the two women.

President Obama has been reportedly showing gratitude towards the top Democratic fundraisers with VIP access to the White House, classified conferences with top advisers, and exclusive invitations to key speeches and town-hall meetings. During his first nine months in office, those who have pledged $30,400 personally or bundled $300,000 before the 2010 midterm election have been given White House exclusives in return, according to internal Democratic National Committee documents. One generous donor was allegedly given a birthday visit to the Oval Office, while another was able to use the White House bowling alley with his family. Those closest to Obama were reportedly invited to watch a movie in the red-walled theater. Though presidential aides said there has been no organized effort to use the White House to amplify fundraising, they did acknowledge that the DNC has paid for some events at the presidential mansion. “Contributing does not guarantee a ticket to the White House, nor does it prohibit the contributor from visiting,” said Dan Pfeiffer, deputy White House communications director. “This administration has across the board set the toughest ethics standards in history.”

Katie Couric is joining the Jon and Kate Plus 8 media circus—by dressing up as one of the couple's sextuplets for Halloween. Though Couric could easily pull off a Kate costume, she's opted instead to be Aaden, the oldest of the fraternal bunch. "You have to make sure to wear the glasses at the end of your nose," Couric told Extra. Imitation can be a form of flattery, and Couric made sure to mention her costume to Kate Gosselin when they met in person. Of the now divorced mom of eight, Couric said, "she seems very nice."

Madonna is pleading to the public on behalf of the underprivileged children in Malawi and though she’s already adopted two of them—son David and daughter Mercy—into her family, she’s asking for help to save the rest. The queen of the music industry is currently visiting the country with her family to attend the groundbreaking ceremony for her school, Raising Malawi Academy for Girls. She has pledged $100,000 to match the public’s contributions dollar-for-dollar towards Raising Malawi, an organization she co-founded in 2006 to end poverty and hardship the Malawi’s one million orphans have had to endure. “Something about Malawi's children connected with me and their hardships were too much for me to ignore,” she writes on The Huffington Post.

Senior White House adviser Valerie Jarrett told CNN’s Campbell Brown that she considers Fox News “biased” and that the television network does not live up to its “fair and balanced” slogan—but the administration’s complaints aren’t limited to the home of Glenn Beck. “I don’t want to just generalize that all Fox is biased, or that another station is biased. I think what we want to do is look at it on a case by case basis. And when we see a pattern of distortion, we’re going to be honest about that pattern of distortion.” Jarrett didn’t put MSNBC in the same category or name any other names, but said the administration is determined to actively avoid untruths in media coverage: "We're calling everybody out," she said. "This isn't anything that's simply directed at Fox. We want the American people to have a clear understanding. There's so much at stake right now, we really don't have a lot of time for nonsense and distortions."

Up, up and away. NASA’s new Ares 1-X rocket blasted off for the first time Wednesday morning in a $445 million test flight that carried disposable ballast and sensors. The skinny 327-foot rocket, which was designed to replace the shuttle as the next step in returning astronauts to the moon, is the first new rocket to lift off from Kennedy Space Center since 1981. Ares 1 will be ready to carry astronauts to space between 2015-2017, but the rocket’s first strip to the moon would not be until years later.

Chocoholism really is an addiction. New research suggests that junk food may be as addictive as heroin. In research that will soon be published in the U.S., a neuroscientist found that a steady diet of sausages, fries, and cake programs the brain to crave more junk food. Dr. Paul Kenny found that rats on an unlimited junk diet needed increasingly more stimulation to register the same amount of pleasure as rats from the other groups. The research suggests that obesity and drug addition have common roots.

Comfortably ensconced in his ninth decade, the writer Gore Vidal has never been one to keep quiet. On Wednesday, he spoke to The Atlantic about President Obama’s failings and the press coverage of Roman Polanksi, among other topics. His advice to for the president on health care: “Well, if I were he, I would just give up. He should say to the country, ‘The Republicans will not allow these things to come to a vote without a filibuster. We can’t get anything through. So, good luck. Take two aspirin—and you’ll all die of the next epidemic.’”

Looks like the feds are keeping it in the family in Afghanistan: The New York Times reports that Ahmed Wali Karzai, brother of Afghan President Hamid Karzai, has been on the CIA payroll for the past eight years, according to current and former U.S. officials. Ahmed, who some say may have had a hand in the Afghan election fraud, helps recruit for the Kandahar Strike Force, an Afghan paramilitary force that operates under CIA direction. The strike force is said to counter suspected insurgents and terrorists. Officials also say that Ahmed acts as a go-between for the U.S. and the Taliban. Such a dubious relationship undermines America's push to develop a stable and independent central Afghan governing body. Critics also say that America's ties with Ahmed bolster the Taliban's arguments that President Hamid Karzai is simply a puppet of the U.S. government. Ahmed, who is also suspected of playing a major role in the country's opium trade, has denied receiving any such payments from the CIA, and a CIA spokesperson also declined to comment on the story.

Iraq is asking other countries if it can become a nuclear player again nineteen years after American and British war planes blew up Saddam Hussein's last two reactors, The Guardian reported Tuesday. The Iraqi government has approached a French company about rebuilding one reactor while other have contacted the International Atomic Energy Agency about joining the nuclear club again. "We have become more and more conscious of the need for nuclear technology," Iraq's science and technology minister told the British newspaper. Iraq maintains the program would be used for industry and development and not military purposes.

Botmasters—rogue computer programmers who create virtual armies of hacked computers, or "bots," to do their bidding—are a rising international problem, and computer-security analysts have begun to agree on a criminal profile. Tech Radar reports that Cisco and other computing companies find that intelligent, independent upstarts often train themselves: "People with the skills but without the opportunities," as one online security analyst put it. "Many of these online criminals are coming from developing countries. If you know how to code and are living in London—great!" But "if you know how to code and are living in Siberia—not so great." Unlike Web 1.0 hackers, who brought down servers and Web sites "for fun" or to prove a point, the new, globalized generation of hackers are in it for the bottom line. The way to catch them, analysts say, is the same as catching almost any white-collar crook: Follow the money.

Though Tony Blair has not yet announced his candidacy for European Union president, backdoor deals are already being negotiated between the E.U.'s three most powerful countries. Gordon Brown is pushing heavily for Blair's appointment, and officials at 10 Downing Street said that top post choices are being offered to French President Nicolas Sarkozy and German Chancellor Angela Merkel in exchange for their support. Britain's Foreign Secretary David Miliband said that Blair's appointment would "stop the traffic" in Washington and Beijing, while detractors, such as Conservative Party leader David Cameron, are pressing for a more neutral figure to head the E.U. Such backdoor deals, though, could anger smaller E.U. nations, who fear being left out in the cold. "The Conservatives have warned European leaders that they will view it as 'a hostile act' if the former Labour prime minister is handed the job," The Daily Telegraph reports.

Last week executives took a big hit to their wallets when pay czar Kenneth Feinberg announced sharp cuts in compensation for companies that received government bailout money—but populists can cut their celebrations short, because it turns out Feinberg gave them a leg up in one key area: regular salaries. A Wall Street Journal analysis reveals that while total compensation was cut in half, base salaries increased. When banks complained about their lowered salaries, Feinberg boosted them in some cases by hundreds of thousands of dollars. On average, base salaries rose to $437,896 a year, a 14 percent increase from previous years. Feinberg, who was tasked with ensuring that companies didn't experience a brain drain as a result of the cuts, did reject some requests for increases, including one from Bank of America that sought a $950,000 base salary for some employees. In the end, more than half of the employees under Feinberg's purview had their base salaries increased.

Sure, swine flu may be scary, but did you think it could harm the Internet? A government report out this week claims that flu-wary people working from home could overwhelm Internet networks. The Government Accountability Office warns that the federal government may not be prepared for an uptick in telecommuting and children staying at home accessing video files and games. The Department of Homeland Security is responsible for communications networks at times of national emergency. The department does not yet to have a strategy in place.

One of the richest men in China announced last week that he would begin a charitable foundation with a $1.2 billion donation, but the Chinese Communist party reacted with concern. The party newspaper, the People's Daily, suggested that the charity might be used for tax evasion. “Anyone can issue a news statement saying they are going to donate money but whom have they donated to? There is no answer because their donation has not happened yet," a Chinese official said to the Financial Times. The newspaper said that the reaction is indicative of a country that is still coming to grips with those who have been enriched by China's rapidly growing economy.

This Is It may be Michael Jackson’s final performance, but if a vocal set of his fans get their way, it won’t be the final word on his legacy. Culled from 100 hours of rehearsal footage for Jackson's comeback tour, the posthumous movie premiered Tuesday night in 18 cities. But concerned fans took the opportunity to protest what they see as Jackson's exploitation by concert promoter AEG Live. The This Is Not It campaign accuses the company of putting too much pressure on Jackson to perform. The "king of pop" died June 25, just two weeks before his scheduled opening performance. Jackson's siblings were in attendance at the Los Angeles premiere, after which the movie will be released for a limited two-week run in 110 countries. Close friend Elizabeth Taylor, who was granted a special preview of the movie, sent her review out via Twitter: "The single most brilliant piece of filmmaking I have ever seen."

Senate Democrats said Tuesday that they were divided over Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid's decision to include a government-run health insurance plan in the coming health-reform bill. “I don’t know. I don’t know. I don’t know," Sen. Max Baucus, Democrat of Montana, said when asked if he had changed his view of the public plan's chances. "I just really don’t know." Reid would need all 58 Democrats and the two independents who caucus with them to support the bill. Sen. Joe Lieberman, Independent of Connecticut, has already said he'll oppose the bill.

With about half of the $787 billion stimulus deployed and the target Federal interest rate cut to nearly zero, the government has jump-started the economy—but it's unclear how much of the economic gains were driven by short-term stimulus and whether the economy will continue to thrive. As many of the stimulus packages—like the $8,000 housing credit and the plan to buy $300 billion in Treasury bonds—expire, the danger is that the structural changes occurring in the economy are so deep that government policies to support growth will run out before the economy adjusts. In order to remain self-sustaining, the U.S. economy needs to shift from consumption and home building to business investment and exports, but government efforts to prop up the economy are likely to expire before the transition is complete.

A 15-year-old girl was gang-raped, beaten, and robbed by six to ten men ranging in age from 15 to their early 20s on Saturday in Richmond, California after leaving her high school homecoming dance. More appallingly, police say, over the course of two hours, as many as two dozen people witnessed the crime, but didn't interfere. As the girl left the dance to meet her father, who was picking her up, a classmate asked her to join a group drinking in the courtyard. The girl was drunk by the time the assault started. As they raped her, some men laughed and took photos, police said. The girl was found, semiconscious, under a picnic table an hour after the dance ended. So far, three suspects have been arrested in the attacks.

Revenue streams don't stop just because a celebrity's pulse does. Forbes' ninth annual list of the top-earning dead celebrities proves that the comatose have life in them yet. This year, designer Yves Saint Laurent, who earned $350 million this year, topped the list of 13 due in large part to a Christie's auction of furniture, art, and antiques from his estate. Rodgers and Hammerstein landed second with a combined $235 million, as a $200 million acquisition of their catalog, including, including musicals like Oklahoma boosted their music-licensing fees. Although he's only been dead for a couple of months, Michael Jackson came in third, with a $90 million profit. Elvis, the former top earner, and J.R.R. Tolkein rounded out the top five. Next year, the list is likely to change up considerably, given that Saint Laurent and Rodgers and Hammerstein only snagged the top spots due to one-time estate sales, not regular revenue.

Osama bin Laden’s son, Omar, recalls his father as a pious man, devoted husband, math genius, and soccer fan in an excerpt from the book he co-authored with his mother Najwa bin Laden, Growing Up bin Laden: Osama’s Wife and Son Take Us Inside Their Secret World. Omar, the fourth child born to Osama and Najwa (who’s also his first cousin), says his father was a child of divorce, which caused him years pain. “He felt a loss,” Omar reveals. “He keenly felt his lack of status, genuinely suffering from his father’s lack of personal love and care,” an emotion with which Omar says he is familiar, being one of 20 children. He says his parents were very much “satisfied,” recalling times when they “secluded themselves in their bedroom, not to be seen by the family for several days.” Though Omar apologizes for his father’s behavior, he looks fondly upon one memory where Osama, who would beat his sons with a cane, showed him affection.

Apparently the skeletons in a celebrity’s closet can be both endless and timeless. According to the Daily Mail, a soon-to-be-released biography by Andrew Morton claims that reformed wild-child Angelina Jolie slept with her mother’s live-in boyfriend when she was 16. The unauthorized account reports that Jolie’s mother, Marcheline Bertrand (who died in 2007), ended the relationship with her lover after Jolie confessed to the alleged affair, causing a significant rift in their mother-daughter relationship. “AJ is one of the most fascinating women on the planet. Hers has been an extraordinary journey and an extraordinary story. I'm looking forward to telling it,” said Morton of the book, which is published in December.