The 2012 Republican candidates for president joined together to attack Herman Cain’s so-called 9-9-9 plan, which he has claimed will solve the country’s financial woes. “It’s a catchy phrase, in fact I thought it was the price of pizza,” said Jon Huntsman. Cain, the former CEO of Godfather’s Pizza, has created a proposal that will have a 9 percent flat income tax, a 9 percent corporate tax, and a 9 percent national sales tax—and he says he will “throw out the current tax code.” Michele Bachmann also ripped into Cain’s plan, saying that “you turn the 9-9-9 plan upside down, and the devil’s in the details”—possibly calling it out as the 6-6-6 plan. Rick Perry and Rick Santorum also took issue with the plan, but Cain continued to defend it and even used it in his question to Mitt Romney.

If U.S. officials are correct in their allegation that a covert Iranian government unit was behind the plot to kill the Saudi ambassador to the U.S., it could signal the spread of Iran’s secret spy activities. Iran’s ties to planned terrorist attacks have dropped off since a Western crackdown in the 1990s, and security officials said the thwarted plot was the first in the U.S. tied to the Quds Force, a secretive unit of Iran’s Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps. U.S. officials said the Quds Force and IRGC have historically been close to Hizbullah, and a secret unit of Quds known as Department 9000 has also been active in Iraq. FBI Director Robert Mueller and Attorney General Eric Holder said Tuesday the two Iranian men had been “directed” by at least parts of the Iranian government.

It was not Blame Canada at Tuesday night’s GOP presidential candidate debate, instead it was Blame Washington. Whether it was President Obama, the Federal Reserve, Dodds-Frank or just the president’s health-care initiative, all the candidates formed a consensus that too much government is at fault for the country’s debate. Michele Bachmann kicked off the anti-regulation crew by attacking the Dodds-Frank Act, claiming that government regulation caused the economic meltdown. “I think if you look at the problem with the economic meltdown, you can trace it right back to the federal government,” Bachmann said. All of the candidates said they would repeal most government regulations if they came to power, saying that too much regulation had killed jobs. The candidates all criticized the Federal Reserve and Fed Chairman Ben Bernanke, with Ron Paul specifically calling out the Fed.

A deal to free Israeli soldier Gilad Shalit has been reached. A tweet from the office of Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu says, "We have concluded ardeous negotiations with #Hamas to release #Gilad #Shalit. He will be coming home in the next few days." The deal was reached with Hamas, the militant group that captured Shalit in 2006. His release won't come cheap: Hamas has confirmed that it would free Shalit in exchange for 1,027 Palestinian prisoners. The first 450 prisoners will be released within the week, with the rest freed two months later.

Residents of Topeka, Kan., were shocked on Tuesday night to learn that a local law banning domestic violence had been repealed by a vote of 7 to 3 in the City Council. District Attorney Chad Taylor said he was forced to focus on felonies rather than misdemeanors because of state budget cuts. Taylor will still have to prosecute domestic violence misdemeanors because they remain a crime under state law, but many are concerned he will find a way out of prosecuting the cases. Eighteen people have been arrested and subsequently released on domestic-violence charges since September, sparking outrage among advocates for victims.

Opium poppy cultivation increased for the second year in a row in 2011, despite the hundreds of millions of dollars spent by Afghan and Western officials to rid the country of what was once its biggest cash crop. The United Nations drug-control agency said that insecurity and rising worldwide opium prices were the driving factors behind Afghanistan’s 7 percent increase in the amount of poppy cultivation—and there was even increase in areas once declared poppy-free. The poppy-cultivation expansion was throughout Afghanistan, even as government eradication efforts rose 65 percent over the past year. In one bright spot, Afghan counternarcotics officials said they reduced poppy cultivation in Helmand province, once the center of Afghanistan’s poppy fields.

President Obama's $447 billion jobs package failed to pass the Senate Tuesday as Democrats were unable to gather enough votes to overcome the Republican filibuster even before the roll call ended. The House also stood little chance of passing the House as well. Critics say raising taxes on millionaires, which the plan proposes, is a bad idea in a rough economy. Obama acknowledged Tuesday that the White House may need to "break up" the bill and send through the items individually. The Senate could vote on individual elements of the bill as soon as next week.

Watch out for Wendi Deng. The Occupy Wall Street protesters moved their demonstrations north Tuesday, kicking off their “millionaire’s march" by hitting the home of News Corp. CEO Rupert Murdoch. Hundreds of protesters met at noon Tuesday at Fifth Avenue and 59th Street, swarming Murdoch’s home first and then marching to the residences of JP Morgan Chase CEO Jamie Dimon, businessman and Republican backer David Koch, Emigrant Savings Bank CEO Howard Milstein and finally hedge-fund manager John Paulson’s building. Protesters waved signs saying “Tax the Millionaires,” but the demonstration remained largely peaceful—the march was monitored by police, none of the protesters actually tried to enter any of the residences, and there were no arrests. New York City Mayor Michael Bloomberg slammed the protesters Tuesday, saying he didn’t “appreciate the bashing of all hard-working people who live and work here and pay the taxes that support our city.”

Just as the Anthony Weiner scandal was quieting down, one of the former congressman’s “sextees” has written a tell-all account of their exchanges. The Daily Mail is publishing exclusive excerpts from Traci Nobles’s I Freinded You [sic], which quotes many of the messages Weiner exchanged over a nine-month period with the 35-year-old former cheerleading coach. In several salacious texts, Weiner reportedly complained of his in-laws’ “backwards thinking,” saying his wife’s parents never fully accepted him because of his Jewish background. “They just believe I should be Muslim or convert … it makes for a lot of uncomfortable meetings,” he wrote.

An Austin Powers actor who is already serving a life prison sentence for torture is being accused of killing his cellmate, prison officials said Tuesday. Prison officials have named Joseph Son, who played Random Task in Austin Powers: International Man of Mystery, as a suspect, but charges will not be filed until the investigation is complete. Son’s 50-year-old cellmate, who had been serving a two-year sentence for failing to register as a sex offender, was found dead Monday afternoon at the Wasco State Prison-Reception Center in California. Son was convicted on Sept. 16 of felony torture in connection to the 1990 Christmas Eve rape of a woman walking her dog. In that case, physical evidence had been gathered but the case went cold for years, until Son was convicted in 2008 of felony vandalism and a DNA sample collected matched those from the 1990 crime scene.

All eyes on Slovakia. The only country yet to approve the European bailout just voted no, but the rescue package is expected to pass in a later vote. The plan failed to pass because a junior party in the ruling coalition abstained, but Slovakia’s main opposition party has said it may support the deal once the current coalition falls. All of the 16 other euro-zone members have already approved the plan.

At the Bloomberg/Washington Post debate Tuesday night, the Republican candidates for president opened things up by blaming the federal government for the financial meltdown the ongoing financial problems. The debate started on a more serious note than other ones, with each candidate being introduced simply by name and without any fanfare and the questions on the economy started immediately. The candidates lay blame with too much government regulation—specifically calling out Sen. Chris Dodd and Rep. Barney Frank for pushing through the 2010 bill designed to increase Wall Street regulation. “It was the federal government that pushed these rules,” said Michele Bachmann, and she was met with agreement by the government bills are killing the business community and thus causing the financial collapse. Mitt Romney stopped short of denouncing all bailouts, but claimed he was "not interested" in any bailouts if he is elected. Newly-energized Herman Cain continued to tout his 9-9-9 economic plan.

A photograph of Michael Jackson’s naked, dead body has been released following its use as evidence in the current manslaughter trial against Jackson’s doctor Conrad Murray. A Los Angeles medical examiner’s official referred to the image during his testimony to the jury today. The image depicts a gaunt, seemingly bruised Jackson at the time of his autopsy.

Critics may have been disappointed with the iPhone 4S, but it is already the bestselling iPhone of all time: Apple processed more than 1 million orders for it in the first 24 hours that it was on sale. That surpasses the 600,000 orders for the iPhone 4 in its first 24 hours on sale in 2010. Critics initially reacted negatively to the new smartphone, which appears identical on the exterior to the iPhone 4. In fact, Apple’s stock tumbled 5 percent when the phone debuted; however, it surged 3.8 percent after the company announced the record sales.

Almost 25 years after the death of Liberace, Michael Douglas will star in Behind the Candelabra, Steven Soderbergh’s new HBO film about the man who was once the highest-paid entertainer in the world. The movie will peer into the flamboyant singer’s relationship with his young lover, played by the ever-versatile Matt Damon. “Putting these two fine actors in the creative hands of Steven Soderbergh—it doesn’t get any better than that!” executive producer Jerry Weintraub raved.

Good luck with the inspection. The world’s oldest running vehicle, the De Dion-Bouton et Trepardoux Dos-a-Dos Steam Runabout, has sold at a U.S. auction for $4.6 million. The car, built in France in 1884, has had only four owners in the past 127 years, can still be driven, and tops out at about 38 miles per hour. A British car built in 1875 also claims the mantle of the world’s oldest, but that one only has three wheels and requires someone to run alongside it in order to keep the boiler running. The winner of the auction has not been identified.

The cause of Steve Jobs’s death has been made official. It was respiratory arrest caused by spreading pancreatic cancer that ultimately killed the former Apple CEO last week. No autopsy was necessary, as Jobs has suffered from cancer for several years, but his death certificate was released Monday. Meanwhile, Apple CEO Tim Cook announced Monday that a celebration of Jobs will be held Oct. 19.

Skip the beer: Dr Pepper’s new soda, Dr Pepper 10, is “not for women,” according to its new advertisements. The 10-calorie soda isn’t the first diet drink to target men; Coke Zero and Pepsi Max are also aimed at male consumers. But it is the most aggressive: in addition to the slogan, “It’s not for women,” the soda comes in a gunmetal can decorated with bullets; its advertisements include snake wrestlers and laser guns; and on its Facebook page you can visit a digital shooting gallery where you take aim at female products—lipstick, high heels, etc.

Herman Cain’s momentum gets official sanction Tuesday night, as the Washington Post/Bloomberg debate planners have seated him center stage, next to Mitt Romney. The decision comes as the latest Gallup poll shows Cain’s support tripling since mid-September: he now polls at 18 percent, just 2 points behind Romney’s 20 percent. Rick Perry, meanwhile, has tumbled to 15 percent—a fact not lost on the debate planners. Once Romney’s foil in debates, he has now been shunted to Cain’s right side.

It’s no secret that Mitt Romney’s universal-health-care program in Massachusetts was the model for President Obama’s federal law, but the relationship was even tighter than previously known. White House visitor logs show that three Romney aides paid Obama’s team at least a dozen visits, and had at least one meeting with the president himself to help plan the health-care legislation. Romney has deflected criticism from conservatives over the similarity of his health-care scheme to "Obamacare" by saying that if the administration had asked his advice, Romney would have told it its version would "bankrupt the country." But it turns out it did—and he didn’t.

Well, so much for hating LeBron James this year. As talks between owners and players stall, NBA Commissioner David Stern canceled the first two weeks of the season. After seven hours of negotiations Monday, Stern said the sides are still “very far apart on virtually all issues.” Trimming the season, if a deal is reached eventually, will undoubtedly hurt the league's TV ratings, which surged last year as the Dallas Mavericks defeated the controversial Miami Heat in the NBA Finals. All games through Nov. 14 have been canceled.

Wasn’t his last release Watch the Throne? Many were probably surprised to see notoriously flashy rapper Kanye West show up on Wall Street Monday to demonstrate support for the protesters entering their fourth week rallying against corporate greed. West’s visit to Zuccotti Park was a quick one, as the crowd of fans that mobbed him proved that his presence simply transferred attention away from the demonstration. The rapper made a show of his solidarity with the 99 percent by sporting a hefty gold chain and flashing his everyman’s grill.

It’s not just the NYPD making mass arrests: the Boston Police Department arrested 100 Occupy Boston protesters early Tuesday after they refused to vacate the recently renovated Rose Fitzgerald Kennedy Greenway for other nearby spaces. The arrests took place at 1:20 a.m., and no police or protesters were injured. Police entered the park after giving a warning, put individual protesters on their stomachs, and cable-tied them, as other officers went about tearing down tents. In New York, meanwhile, Occupy Wall Street protesters are planning Tuesday to march by the homes of some of the city’s richest residents, including News Corp. CEO Rupert Murdoch, JPMorgan Chase CEO Jamie Dimon, and conservative billionaire David Koch.

The former flatmate of British Defense Secretary Liam Fox will face questioning Tuesday over whether he profited from his unofficial role as adviser. Fresh details emerged Monday that Adam Werritty met with Fox on 18 of his official trips abroad, including a four-day trip to Washington this summer during which Fox met with officials from the Pentagon and Capitol Hill. British politicians are concerned that Werritty profited off his connections to Fox, and that Fox may have even turned a blind eye to it. So far, however, Prime Minister David Cameron continues to give Fox his backing.

Don’t let a controversy go to waste: Hank Williams Jr. goes after Fox and Friends in a new single, after remarks he made on the program comparing President Obama to Hitler led ESPN to cut his song from Monday Night Football. “So Fox ‘n' Friends wanna put me down/Ask for my opinion/Twist it all around,” the country singer croons. The lyrics also recommend keeping ESPN and Fox and Friends out of your home, and lament the state of the country, which is “going down the drain.”

Never mind the protesters. New York’s securities sector could lose 10,000 jobs by the end of next year, according to a new report from the state’s comptroller. Bonuses are likely to be downgraded as well due to lower profits. If the prediction bears out, it would be a 17 percent reduction in Wall Street’s job force and blow to the state’s economy. The comptroller estimates that one in 13 jobs throughout New York—and one in 8 within New York City—depends on Wall Street.

Former Ukrainian prime minister Yulia Tymoshenko was found guilty of exceeding her powers and sentenced to seven years in prison on Tuesday. The charges stemmed from a gas deal she signed with Russia when in power in 2009. The United States and the European Union have condemned the charges against Tymoshenko as politically motivated, and while the judge read out her sentence she spoke over him, vowing to “fight to defend my honest name.” She was a leader of the country’s 2004 Orange Revolution but fell out of power in 2010. The court also ordered her to pay back the $186 million the state gas company lost on the deal.

The White House is debating whether to release the classified memo authorizing the assassination of the terrorist and U.S. citizen Anwar al-Awlaki, according to CNN. On Sunday, The New York Times published the most extensive account of the memo yet, based on interviews with officials who had seen it: it authorized killing Awlaki only if it were not feasible to capture him alive, and it was written to the specifics of the case, not as a broad new legal doctrine sanctioning assassination. The attack on Awlaki also killed another U.S. citizen affiliated with al Qaeda, Samir Khan. Al Qaeda in the Arabian Peninsula confirmed both Awlaki's and Khan’s deaths on Monday.

Modern-day superhero Phoenix Jones was arrested Sunday after soaking several people with pepper spray in what he says was an effort to break up a fight. Jones is the leader of the Rain City Superhero Movement, a group of vigilantes who hit the streets of Seattle decked out in costumes to fight crime. Police insist the “fight” Jones claims to have been breaking up never took place—those hit with the pepper spray say they were just “dancing and frolicking around with each other.” Perhaps Jones needs a new mask with bigger eye holes to spot wrongdoing more clearly.

Occupy Wall Street protesters are leaving their home base in lower Manhattan’s Zuccotti Park on Tuesday for a march on the Upper East Side, where they plan to visit the homes of prominent New York City billionaires, including News Corp. CEO Rupert Murdoch, industrial titan David Koch, and JPMorgan Chase CEO Jamie Dimon. The marchers plan to deliver giant checks representing how much less billionaires will pay after the city’s two-percent tax on them expires at the end of the year. Not on the itinerary is the home of Michael Bloomberg, New York’s multibillionaire mayor who has attacked the protesters’ goals while saying they would be allowed to demonstrate as long as they did not break any laws.

New Jersey Gov. Chris Christie didn't waste any time picking his 2012 presidential candidate. One week after announcing that he won't run for president, Christie endorsed current GOP frontrunner Mitt Romney, saying he has the perfect mix of private-sector and government experience. Christie spoke at Hanover, N.H., the site of tonight's Republican presidential debate. Christie called Romney "the man we need to lead America," and Romney returned the compliment, calling Christie a "hero" for cutting government spending in New Jersey. 

After developing into a Category 3 hurricane on Monday, Jova continues to make its way toward Mexico’s western coast, expected to hit with major strength sometime Tuesday afternoon or evening. Mexican emergency officials opened more than 100 shelters for those instructed to evacuate the hurricane’s path, and several cruise ships that had planned to pass through the Mexican Riviera have had to reroute their trips.

No wonder the iPhone 4S is selling out. Research in Motion, the BlackBerry manufacturer, said Tuesday that a “core switch failure” is behind the worldwide outage. BlackBerry reported Tuesday that the outage had spread to some Latin American countries, which joined Europe, the Middle East, and India in having messaging and browsing delays. RIM said it’s working to restore the normal service, and apologized to customers for any inconvenience.

How quickly things change. Texas Gov. Rick Perry—once considered the frontrunner for the Republican nomination for president—spent the early part of Tuesday’s GOP debate largely silent and being posed very few questions. In his first response, Perry turned around a question about the economy and instead started talking about energy independence. When asked to elaborate further, he said he would lay out an economic plan in the next three days and that “Mitt’s had six years to work out a plan. I’ve been at this for about eight weeks.” While few questions were asked to former House speaker Newt Gingrich, he tried to jump into a few discussions.

It looks like most of the Republican presidential candidates heard that Mitt Romney is the frontrunner again. The 2012 hopefuls were each given the chance to ask one other candidate a question, and most of them chose Romney. Herman Cain asked Romney if he could name all 59 points in his 160-page economic plan, Newt Gingrich asked why he only has a capital-gains tax cut for people making under $250,000 a year, Jon Huntsman asked about how Romney’s background at a company that helped break up companies will help job creation, and Rick Perry asked about the “Romneycare” health-insurance program in Massachusetts. Romney fended all of their questions by insisting he is the most prepared to take on President Obama and Washington. Romney himself asked Michele Bachmann about how she planned to create jobs, and she had directed her question to Rick Perry.

Texas Gov. Rick Perry has refused to disavow a Dallas pastor—a supporter of his—who called Mormonism a cult. Perry announced his decision through a spokesman after fellow GOP presidential hopeful Mitt Romney on Tuesday called on Perry to repudiate Rev. Robert Jeffress, the pastor of First Baptist Dallas who said Romney was not really a Christian. Jeffress stood by his remarks Sunday.

U.S. officials say they have foiled what could have been a major terrorist attack on Washington, D.C. directed by elements within the Iranian government. The capital’s Israeli and Saudi embassies were allegedly the target of two Iranian men, Gholam Shakuri and Manssor Arbabsiar, who is a naturalized U.S. citizen. The men reportedly planned to assassinate Saudi Arabia’s ambassador (picture at left) with bombs. FBI Director Robert Mueller said many lives could have been lost and Attorney General Eric Holder vowed to hold Iran accountable. According to the criminal complaint filed Tuesday, Arbabsiar sought to meet with a representative of a Mexican drug cartel.(Luckily, the "representative" turned out to be a Drug Enforcement Administration confidential source.) Arbabsiar is in custody and Shakuri remains at large. Iran has rejected the accusations, calling them "America's new propaganda scenario." Secretary of State Hillary Clinton said Iran's plot "crosses a line."