Economy | ANALYSIS
Households to take hit from tax hike
by Tomoko Otake
The consumption tax increase will hit every household in Japan hard, with many people’s financial future hanging on whether their wages rise enough to offset the hike's impact.
World Topics
World Oct 3, 2013
Democrats unveil immigration plan
House Democrats released their own comprehensive immigration proposal Wednesday, hoping to put renewed pressure on the Republican majority to move forward on stalled border legislation. But GOP aides quickly dismissed the proposal and said it was unlikely to get a vote in the chamber, ...
World Oct 3, 2013
Russia charges 14 Greenpeace 'pirates'
Russian authorities turned their informal descriptions of Greenpeace activists as pirates into legal charges Wednesday, a chilling evolution in a saga that began as a protest against drilling in the Arctic. Prosecutors charged 14 people — including a British journalist — with piracy, which ...
World Oct 3, 2013
Yemeni Army retakes regional HQ
Yemeni forces announced Wednesday they had retaken control of an army headquarters in the southeast, killing al-Qaida gunmen holed up there and freeing troops who had been held hostage. A military source said the army had fired on the building with artillery, without giving ...
World Oct 3, 2013
Monitor ordered in U.S. profiling case
A federal judge on Wednesday ordered the appointment of an independent monitor and a community advisory board to ensure that an Arizona sheriff is complying with constitutional requirements after finding his office engages in racial profiling. U.S. District Judge Murray Snow found in May ...
World Oct 3, 2013
Texas reveals origin of execution drug
America’s most active death penalty state has turned to a compounding pharmacy to replace its expired execution drug, according to documents released Wednesday, weeks after Texas prison officials declined to say how they obtained the drug amid a nationwide shortage. Several companies have been ...
World Oct 3, 2013
Tom Clancy, master of the techno-thriller, dies at age 66
Tom Clancy, whose high-tech, Cold War thrillers such as “The Hunt for Red October” and “Patriot Games” made him the most widely read and influential military novelist of his time, has died at age 66. Penguin Group (USA) said Clancy had died Tuesday in ...
Politics & Diplomacy Oct 2, 2013
Federal budget deadlock could stretch into debt-limit fight
Washington begins bracing for a prolonged government shutdown on Tuesday, with signs on Capitol Hill that Republicans — knowing that blame almost certainly will fall most heavily on them — beginning to look for ways to lift some of the pressure.
Politics & Diplomacy | Focus Oct 2, 2013
Founding Fathers having big say — with a little help
by David A. Fahrenthold
Early last Wednesday, Republican Sen. Mike Lee rose in the Senate to recite a quotation from George Washington. It was, Lee said, Washington’s own account of his last day as president in 1797. Lee was explaining why Washington, if he were alive today, might ...
Politics & Diplomacy Oct 2, 2013
Labour chief defends father after newspaper's 'smear'
A war of words between British Labour Party leader Ed Miliband and the conservative Daily Mail tabloid has moved beyond politics into more personal territory with a blistering attack on Miliband’s late father. In a blaring headline over the weekend, the newspaper labeled Ralph ...
Politics & Diplomacy Oct 2, 2013
Polonium and cukes: Boris fires up Tories
Mayor of London Boris Johnson fired up the Conservative Party conference Tuesday with a rousing call to arms for Britain’s 2015 election and a challenge to Russian President Vladimir Putin on cucumbers. This time last year Johnson was riding high after his re-election and ...
Politics & Diplomacy Oct 2, 2013
GOP disappoints big-business backers
by Zachary A. Goldfarb
In 2010 and again in 2012, companies on Main Street and Wall Street did just about everything they could to help Republicans win elected office in Washington. But this week, many of those Republicans ignored pleas from corporate America and let the government shut ...
World Oct 2, 2013
Pope's plain talking stirs fresh debate
by Michelle Boorstein and Elizabeth Tenety
Pope Francis cranked up his charm offensive on the world outside the Vatican on Tuesday, saying in his second widely shared media interview in two weeks that each person “must choose to follow the good and fight evil as he conceives them.”