http://www.post-gazette.com/nationworld/ National and world news en-us Copyright 2009, post-gazette.com. Sat, 21 Nov 2009 03:16:00 -0500 15 http://www.post-gazette.com/includes/2007design/images/150x30pg_now_logo.gif http://www.post-gazette.com/ 144 39 http://www.post-gazette.com/pg/09325/1015387-84.stm?cmpid=nationworld.xml CAMBRIDGE, Massachusetts -- The Trixie Telemetry company believes in hard, quantifiable truths. It believes that there is a right time and wrong time to breast-feed a baby. It believes that certain hours and rooms are better for a child's naps than others and that data can establish this, too. It believes that parents should track how long their infants have gone without soiling a diaper and devote themselves to beating this "high score." Sat, 21 Nov 2009 02:01:00 -0500 http://www.post-gazette.com/pg/09325/1015388-84.stm?cmpid=nationworld.xml WASHINGTON -- The Senate ethics committee on Friday issued a sternly worded rebuke to Senator Roland W. Burris, Democrat of Illinois, saying he had made misleading and inaccurate statements about the circumstances surrounding his appointment by Gov. Rod R. Blagojevich. But it made no recommendation for further punishment. Sat, 21 Nov 2009 02:01:00 -0500 http://www.post-gazette.com/pg/09325/1015389-84.stm?cmpid=nationworld.xml BERKELEY, Calif. -- The day after the University of California Board of Regents approved a 32 percent increase in fees that are the equivalent of tuition, protests continued on several campuses, with students occupying buildings at Santa Cruz and Berkeley. Sat, 21 Nov 2009 02:01:00 -0500 http://www.post-gazette.com/pg/09325/1015390-84.stm?cmpid=nationworld.xml WASHINGTON -- A report by Republicans in Congress about the Obama administration's firing of a government agency's internal watchdog suggests that the school chancellor in Washington intervened on behalf of her current fiancé, who was under investigation by the watchdog. Sat, 21 Nov 2009 02:01:00 -0500 http://www.post-gazette.com/pg/09325/1015391-82.stm?cmpid=nationworld.xml Baghdad Sat, 21 Nov 2009 02:01:00 -0500 http://www.post-gazette.com/pg/09325/1015392-82.stm?cmpid=nationworld.xml BAGHDAD -- In its largest reconstruction effort since the Marshall Plan, the United States government has spent $53 billion for relief and reconstruction in Iraq since the 2003 invasion, building tens of thousands of hospitals, water treatment plants, electricity substations, schools and bridges. Sat, 21 Nov 2009 02:01:00 -0500 http://www.post-gazette.com/pg/09325/1015393-82.stm?cmpid=nationworld.xml With the European Union's top new jobs going to two low-key bridge-builders, the bloc appears to have set its sights on smoothing over internal divisions before trying to construct a bigger global role. Sat, 21 Nov 2009 02:01:00 -0500 http://www.post-gazette.com/pg/09325/1015272-84.stm?cmpid=nationworld.xml WASHINGTON -- After negotiating critical last-minute commitments, Senate Democratic leaders yesterday stood on the verge of achieving the necessary 60 votes to begin consideration of the most expansive health care legislation to go before the Senate in nearly half a century. Sat, 21 Nov 2009 00:00:00 -0500 http://www.post-gazette.com/pg/09325/1015286-55.stm?cmpid=nationworld.xml WASHINGTON -- A Carnegie construction company fraudulently received $39.4 million in federal funds meant for firms owned and operated by disabled veterans, according to a government audit. Sat, 21 Nov 2009 00:00:00 -0500 http://www.post-gazette.com/pg/09324/1015038-84.stm?cmpid=nationworld.xml After a rocky start hurt their bottom line, Chicago's new parking meter operators are raking in more than $1.1 million a week and expect even more revenue next year, according to internal company documents obtained by the Chicago News Cooperative. Fri, 20 Nov 2009 02:00:00 -0500 http://www.post-gazette.com/pg/09324/1015039-84.stm?cmpid=nationworld.xml LINCOLN, Neb. -- In an unusual pushback against President Obama's expansion of federal financing of human embryonic stem cell research, the University of Nebraska is considering restricting its stem cell experiments to cell lines approved by President George W. Bush. Fri, 20 Nov 2009 02:00:00 -0500 http://www.post-gazette.com/pg/09324/1015040-84.stm?cmpid=nationworld.xml NEW ORLEANS -- Since the first days after Hurricane Katrina, when the streets were still under water, many residents of New Orleans and its surroundings have maintained that the flood that wrecked their lives was the government's fault, and that the government should pay for it. Fri, 20 Nov 2009 02:00:00 -0500 http://www.post-gazette.com/pg/09324/1015041-84.stm?cmpid=nationworld.xml LOST PINES, Tex. -- After two bleak years, Republican governors gathered here on Thursday to assess their political future -- and they liked what they saw. With 37 governors' seats open in 2010, the party is looking to topple some big-name Democrats. Fri, 20 Nov 2009 02:00:00 -0500 http://www.post-gazette.com/pg/09324/1015042-82.stm?cmpid=nationworld.xml BEIJING -- Like parents everywhere, mothers and fathers in Namibia, an impoverished southern African nation, worry about college costs and opportunities for their children. The Chinese government has stepped forward to help -- for a select and powerful few. Fri, 20 Nov 2009 02:00:00 -0500 http://www.post-gazette.com/pg/09324/1015043-82.stm?cmpid=nationworld.xml Fri, 20 Nov 2009 02:00:00 -0500 http://www.post-gazette.com/pg/09324/1015044-82.stm?cmpid=nationworld.xml PARIS -- Pirate attacks on shipping lanes around the Horn of Africa have shown no sign of relenting, and the nations policing the seas are struggling to find solutions in a mission that seems to be covering a growing area and time frame. Fri, 20 Nov 2009 02:00:00 -0500 http://www.post-gazette.com/pg/09324/1015045-82.stm?cmpid=nationworld.xml KABUL, Afghanistan -- It is far from clear that President Obama can depend on President Hamid Karzai to bring order to this violent country, but it is becoming clear that he will depend on Hillary Rodham Clinton to be his go-between in dealing with the mercurial Afghan leader. Fri, 20 Nov 2009 02:00:00 -0500 http://www.post-gazette.com/pg/09324/1015046-82.stm?cmpid=nationworld.xml With all the attention being paid this month to the fall of the Berlin Wall, I've found myself thinking of how much India has changed over the last 20 years. Most of the media coverage has, quite understandably, focused on Europe. But the tremors from Communism's collapse were felt far beyond the immediate battlegrounds of the Cold War. Fri, 20 Nov 2009 02:00:00 -0500 http://www.post-gazette.com/pg/09324/1015047-82.stm?cmpid=nationworld.xml BRUSSELS -- Leaders of the 27 countries of the European Union on Thursday night chose Herman Van Rompuy, the Belgian prime minister, as the European Union's first president, and Catherine Ashton of Britain, currently the bloc's trade commissioner, as its high representative for foreign policy. The vote was unanimous. Fri, 20 Nov 2009 02:00:00 -0500 http://www.post-gazette.com/pg/09324/1015048-82.stm?cmpid=nationworld.xml KABUL, Afghanistan -- Tainted by a flawed election and allegations of festering corruption in his government, President Hamid Karzai was inaugurated Thursday for a second term, promising to remedy the country's problems and to have the Afghan Army assume full control of security within five years. Fri, 20 Nov 2009 02:00:00 -0500 http://www.post-gazette.com/pg/09324/1015049-82.stm?cmpid=nationworld.xml Andrea Ballarin, 23, is a self-confident student hoping to graduate soon from Humboldt University in Berlin. But when she starts talking about getting a job once she graduates, her mood changes. The prospects, she said, are slim. Fri, 20 Nov 2009 02:00:00 -0500 http://www.post-gazette.com/pg/09324/1014972-82.stm?cmpid=nationworld.xml KABUL -- Taking the oath of office in a solemn ceremony in his locked-down capital yesterday, President Hamid Karzai set an implicit timeline for a drawdown of foreign forces, expressing hopes that by the end of his new five-year term, Afghanistan would see to its own security Fri, 20 Nov 2009 00:00:00 -0500 http://www.post-gazette.com/pg/09324/1014973-82.stm?cmpid=nationworld.xml BEIJING -- Sometime into his long detention by China's feared state security agents, American geologist Xue Feng had something to show U.S. consular officials on their monthly visit. He rolled up his sleeve, revealing the burns where his interrogators pressed lit cigarettes into his arm. Fri, 20 Nov 2009 00:00:00 -0500 http://www.post-gazette.com/pg/09324/1014974-37.stm?cmpid=nationworld.xml WASHINGTON -- Flights over much of the eastern United States were delayed yesterday by a predawn failure in a fairly new communications system, which led to the shutdown of a computer that accepts flight plans from the airlines and feeds them to air traffic controllers. Fri, 20 Nov 2009 00:00:00 -0500 http://www.post-gazette.com/pg/09324/1014976-82.stm?cmpid=nationworld.xml WASHINGTON -- As White House observers attempt to read the tea leaves about the timing of President Barack Obama's Afghanistan announcement, one thing becomes clear: There's not much time left. Fri, 20 Nov 2009 00:00:00 -0500 http://www.post-gazette.com/pg/09324/1014977-82.stm?cmpid=nationworld.xml UNITED NATIONS -- UNICEF yesterday urged the world to help the 1 billion children still deprived of food, shelter, clean water or health care -- and the hundreds of millions more threatened by violence -- two decades after the United Nations adopted a treaty guaranteeing children's rights. Fri, 20 Nov 2009 00:00:00 -0500 http://www.post-gazette.com/pg/09324/1014978-82.stm?cmpid=nationworld.xml BRUSSELS -- After years of effort the European Union named its first full-time president and powerful foreign policy chief yesterday -- but handed the jobs to two little-known compromise figures instead of global heavy hitters. Fri, 20 Nov 2009 00:00:00 -0500 http://www.post-gazette.com/pg/09324/1014982-82.stm?cmpid=nationworld.xml WASHINGTON -- The Pentagon is launching an urgent review of whether military procedures hinder the identification of service members who pose a threat to their fellow troops. Fri, 20 Nov 2009 00:00:00 -0500 http://www.post-gazette.com/pg/09324/1014983-84.stm?cmpid=nationworld.xml NEW ORLEANS -- A landmark court ruling blaming the Army Corps of Engineers' "monumental negligence" for some of the worst flooding from Hurricane Katrina could lead to a new deluge: billions of dollars in legal action from thousands of storm victims. Fri, 20 Nov 2009 00:00:00 -0500 http://www.post-gazette.com/pg/09324/1014984-84.stm?cmpid=nationworld.xml WASHINGTON -- Government auditors raised doubts yesterday about the number of jobs created or saved by the economic stimulus program, but they also said that mistakes reported in recent weeks signal the benefits of government transparency. Fri, 20 Nov 2009 00:00:00 -0500 http://www.post-gazette.com/pg/09324/1014985-84.stm?cmpid=nationworld.xml WASHINGTON -- Women can delay their first Pap test for cervical cancer until they turn 21, and many can wait longer to go back for follow-up screenings, according to new guidelines released today by a major medical group. Fri, 20 Nov 2009 00:00:00 -0500 http://www.post-gazette.com/pg/09324/1014986-114.stm?cmpid=nationworld.xml WASHINGTON -- Flanked by a panoply of health reform advocates in a packed Capitol meeting room i Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid showcased the sweeping plan he had unveiled the day before to overhaul the nation's health insurance system and expand coverage to millions. Fri, 20 Nov 2009 00:00:00 -0500 http://www.post-gazette.com/pg/09324/1014987-455.stm?cmpid=nationworld.xml Oh, to be Bella Swan. Duquesne University freshman Carly Schlegel has the petite build, the chestnut hair and the alabaster skin. Fri, 20 Nov 2009 00:00:00 -0500 http://www.post-gazette.com/pg/09323/1014805-82.stm?cmpid=nationworld.xml PARIS -- Recovery in developed economies will accelerate next year due to "substantial improvements" in financial markets and fast-growing Asian countries, but is likely to remain fragile, the Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development said today as it doubled its 2010 growth forecast. Thu, 19 Nov 2009 16:29:00 -0500 http://www.post-gazette.com/pg/09323/1014709-84.stm?cmpid=nationworld.xml The dynamic West Virginia Democrat long ago secured a prominent place of his own in Senate lore. Yesterday, Mr. Byrd became the longest-serving member of Congress in history with his 20,774th day in office. Thu, 19 Nov 2009 07:24:00 -0500 http://www.post-gazette.com/pg/09323/1014761-82.stm?cmpid=nationworld.xml SEOUL, South Korea -- For all of President Obama's laying claim to the title of "America's first Pacific president," Asia was always going to be a tough nut for him to crack. Thu, 19 Nov 2009 02:01:00 -0500 http://www.post-gazette.com/pg/09323/1014762-82.stm?cmpid=nationworld.xml LVIV, Ukraine -- It is not immediately clear why Vasily V. Humenyuk should be a candidate for president of Ukraine. A former customs official from the western city of Ivano-Frankivsk, he subscribes to no particular ideology, has the flimsiest of platforms and does not plan to tour the country before the vote, reasoning that "these trips cost a great deal and the people are sick of them." Thu, 19 Nov 2009 02:01:00 -0500 http://www.post-gazette.com/pg/09323/1014763-82.stm?cmpid=nationworld.xml BAGHDAD -- Iraq was thrown into a fresh political crisis on Wednesday after a vice president vetoed a newly passed election law, delaying the vote, setting off fresh sectarian wrangling and possibly complicating plans to withdraw American troops. Thu, 19 Nov 2009 02:01:00 -0500 http://www.post-gazette.com/pg/09323/1014764-82.stm?cmpid=nationworld.xml THUWAL, Saudi Arabia -- The $12.5 billion question is this: Can Ben Frevert change Saudi Arabia? Thu, 19 Nov 2009 02:01:00 -0500 http://www.post-gazette.com/pg/09323/1014765-82.stm?cmpid=nationworld.xml CAIRO -- Iran's foreign minister said this week that his government would not ship its stockpile of low-enriched uranium out of the country, making him the highest ranking official so far to declare that Iran would renege on a deal aimed at defusing a confrontation with the West over its nuclear program. Thu, 19 Nov 2009 02:01:00 -0500 http://www.post-gazette.com/pg/09323/1014766-82.stm?cmpid=nationworld.xml KABUL, Afghanistan -- President Hamid Karzai begins a second term on Thursday as a leader badly damaged by a tainted election, strained relations with his allies and a record blighted by ineffective management and corruption. Thu, 19 Nov 2009 02:01:00 -0500 http://www.post-gazette.com/pg/09323/1014753-84.stm?cmpid=nationworld.xml WASHINGTON -- In nearly a dozen recent terrorism cases in the United States, Britain and Canada, investigators discovered the suspects had something in common: a devotion to the message of Anwar al-Awlaki, an eloquent Muslim cleric who has turned the Web into a tool for extremist indoctrination. Thu, 19 Nov 2009 02:00:00 -0500 http://www.post-gazette.com/pg/09323/1014754-84.stm?cmpid=nationworld.xml WASHINGTON -- Attorney General Eric H. Holder Jr. on Wednesday defended his decision to prosecute five men accused as co-conspirators in the Sept. 11 attacks in federal court in Manhattan, declaring that while he believes "we are at war," that the venue was the best place to pursue the case against them. Thu, 19 Nov 2009 02:00:00 -0500 http://www.post-gazette.com/pg/09323/1014755-84.stm?cmpid=nationworld.xml NEW YORK -- It's every writer's dream for a book or story to be sold to the movies. It's even better when the movie then remains true to the original book -- a rare occurrence -- and becomes a big hit, even the cultural sensation of the moment. Thu, 19 Nov 2009 02:00:00 -0500 http://www.post-gazette.com/pg/09323/1014756-84.stm?cmpid=nationworld.xml NEW ORLEANS -- A federal judge found Wednesday evening that poor maintenance of a major navigation channel by the Army Corps of Engineers led to some of the worst flooding after Hurricane Katrina. The ruling was a major victory for homeowners who suffered damage in the aftermath of the storm. Thu, 19 Nov 2009 02:00:00 -0500 http://www.post-gazette.com/pg/09323/1014757-82.stm?cmpid=nationworld.xml WASHINGTON -- President Obama's top diplomat privately pressed Afghan President Hamid Karzai to deliver "measurable results" on governance and corruption as the White House prepared specific new demands to accompany an American troop buildup. Thu, 19 Nov 2009 02:00:00 -0500 http://www.post-gazette.com/pg/09323/1014758-82.stm?cmpid=nationworld.xml LESBOS, GREECE -- "Stop the boat! Stop the boat now!" the captain of the Greek Coast Guard patrol vessel yelled over the bullhorn, turning a spotlight on the flimsy dinghy as it chugged toward this island in the Aegean Sea. Thu, 19 Nov 2009 02:00:00 -0500 http://www.post-gazette.com/pg/09323/1014759-82.stm?cmpid=nationworld.xml WASHINGTON -- The arrests last month of two Chicago men accused of planning an attack on a Danish newspaper have widened into a global terrorism inquiry that has led to arrests in Pakistan and implicated a former Pakistani military officer as a co-conspirator, government officials said Wednesday. Thu, 19 Nov 2009 02:00:00 -0500 http://www.post-gazette.com/pg/09323/1014760-82.stm?cmpid=nationworld.xml JERUSALEM -- Two weeks after the Palestinian president, Mahmoud Abbas, vowed not to run for re-election and hinted that he might resign, the Middle East peace process has sunk into a deep crisis amid urgent efforts to revive it. Thu, 19 Nov 2009 02:00:00 -0500 http://www.post-gazette.com/pg/09323/1014647-84.stm?cmpid=nationworld.xml BALTIMORE -- Despite their battles over same-sex marriage, the nation's Catholic bishops say their greatest challenge is convincing faithful Catholics that only a vowed, lifelong commitment between a man and a woman can be called marriage. Thu, 19 Nov 2009 01:20:00 -0500 http://www.post-gazette.com/pg/09323/1014633-82.stm?cmpid=nationworld.xml BAGHDAD -- One of Iraq's vice presidents vetoed the country's new election law yesterday, throwing into fresh doubt the feasibility of holding crucial national elections in January and possibly disrupting the withdrawal next year of U.S. troops. Thu, 19 Nov 2009 00:00:00 -0500 http://www.post-gazette.com/pg/09323/1014662-84.stm?cmpid=nationworld.xml WASHINGTON -- Republican senators confronted Attorney General Eric Holder yesterday over his decision to try the Sept. 11 terrorism suspects in civilian court. Thu, 19 Nov 2009 00:00:00 -0500 http://www.post-gazette.com/pg/09323/1014698-113.stm?cmpid=nationworld.xml SACRAMENTO, Calif. -- California regulators adopted the nation's first energy-efficiency standards for televisions yesterday in hopes of reducing electricity use at a time when millions of U.S. households are switching to power-hungry, wide-view, flat-screen, high-definition sets. Thu, 19 Nov 2009 00:00:00 -0500 http://www.post-gazette.com/pg/09323/1014700-84.stm?cmpid=nationworld.xml WASHINGTON -- The National Archives is bringing together investigators to search for scribbled secrets from the first days of the Watergate scandal that destroyed Richard Nixon's presidency. Thu, 19 Nov 2009 00:00:00 -0500 http://www.post-gazette.com/pg/09323/1014713-82.stm?cmpid=nationworld.xml SEOUL, South Korea -- President Barack Obama yesterday said he was still weeks away from deciding how many more U.S. troops to send to Afghanistan, and that he would like to fire officials who had leaked details of his deliberations to the news media. Thu, 19 Nov 2009 00:00:00 -0500 http://www.post-gazette.com/pg/09323/1014722-82.stm?cmpid=nationworld.xml KABUL -- Secretary of State Hillary Rodham Clinton, in Kabul for today's inauguration of Afghan President Hamid Karzai, said he has a "window of opportunity" to crack down on corruption and respond to Afghan and international concerns. Thu, 19 Nov 2009 00:00:00 -0500 http://www.post-gazette.com/pg/09322/1014345-84.stm?cmpid=nationworld.xml Bishop Donald Trautman of Erie lost his 10-year battle to prevent the Catholic bishops from approving a new Mass translation that he believes is awkward and ungrammatical. But his finale on the floor had the bishops tied up in knots over whether their president, Cardinal Francis George, broke church law when he gave a Vatican office permission to finish one set of English translations without the U.S. bishops' approval. Wed, 18 Nov 2009 02:22:00 -0500 http://www.post-gazette.com/pg/09322/1014364-84.stm?cmpid=nationworld.xml Prison officials in Ohio never planned to become pioneers in death penalty protocol. But the failed effort on Sept. 15 to execute Romell Broom, a convicted killer, forced the state to rethink how people are put to death and led Ohio officials to be the first in the nation to adopt a new approach. Wed, 18 Nov 2009 02:00:00 -0500 http://www.post-gazette.com/pg/09322/1014365-84.stm?cmpid=nationworld.xml THOMSON, Ill. -- Once federal officials said they might move terrorism suspects from Guantánamo Bay, Cuba, to a nearly empty prison here, residents of this faded rural village began debating what they should fear most -- the suspects or the downward spiral of the economy here. Wed, 18 Nov 2009 02:00:00 -0500 http://www.post-gazette.com/pg/09322/1014366-84.stm?cmpid=nationworld.xml BATES CITY, Mo. -- On a dead-end dirt road, through frosted crops and bales of hay in this sleepy town about a half-hour east of Kansas City, state investigators spent much of last week excavating the yard around a farmhouse, looking for decades-old evidence of sex crimes against children. Wed, 18 Nov 2009 02:00:00 -0500 http://www.post-gazette.com/pg/09322/1014367-84.stm?cmpid=nationworld.xml CHICAGO -- The president of the Chicago Board of Education, who had served in a variety of prominent posts here over three decades, was found dead early Monday morning on the banks of the Chicago River, in what the medical examiner ruled a suicide. Wed, 18 Nov 2009 02:00:00 -0500 http://www.post-gazette.com/pg/09322/1014369-82.stm?cmpid=nationworld.xml BLOEMFONTEIN, South Africa -- For a speech about reconciliation it could hardly have been more divisive. Jonathan D. Jansen, the new head of the University of the Free State, spoke of the "place of infamy" just 100 yards behind him, the residence hall where four white students last year made a racist video that incited outrage across the country. Wed, 18 Nov 2009 02:00:00 -0500 http://www.post-gazette.com/pg/09322/1014370-82.stm?cmpid=nationworld.xml When a daughter of Kim Jong-chang, South Korea's top financial regulator, got married last June, Mr. Kim did something unusual: He eliminated the cashier and the cash-filled envelopes. Wed, 18 Nov 2009 02:00:00 -0500 http://www.post-gazette.com/pg/09322/1014371-82.stm?cmpid=nationworld.xml PRAGUE -- It was a revolution that began with a lie. Wed, 18 Nov 2009 02:00:00 -0500 http://www.post-gazette.com/pg/09322/1014372-82.stm?cmpid=nationworld.xml SARAROGHA, Pakistan -- This windswept, sand-colored town in the badlands of western Pakistan is empty now, cleared of the militants who once claimed it as their capital. But its main brick buildings, intact and thick with dust, tell not of an epic battle, but of sudden flight. Wed, 18 Nov 2009 02:00:00 -0500 http://www.post-gazette.com/pg/09322/1014373-82.stm?cmpid=nationworld.xml BEIJING -- Whether by White House design or Chinese insistence, President Obama has steered clear of public meetings with Chinese liberals, free press advocates and even average Chinese during his first visit to China, showing a deference to the Chinese leadership's aversions to such interactions that is unusual for a visiting American president. Wed, 18 Nov 2009 02:00:00 -0500 http://www.post-gazette.com/pg/09322/1014329-84.stm?cmpid=nationworld.xml BALTIMORE -- Researchers at New York's John Jay College of Criminal Justice, reporting initial findings in their look into causes of the Catholic church's 2002 sexual-abuse scandal, yesterday said they can't attribute it to gay priests or seminaries for teenagers. Wed, 18 Nov 2009 01:16:00 -0500 http://www.post-gazette.com/pg/09322/1014234-84.stm?cmpid=nationworld.xml NEW YORK -- President Barack Obama will give an interview to Fox News Channel's Major Garrett. Wed, 18 Nov 2009 00:01:00 -0500 http://www.post-gazette.com/pg/09322/1014319-84.stm?cmpid=nationworld.xml WASHINGTON -- The Obama administration yesterday announced a renewed crackdown on financial crimes, establishing a task force of top federal officials to work with state and local authorities to prosecute cases stemming from the crash of the housing market and the Wall Street meltdown. Wed, 18 Nov 2009 00:01:00 -0500 http://www.post-gazette.com/pg/09322/1014322-84.stm?cmpid=nationworld.xml Fear, apparently, can be a powerful inducement. Wed, 18 Nov 2009 00:01:00 -0500 http://www.post-gazette.com/pg/09322/1014323-84.stm?cmpid=nationworld.xml WASHINGTON -- More than $98 billion in taxpayer dollars spent by government agencies was wasted, much of it on questionable claims for tax credits and Medicare benefits, representing an increase of $26 billion from the previous year. Wed, 18 Nov 2009 00:01:00 -0500 http://www.post-gazette.com/pg/09322/1014327-82.stm?cmpid=nationworld.xml BEIJING -- President Barack Obama today wraps up a three-day visit to China that has left him keenly aware of the limits of his administration's leverage over this economic powerhouse on issues from currency exchange rates to human rights. Wed, 18 Nov 2009 00:01:00 -0500 http://www.post-gazette.com/pg/09322/1014330-84.stm?cmpid=nationworld.xml WASHINGTON -- Worried that the Army may have missed red flags about the alleged shooter in the Fort Hood massacre, the Pentagon probably will open an inquiry into how all the military services keep watch on other volatile soldiers hidden in their ranks, officials said yesterday. Wed, 18 Nov 2009 00:01:00 -0500 http://www.post-gazette.com/pg/09322/1014333-84.stm?cmpid=nationworld.xml WASHINGTON -- At September's G-20 economic summit, President Barack Obama announced that the group would become the principal framework for tackling the world's economic challenges. Wed, 18 Nov 2009 00:01:00 -0500 http://www.post-gazette.com/pg/09322/1014335-82.stm?cmpid=nationworld.xml TEHRAN, Iran -- Iran has sentenced five defendants to death in a mass trial of opposition figures accused of fomenting the unrest that followed the disputed June presidential election, state television reported yesterday. Wed, 18 Nov 2009 00:01:00 -0500