Obama Sticks to a Deadline in Iraq When President Obama approved a plan to withdraw combat forces from Iraq  this summer, it was based on the assumption that a newly elected government would be in place by the time Americans headed home. Fourteen months later, that assumption is exploding but the plan remains the same. The delay and messy aftermath of the Iraqi election mean it may be months before the next government is formed, even as tens of thousands of American ...

Sudan’s Future Is Now, U.S. Envoy Says A day after Sudan’s leader coasted to victory in a fraud-tainted election, a senior Obama administration official defended the vote, and said the United States should turn its attention to getting southern Sudan  ready for its likely future as an independent state. “If we don’t redouble our efforts, and work so hard, we know what the predicted outcome will be: it will be violence,” Maj. Gen. Scott Gration, the administration’s special envoy to Sudan, said ...

A Surprise on Wall Street: Luxury Rentals May Benefit From Stabilization Ben Rosen, a 23-year-old private equity analyst, never had second thoughts about moving into 37 Wall Street, a luxury Beaux-Arts building that houses a Tiffany store and sits among the country’s halls of financial might. It had all the amenities any titan in training might want. A marble-lined lobby. A private screening room. A cavernous residents’ lounge filled with glowing crystal chandeliers, 30-foot floor-to-ceiling curtains, creamy leather chairs and pool tables ...

Mexico issues travel alert over new Ariz. immigration law "It must be assumed that every Mexican citizen may be harassed and questioned without further cause at any time," the Mexican Foreign Ministry said in a statement issued Tuesday. The government missive is escalating an already volatile debate on the measure signed by Republican Arizona Gov. Jan Brewer, who said the law was necessary because the federal government has failed to address persistent illegal immigration. Arizona law simply regulates immigration the same way ...

Haiti: Lesser Charge For Missionary A Haitian judge said Tuesday that he dropped kidnapping charges against Laura Silsby and nine other American missionaries because the children they were trying to take out of Haiti were given over freely by their parents. The judge, Bernard St.-Vil, said Ms. Silsby would be tried on a lesser charge of arranging illegal travel because she knew she had no right to take the 33 children out of Haiti. He also said that Ms. Silsby deceived ...

China Lifts Ban on Visitors Who Are H.I.V. Positive Days before travelers worldwide are to begin arriving for Shanghai’s world exposition, China  has lifted a two-decade ban on travel to the country by people who carry the virus that causes AIDS or who have other sexually transmitted diseases. The action also removed a longstanding ban on travel to China by people with leprosy. The government approved amendments to a 1986 law governing quarantines and a 1989 law regulating entry by foreigners, removing prohibitions ...

Hundreds Wait for Free Health Care in L.A. Hundreds of people with hundreds of reasons to seek free medical care lined up before dawn and poured into the Los Angeles Sports Arena Tuesday for physical exams, eye exams, glasses, screenings, tests and dental work. Charlea Williams lost her job and all her medical and dental coverage. Josh McGrew works, but can't afford health insurance. He needs to "get some teeth pulled." CBS News correspondent Bill Whitaker reports 300 medical volunteers will serve 1,200 patients ...

Future Pope’s Role in Abuse Case Was Complex As Pope Benedict XVI has come under scrutiny for his handling of sexual abuse cases, both his supporters and his critics have paid fresh attention to the way he responded to a sexual abuse scandal in Austria in the 1990s, one of the most damaging to confront the church in Europe. Cardinal Hans Hermann Groër in Vienna in 1995. The cardinal died in 2003, out of the public spotlight. Times Topics: Pope Benedict XVI Defenders of ...

High Court to Hear Case on Violent Video Games Supreme Case Agreed to Hear Case on Violent Video Games Taking up a new First Amendment test of disturbing images, the Supreme Court agreed Monday to hear California's appeal of a decision that struck down a state law prohibiting the sale or rental of violent video games to minors. The justices' decision to accept the case, which will be heard in the term that begins next fall, comes a week after the justices threw ...

Miss. Mom Dies Saving Kids From Tornado More than two days after a massive tornado tore across 17 Mississippi counties, Yazoo City resident Sherry Carpenter is still overwhelmed by the loss. Her three grandchildren were in this house when the tornado picked it up and smashed it to the ground. Their mother, 30-year-old Nikki Bradshaw Carpenter, covered them with a mattress and then laid on top of it to protect them. She was found dead but her sons survived, sheltered underneath the mattress and ...