Way back in January, Barack Obama asked his health-care advisers for a simple number. "I want to know how clearly and how unequivocally I can tell the American people their costs are going down when this is done," he said, according to someone at the meeting. During the campaign, Obama had promised to "lower health-care costs by $2,500 for the typical family," helping him make the sale on Election Day; the question, he knew, was going to be whether ...

Huddled on the top floor of her home after waist-deep water inundated the lower story, Doranne Lim is bothered by the debris -- and the smell. "My house is super, super messy," she said, speaking from her home in the eastern Manila suburb of Pasig City. The mud left behind by receding floodwaters -- caused when the nearby river flooded its banks -- is "really smelly." Her car won't start, probably because the engine is flooded. Her microwave and refrigerator ...

Enough Afghan opium to supply world demand for two years has effectively gone missing, with the Taliban suspected of stockpiling supplies in a bid to corner the market, the United Nations Office for Drugs and Crime (UNODC) has revealed. Afghanistan is the world's leading narcotics supplier. Earlier this month, a U.N. study revealed Afghanistan's opium production had dropped dramatically this year partly because of new aggressive drug-fighting tactics in the country. According to the UNODC report, production dipped by ...

The mother of a missing 2-year-old Indiana girl said police are working "around the clock" to find her daughter, who was apparently taken from a parked car while her baby sitter was in a convenience store. Jada Justice was last seen about 9:40 p.m. on June 16, when her 18-year-old babysitter and cousin stopped at a Gary, Indiana, convenience store to buy milk and cigarettes. The baby sitter, identified as Engelica Castillo, told authorities that when she came out, Jada ...

A Dutch lawmaker who made a controversial film about Islam planned to travel to Britain on Thursday despite a ban on his entry. Geert Wilders said he was invited to screen his film, "Fitna," at the House of Lords on Thursday evening, but was informed by the British ambassador to the Netherlands that he would be refused entry because the beliefs expressed in the film would threaten public security. Wilders said he still intends to fly to Britain in the ...

Tyler Perry is on fire. The filmmaker's latest movie, "I Can Do Bad All By Myself," burned the rest of the competition by grossing $24 million, according to early estimates by Hollywood.com Box Office. In only five years, Perry has made eight films, five of which debuted at the top of the charts. "I Can Do Bad" represented the director's third-largest opening, trailing "Madea Goes to Jail," which put away $41 million its first weekend earlier this ...

A U.S. soldier was detained Sunday in connection with the shooting death of a civilian contractor at Contingency Operating Base Speicher in Tikrit, Iraq, the military said. The filmmaker's latest movie, "I Can Do Bad All By Myself," burned the rest of the competition by grossing $24 million, according to early estimates by Hollywood.com Box Office. In only five years, Perry has made eight films, five of which debuted at the top of the charts. "I Can ...

The British government has not dropped the case of a British police officer who was shot dead outside the Libyan embassy in London 25 years ago, the Foreign Office insisted Sunday. Prime Minister Gordon Brown raised the killing of Yvonne Fletcher with Libya's leader, Moammar Gadhafi, as recently as July, when he visited Tripoli, a Foreign Office spokesman said. "It is vital that the investigation is allowed to resume by the Libyans. The Fletcher family deserves answers. We continue to ...

Yale University announced Friday a $10,000 reward to anyone with information leading to a missing graduate student and bride-to-be. Police are searching for Annie Le, 24, who was last seen outside a Yale School of Medicine building. Authorities in Connecticut are reviewing security camera footage, examining Le's computer and checking blueprints of the building, according to Yale spokeswoman Dorie Baker. Co-worker Debbie Apuzzo told CNN affiliate WTNH-TV that Le was scheduled to be married Sunday, and "her fiance hasn't heard ...

Two employees at the Baltimore, Maryland, branch of the liberal community organizing group ACORN were caught on tape allegedly offering advice to a pair posing as a pimp and prostitute on setting up a prostitution ring and evading the IRS. The video footage -- which has been edited and goes to black in some areas -- was recorded and and posted online Thursday by James O'Keefe, a conservative activist. He was joined on the video by another conservative, Hannah Giles, ...