Over this past week, I had some interesting conversations with colleagues who are also health care professionals. These conversations usually start with, "You know what I hate about the media ... ?" Now, over the past eight years, I have grown accustomed to being engaged in these sort of discussions where I am asked about everything the "media" have reported over the past few months, and asked to defend things point by point. It can be a challenging task. ...

The light at the end of the recession tunnel is distant and dim for the nation's cities, according to a survey by the National League of Cities. While optimistic federal officials hint at an economic turnaround, city finance officers say the picture remains bleak for city governments. This is chiefly because a top source of municipal income -- property tax revenue -- tends to lag behind changes in the market. Because cities typically phase in property tax assessments, the full ...

The Argentina Supreme Court was deliberating a case Tuesday that would decriminalize possessing small quantities of some drugs, which would make Argentina the second Latin American country in the past four days to allow personal use.

Visitors to the Basilica of the National Shrine in northeast Washington often do a double take when they see Newt Gingrich and his familiar shock of white hair slip into a pew for the noon Mass on Sundays. The former Speaker of the House is known for many things, but religious zeal is not one of them. In fact, the social conservatives who fueled his Republican revolution in 1994 often complained about Gingrich's lack of interest in issues like ...

Yin Jui-rong was one of the lucky ones. "I watched my village get buried," says the aboriginal farmer in southern Taiwan, one of hundreds in the mountainous region caught in the island's worst floods in 50 years. On August 8, Yin and 300 others in the township of Namasia fled their homes and climbed up a nearby mountain to higher ground. They spent three stormy days and nights under makeshift tents before the weather cleared enough for them to ...

Homebuilders are getting back to work. Is that good news for the housing market? In June, the number of new houses being built unexpectedly jumped from the month before. The Census Department recently reported that June also showed an increase — a small increase, but one nonetheless — in the amount of money going toward residential construction. Housing permits, which also speak to builder confidence, are creeping up too. As an Aug. 10 report from Oppenheimer Asset Management ...

After several delays, the trial of Myanmar's pro-democracy leader Aung San Suu Kyi entered its final phase Friday as lawyers began delivering closing arguments under tight security at Yangon's Insein Prison. A verdict was not expected Friday. Nyan Wun, Suu Kyi's lawyer, said that by law, the court cannot announce a verdict on the same day as closing arguments. Suu Kyi, 64, was charged with breaching the terms of her house arrest, which she has been under for 14 of ...

In the largest U.S. military operation since Falluja in Iraq, thousands of U.S. Marines recently poured into southern Afghanistan in a bid to turn the war around, win over the Afghan people and push out the Taliban. Operation Khanjar, or Strike of the Sword, began in the dark morning hours of July 2nd, with thousands of U.S. Marines leading an effort to clear and hold villages and districts that were under Taliban control in Helmand province. "We put about 4,000 ...

Sri Lanka's 26-year civil war between the government and the separatist Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam came to a dramatic end in May with a decisive military victory and the killing of Velupillai Prabhakaran, the Tigers' fearsome leader. President Mahinda Rajapaksa is the man who tamed the Tigers. Now his task is to heal a nation still divided by tensions between the majority Sinhalese and the minority Tamils. In a rare, wide-ranging interview, Rajapaksa, 63, talked with TIME's ...

The trial in Myanmar of pro-democracy leader Aung San Suu Kyi drew closer to an end Friday with testimony from the last witness and the scheduling of closing arguments. After completing a seven-hour examination of Suu Kyi's final defense witness, the court announced that closing arguments will be heard July 24. Nyan Win, Suu Kyi's lawyer, said the legal team has finished drafting arguments, which totaled 18 pages. Suu Kyi reviewed them and added four more pages, he said. The ...