Last Monday, the Navy was the hero across America, for the exploits of its SEALs in bringing Osama bin Laden to justice. This Monday, the sea service was zero in certain quarters for saying it will permit same-sex marriages within its hallowed chapels. It marks the first of what is likely to be many thunderclaps associated with the lifting of the "Don't Ask, Don't Tell" ban on openly gay men and women serving in the U.S. military. Navy ...

The blow, when it finally fell, was unexpectedly jarring. Despite years of agonized Western debate about combatting terrorism, months of mostly fruitless diplomatic maneuvering, weeks of U.S. warnings and finally days of ominous public silence, the world still seemed unprepared when the bombers struck. Although Libya had felt the sting of the Sixth Fleet over the Gulf of Sidra just three weeks before, the principal buildings and the minarets of the central mosque in Tripoli were bathed by floodlights, providing ...

You wouldn't think the man who made his mark in Washington as the knight-errant of campaign-finance reform and whose name is rarely written without the word maverick attached would ever meet a cause he deemed hopeless. But that was pretty much where Arizona Senator John McCain was a couple of weeks ago in his quest to transform the nation's immigration laws and set on the path to becoming citizens the estimated 11 million people who are here illegally. When the proposition ...

Is there anybody out there investors can trust? Wall Street was pondering that today as markets were hammered following last night's announcement that WorldCom had inflated profits by a staggering $3.8 billion over the past five quarters. The Dow skidded towards the 9,000 level, while the news pushed the NASDAQ to near post-Sept. 11th levels. The accounting slight-of-hand was accomplished by calling some ongoing costs, like network maintenance, capital expenditures — a move that let the company spread costs over several years, thus ...

It has taken President Obama three months to reach the decision on Afghanistan that he'll share with the nation Tuesday night, because there are no easy solutions. His chosen path will win applause from some quarters but boos from others. Here's a scorecard outlining the key questions the speech will address, to determine what proposals Obama has embraced and the risks he's willing to accept — and who's likely to be pleased or ticked off as ...

Several armed men Thursday abducted a French national working for the Red Cross in Sudan's volatile Darfur region, the agency said. China has also become the biggest vehicle market in the world this year and car sales expanded an extraordinary 78 per cent last month from a year ago. Over the National Day holiday in early October, retailers say large flat-screen TVs flew off the shelves. Throughout the biggest external crisis to hit the Chinese economy in at least a ...

Marian Cilic will face second seed Novak Djokovic in the final of the China Open on Sunday after handing world No. 2 Rafael Nadal his first defeat in Beijing. Top seed Nadal, who won the tournament in 2005 and also claimed the gold medal at the 2008 Olympics, lost 6-1 6-3 to the eighth-seeded Croatian wildcard entry to end his 14-match winning run in the Chinese capital. Djokovic defeated French Open finalist Robin Soderling 6-3 6-3 to set up a ...

Britain wants to scale back its Trident nuclear deterrent program by cutting the number of missile-carrying submarines from four to three, Foreign Secretary David Miliband said. British Prime Minister Gordon Brown will formally announce his readiness to scale back Trident when he speaks to the U.N. General Assembly on Wednesday afternoon, Brown's office at 10 Downing Street confirmed. The decision is part of Britain's long-term goal of nuclear non-proliferation around the world, Miliband said late Tuesday outside the United Nations. ...

If you've got to be there for work anyway, why not live it up? That seems to be the sentiment of a growing number of workers who are extending business trips to squeeze in some vacation time, surveys from Orbitz and PhoCusWright suggest. The trend could be blamed on the soft economy, rising travel costs and busy schedules affording less time to fit in traditional getaways, said Dean Sivley, senior vice president and chief operating officer for Orbitz for ...

The Iraqi man who threw his shoes at former U.S. President George W. Bush last year, Muntadhar al-Zaidi, was freed from jail Tuesday, his brother told CNN. Udey al-Zaidi confirmed the release of his brother, who was serving a one-year sentence. Under Iraqi law, a "conditional discharge" allows for the release of a prisoner after he serves three-quarters of his sentence, on good behavior. Al-Zaidi has been in jail since the December 14 news conference, during which he threw his ...