Former British Prime Minister Tony Blair will be called before an inquiry into the country's role in the Iraq war, its chairman said during the opening Thursday. John Chilcot told media he would not "offer a list of witnesses" but that "key decision-makers in the key phases of the Iraq affair" would be called. "You can work out for yourself who some of them will be, but apart from the former prime minister [Tony Blair] -- who it's obvious we ...

TIME senior writer Karen Tumulty sat down with President Barack Obama on Tuesday afternoon to talk about his work both in public and behind the scenes to push a health-care-reform measure through Congress. Here's the full transcript. TIME: I thought I'd talk to you a little bit about just sort of the whole degree to which this is really a test of leadership, health care is, as much as anything. And last year at the news conference, ...

Dr. Conrad Murray was suffering financially with nearly $435,000 in judgments and liens against him over the past two years, according to court documents. Then he decided to leave his practice and work for Michael Jackson, getting paid $150,000 a month. Before working with the King of Pop, Murray spent most of his time operating clinics in both Nevada and Texas after graduating from Meharry Medical College, a historically black school in Nashville, Tennessee, in 1989. He spent his internship ...

The same blue food dye found in M&Ms and Gatorade could be used to reduce damage caused by spine injuries, offering a better chance of recovery, according to new research. Researchers at the University of Rochester Medical Center found that when they injected the compound Brilliant Blue G (BBG) into rats suffering spinal cord injuries, the rodents were able to walk again, albeit with a limp. The only side effect was that the treated mice temporarily turned blue. The results ...

Nearly two years after he pleaded guilty to a federal charge of bankrolling a dogfighting operation at a home he owned in Virginia, Michael Vick was reinstated to the National Football League on a conditional basis, according to an NFL statement Monday. Vick "will be considered for full reinstatement and to play in regular-season games by Week 6 based on the progress he makes in his transition plan," the statement said. Week 6 of the NFL season is in October. ...

Swedish striker Zlatan Ibrahimovic has completed his 46 million euros ($65m) transfer to Barcelona from Inter Milan on a five-year contract, with Samuel Eto'o and Alexander Hleb moving to the San Siro as part of the deal. Ibrahimovic completed his medical on Monday and the deal was finalized despite scans showing the striker has a fractured bone in his left hand. "It's a very big move for me and too good to turn down," Ibrahimovic told a news conference at ...

Life can be complicated enough for members of the transgender community — the last thing they need is to have to choose between two bathroom doors: male or female. Fortunately for students at the Kampang high school in rural northern Thailand, there's now a third option. Introduced in May, the third bathroom features a symbol on its door of a human figure divided vertically, its blue side wearing pants and its red side sporting a skirt. The Kampang school's principal says he decided to ...

Political tension over the deadly riots that struck northwest China has spilled into an unlikely venue: the Melbourne International Film Festival. Three Chinese directors announced they were pulling their works from the event to protest the inclusion of a documentary about a Uighur activist. The Uighurs are a Turkic speaking, largely Islamic minority group concentrated in China's northwestern Xinjiang region. On July 5 several hundred Uighurs went on a rampage in Xinjiang's capital of Urumqi. The violence left 197 ...

Fans were shocked when T.R. Knight made the surprising decision to leave "Grey's Anatomy," the hit medical drama that launched him to fame. This week, in an exclusive interview with Entertainment Weekly, the actor reveals what led him to his decision, and he also candidly discusses "Isaiahgate," coming out of the closet, and leaving his friends at Seattle Grace. This fall, Knight was surprised to see his character George O'Malley all but vanish from the show -- for the ...

As President Obama prepares to address the nation in a primetime news conference, some sources say Democratic grumbling about his plan for health care is growing louder. One Democratic senator told CNN that some congressional Democrats are "baffled," and another senior Democratic source told CNN that those members are frustrated that that they're not getting more specific direction from him on health care. "We appreciate the rhetoric and his willingness to ratchet up the pressure but what most Democrats on ...