Bill Gates is runner-up in Forbes' annual billionaire ranking and Warren Buffett comes in third.
Carlos Slim remains the world's richest person for a second year with estimated assets of $74 billion, according to Forbes magazine's annual global ranking of billionaires....
Libyan leader Col Muammar Gaddafi's security forces detained and beat up a BBC news team who were trying to reach the strife-torn western city of Zawiya. The three were beaten with fists, knees and rifles, hooded and subjected to mock executions by members of Libya's army and secret police....
Qaddafi Forces Batter Rebels in Strategic Refinery Town By Kareem Fahim and David D. Kirkpatrick, New York Times, March 9, 2011
BREGA, Libya — Forces loyal to the Libyan leader, Col. Muammar el-Qaddafi, repulsed a rebel push to the west on Wednesday and then counterattacked with airstrikes and increasingly accurate artillery fire on the strategic refinery town of Ras Lanuf, which the rebels have held for several days.
KUWAIT CITY // Around 1,000 Kuwaitis gathered yesterday in front of Seif Palace in one of the country's largest anti-government protests. The demonstrators called for the prime minister, Sheikh Nasser Mohammed al Sabah, to be replaced.
By Hadeel Al-Shalchi, Associated Press, March 9, 2011
CAIRO: Clashes between Christians and Muslims escalated on Tuesday with thousands of people burning tires, smashing parked cars and cutting off a main road despite military moves to control a day of violent protests in Egypt’s capital...,
ISLAMABAD, Pakistan — A car bomb exploded near an office of the country’s premier intelligence agency in eastern Pakistan on Tuesday, killing at least 24 people and wounding more than 132, the police and emergency officials said.
The Pakistani Taliban claimed responsibility for the attack. Ahsanullah Ahsan, a Taliban spokesman, said the target was an office of the Inter-Services Intelligence Directorate, the main intelligence agency....
NPR, formally known as National Public Radio, has had it with trolling trolls and spamming spammers plying their trade in the comments the sections of npr.org Web pages. The public radio service has decided to take a rather unique approach to prevent the ad hominem, shamelessly vile and abusive comments that are the trademark of the 21st century Internet troll.
Last week, NPR announced that it had instituted a vetting process for new commenters on its website....
By Sheryl Gay Stolberg, New York Times, March 6, 2011
As House hearings on the threat of homegrown Islamic terrorism approach, led by Republican Republican Rep. Peter King, the White House is trying to reassure Muslims.
For the last three years, Gallup has called 1,000 randomly selected American adults each day and asked them about indicators of their quality of life. Responses are converted to the Gallup-Healthways Well-Being Index. Here are the 2010 results, sorted by Congressional districts
By Nelson D. Schwartz and David Streitfeld, New York Times Business, March 4/5, 2011
State attorneys general have presented the nation’s five biggest banks with a list of demands that could drastically alter the foreclosure process and give the government sweeping authority over how mortgage servicers deal with millions of Americans in danger of losing their homes....
By Paul Krugman, Conscience of a Liberal Blog @ New York Times, March 4, 2011
My take on the US economic crisis has increasingly been that banks were less central than many people think, while the housing bubble and household debt are the key players — which is why financial stabilization by itself wasn’t enough to produce a V-shaped recovery.
But if I take all that seriously, I should be very worried about Canada:...
Reporters Without Borders is appalled by yesterday’s wave of searches and arrests of investigative journalists in Istanbul and Ankara in connection with a probe into an alleged anti-government plot. Journalists who have helped to shed light on this case are being made to pay for the tension between the government and the secularist and ultra-nationalist opposition....
By Jessica Holzer, Wall Street Journal, March 4, 2011
WASHINGTON—Securities and Exchange Commission Chairman Mary Schapiro has asked the SEC's watchdog to open a probe into her former top lawyer, whose work on Bernard Madoff's case is drawing scrutiny because he inherited money tied to the Ponzi scheme.
Former SEC General Counsel David Becker is being sued as part of a "clawback" case by the trustee seeking to recover assets on behalf of victims of Mr. Madoff's fraud.
