Palin to Repay State for $7K in Travel Reimbursements

February 25, 2009

(CNN) — Alaska Gov. Sarah Palin will repay her state for travel expenses for nine trips with her children as part of a settlement of a 2008 ethics claim, the attorney who investigated the matter said Tuesday.

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UK: Cameron's Son Dies

February 25, 2009

LONDON — The severely disabled 6-year-old son of British opposition leader David Cameron died suddenly on Wednesday, and the country’s usually partisan politicians united in expressing their shock and grief.

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Wolf: What Obama Should Tell the G20

February 25, 2009

The London summit of 1933 marked the moment at which co-operative efforts to manage the Great Depression collapsed. The summit of the Group of 20 countries, in the same city, on April 2, must turn out quite differently. That may seem a simple task. It is not. The usual platitudinous communiqué would be a catastrophe.

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Defiant Iran Increases Centrifuges

February 25, 2009

BUSHEHR, Iran (AP) — Iran’s nuclear chief says the country has increased the number of centrifuges enriching uranium to 6,000, the latest show of defiance to U.N. demands it halt the enrichment program. In November, Iran said it had 5,000 centrifuges running at its enrichment plant in the central city of Natanz.

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Japan Prime Minister Tells Obama to Play Cautious on North Korea

February 25, 2009

The global economic crisis has complicated the effort to end North Korea’s nuclear ambitions, diminishing the “cards” for Pyongyang and nations seeking to end its weapons program, Japanese Prime Minister Taro Aso said in an interview yesterday.

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What Obama Really Meant

February 25, 2009

President Obama’s non-SOTU speech was in many ways an improvement on the norm. Less soaring rhetoric and more a laundry list than his typical speeches, it nonetheless encapsulated his agenda for the coming four years. As Allen and Vandehei write: “Obama wants to use this historic downturn to enact historic policies.”

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Correlated Disaster: The Simple Formula That Killed Wall Street

February 25, 2009

A math wizard named David X. Li dreams up a formula, a Gaussian copula function, so marked by its elegance, accuracy and simplicity that it is used around the world in finance. Five years after this breakthrough which everyone hailed, the overvalued model started cracking. And then, in a flash, it wrecked the marketplace.

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WH Officials: Troops Out of Iraq in 18 Months

February 25, 2009

POTUS to pull all US combat troops from Iraq by August 2010. It’s three months later than what he cited during the campaign, and he’ll leave as large of a contingent behind as W had planned (up to 50k) as a standing force to advise Iraqi security forces. Remember 100 years? We’ll see.

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Obama's Support Strong, but Historically Average, Divided

February 25, 2009

Aide claims to Jake Tapper that Obama’s strong approval rating is “earned.” In fact, it’s exactly average for a president after their first month in office. Yet the partisan gap in approval is significantly wider than all but the past two presidents. Statistically Obama parallels Clinton’s first month, but with less support from independents.

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Wall Street: Thank You Sir, May We Have Another?

February 25, 2009

Fat Tuesday marks biggest stock increase in a month on the heels of Fed Reserve Chair Bernanke’s statement that banks should not be nationalized and that the economy is going to turn the corner soon. Citigroup and Bank of America both rose more than 20 percent. Forget shorting: the phrase “sharp and scary rebound” abounds.

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