poll: Romney up by two points in Virginia

  Thise race for the White House has tightened in Virginia, where Mitt Romney is now preferred over Barack Obama by two percentage points -- 47-45 percent.  That’s according to a Fox News poll of Virginia likely voters released Thursday.  Romney’s edge is within the poll’s margin of sampling error. The poll shows...

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Syria agrees to cease-fire, sort of

UN: Syria agrees to holiday cease-fire STORY HIGHLIGHTS NEW: Saudi Arabia deports three Syrian diplomats Under pressure, the government announces the release of some detainees The cease-fire would extend to Monday (CNN) -- The guns that have ravaged much of Syria since March 2011 may fall silent Friday, now that Syria's...

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Fatal explosion hits Damascus; at least 10 dead

21/10/2012 - 10:43:05An explosion has hit the Old City of Damascus, killing at least 10 people and wounding dozens of other civilians, Syrian activists said.It came as president Bashar Assad discussed the civil war in his country with visiting UN peace envoy Lakhdar Brahimi.The blast targeted a police station in the Bab Touma...

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Cash seized at Dublin Airport

25/10/2012 - 18:35:47Revenue Customs officers have seized almost €100,000 at Dublin Airport. The €99,900 in notes was found when a 55-year-old Slovakian man was stopped and searched as he was about to board a flight to Vienna this morning. The money was found on the man's person and concealed inside this clothing. A Dublin court...

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Romney, let's not quickly indict Ahmadinejad

Reality Check: Nuclear Iran STORY HIGHLIGHTS Mitt Romney proposed indicting Mahmoud Ahmadinejad for inciting genocide William Burke-White: Romney's idea is legally challenging and diplomatically wrongheaded Should Ahmadinejad actually be tried, he may well be acquitted, Burke-White says Burke-White: For now, America must...

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Industrial action from Aer Lingus workers now 'inevitable'

25/10/2012 - 19:05:47SIPTU said this evening that industrial action is now inevitable after talks with Aer Lingus regarding its pension scheme collapsed.It is expected that a wide-ranging strike will take place in the coming weeks.Earlier this month strike action at the country's main airports was narrowly averted when both...

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Finding Zen in a Patch of Nature

Buck Butler for The New York Times David Haskell in in Sewanee, Tenn., on the Domain of the University of the South. SEWANEE, Tenn. — It is afternoon in a hardwood forest on the edge of the Cumberland Plateau, and the cicadas are singing. David Haskell, an ecologist and evolutionary biologist at the University...

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In Contest for Rescue Robots, Darpa Offers $2 Million Prize

The Pentagon’s advanced research agency said on Wednesday that it will offer a prize of $2 million to the winners of a contest testing the performance of robots that could be used in emergencies like the Fukushima nuclear crisis in Japan. The Defense Advance Research Projects Agency, which is responsible for helping the nation...

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True Blue Stands Out in an Earthy Crowd

Robert F. Bukaty/Associated Press NATURAL COLOR: Wild blueberries ready for harvesting in Warren, Me. For the French Fauvist painter and color gourmand Raoul Dufy, blue was the only color with enough strength of character to remain blue “in all its tones.” Darkened red looks brown and whitened red turns pink, Dufy said, while...

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Fish Off Japan’s Coast Said to Contain Elevated Levels of Cesium

TOKYO — Elevated levels of cesium still detected in fish off the Fukushima coast of Japan suggest that radioactive particles from last year’s nuclear disaster have accumulated on the seafloor and could contaminate sea life for decades, according to new research. Enlarge This Image Asahi Shimbun, via Getty...

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No Rest for the Eerie

Getty Images IT’S surprising that American audiences still get a thrill from seeing a haunted house on screen. Hasn’t the subprime crisis, with its predatory lending and underwater mortgages, caused enough real-life home-related terror in the last few years? But last weekend, “Paranormal Activity...

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Bleary-Eyed Troops Fight a Building at a Time in Syria

Muhammad Al-Ibrahim/Shaam News Network, via Reuters A photo released by activists was said to show an opposition flag flying Sunday in Homs, Syria. By JANINE DI GIOVANNI Published: October 24, 2012 HOMS, Syria — For more than 24 hours, President Bashar al-Assad’s soldiers fought their way through this city, bleary-eyed...

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Obama: GOP nominee suffering from 'Romnesia'

Jason Reed / Reuters President Barack Obama stops mid-stride to greet supporters during a campaign rally at George Mason University in Fairfax, Va., Oct. 19, 2012. By NBC's Ali Weinberg President Barack Obama has been hitting GOP nominee Mitt Romney for weeks over what he says is Romney’s shifting to more moderate general-election...

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The Right Goal, the Wrong Approach

Monica Youn is the Brennan Center Constitutional Fellow at New York University School of Law. October 24, 2012 A proposal to amend the Constitution can function on two levels, the actual -- forcing a change in constitutional law -- or the aspirational -- transforming popular understanding and engagement. It’s ...

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Venerable Way to Overrule Reactionary Justices

Jamie Raskin is a professor of constitutional law at American University’s Washington College of Law and a state senator in Maryland, where he leads the Special Committee on Ethics Reform and serves as whip for the Democratic majority. He is the author of "Overruling Democracy: The Supreme Court Versus the American...

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The First Amendment Is Just Fine As Is

Floyd Abrams is a senior partner in the firm of Cahill Gordon & Reindel. He represented Senator Mitch McConnell, Republican of Kentucky, in the Citizens United case. He also has represented The New York Times in the Pentagon Papers case and other prominent cases. October 24, 2012 I’ve just returned from a few days...

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The Only Way to Revive Real Democracy

Bob Edgar is the president and chief executive of Common Cause. He represented a suburban Pennsylvania district in the House as a Democrat from 1975 to 1987. October 24, 2012 If we’re serious about restoring government of, by and for the people, we need to get big money out of our elections. From the Watergate era...

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Truth Squad: The third and final presidential debate

Andrea Mitchell and NBC's Truth Squad examine claims made by each candidate at the third and final debate of the 2012 presidential election in Boca, Raton, Fla. NBC News takes a deep dive into the statements made by President Barack Obama and Republican presidential nominee Mitt Romney in their third and final debate of...

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