Harvard has drawn 35,000 applications this year—a 15% increase over last year and a whopping 50% increase in four years. That means about 6% of Class of 2014 applicants will be admitted, compared to about 9% of Class of 2010 applicants. About one in 50 high school seniors…
Continue reading …Chinese media loudly heralded Hu Jintao’s trip to the US—but it has hardly said a word about his recent comments on human rights, the Washington Post reports. Discussing the matter with President Obama at a joint news conference, President Hu said “a lot still needs to be done in…
Continue reading …With the royal wedding day approaching, Brits are placing their bets—and some of them are wagering on whether or not Kate Middleton and her prince will divorce. They’re also betting on things like the length of Kate’s wedding dress train, and how many minutes late she’ll be to the…
Continue reading …In all the speculation over the reason for “Baby Doc” Duvalier’s sudden return to Haiti, a possible new motive has emerged: The former dictator may have been seeking access to cash, the New York Times notes. The former ruler allegedly embezzled $300 million from his country, but insiders say he…
Continue reading …South Korean commandos stormed a chemical freighter that had been hijacked by Somali pirates in the Indian Ocean last week, rescuing all 21 captives while killing eight pirates and capturing five more, according to officials in Seoul. The raiding party boarded the ship in the pre-dawn darkness this morning, systematically…
Continue reading …President Barack Obama is restructuring his economic advisory board to place an emphasis on job creation, and he is naming General Electric CEO Jeffrey Immelt as its new head. The new board, called the President’s Council on Jobs and Competitiveness, will replace the former Economic Recovery Advisory Board that had…
Continue reading …Nejdra Nance—or, as her biological parents know her, Carlina White—has been reunited with her real family after 23 years , but the story is far from over. While her appearance answers a lot of questions for her biological family and Nance herself, it raises others—the most pressing of…
Continue reading …Recruiting and training replacements for gay service members discharged under the military’s “Don’t Ask, Don’t Tell” policy cost the Pentagon a whopping $193 million from 2004 to 2009, according to the Government Accountability Office. The analysis found that 1,442 of the 3,664 service members dismissed for being gay…
Continue reading …A Norwegian teen has hard-rockers Creed to thank for saving his life. The 13-year-old says he was walking from school and headed to his family’s farmhouse on Monday when he stumbled upon four wolves. “I was afraid they would attack me,” Walter Eikrem says, but instead of fleeing, he blasted…
Continue reading …A majority of Americans want the massive federal budget deficit dealt with now instead of when the economy improves, according to a New York Times / CBS poll. An overwhelming majority say they would prefer the deficit to be addressed through spending cuts instead of higher taxes. That preference, however,…
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