Want to snatch up some Facebook shares? Tough luck, if you’re an American. Goldman Sachs is limiting the private offering of up to $1.5 billion in shares to non-US clients only. In a statement to the Wall Street Journal , Goldman says the “intense media attention” surrounding the deal “might…
Continue reading …A vial holding the blood of Pope John Paul II will be installed in a Polish church as a relic, the AP reports. The vial will form part of the altar at a Krakow church due to open in May, the month of the late Polish pope’s beatification. The city’s…
Continue reading …A restaurant owner screaming anti-government slogans set himself on fire outside the Egyptian parliament in Cairo today, in the latest of several attempted self-immolations mimicking the one that set off Tunisia’s uprising last month. But security officials, with the help of passing motorists, doused the blaze with fire-extinguishers, thwarting the…
Continue reading …Darrell Issa is eager to investigate the Obama administration, but he’s got plenty of skeletons in his own closet. In a lengthy profile, the New Yorker dredges up a series of scandalous allegations from the House Oversight Chairman’s criminal past. Among them: Issa has been accused of burning down a…
Continue reading …Bad idea: Having sex with a married man. Worse idea: Having sex with a married man who also happens to be your hospice patient. A nurse has lost her license for 20 years after admitting to doing just that, the Oklahoman reports. Amber Van Brunt, 33, is appealing the Oklahoma…
Continue reading …It’s time for the media to end its Palin infatuation—and for Sarah Palin to end her media obsession. The need for a divorce was never more clear than last week, when controversy bubbled up over Palin’s “crosshairs” map and her subsequent “blood libel” speech, writes Ross Douthat for the…
Continue reading …On Martin Luther King Jr. Day, it’s fitting to announce that the civil rights leader himself was voted the most influential black American leader. TheGrio asked 25 academics, artists, and activists to rank a list of 170 black leaders, and the website calculated the top 25: Martin Luther King, Jr….
Continue reading …Oprah Winfrey has always been a sort of contradiction: A person who touts “the betterment of the species,” yet frequently features guests like, well, Jenny McCarthy; a person who is interested in “spirituality and personal growth,” yet connects with her audience through very, very expensive gifts. Never has this inconsistency…
Continue reading …If you think Neanderthals, with their broad foreheads and big noses, were, well, not so attractive, don’t blame the cold for their looks . For 150 years, scientists have theorized that Neanderthals’ distinctive appearance was an adaptation that allowed them to withstand ice-age Europe’s freezing conditions—but new research has found…
Continue reading …Mitch McConnell and a handful of other Senate Republicans took a secret trip to Afghanistan and Pakistan this weekend, announcing the trip only today—just before their return flight. The group, which included Lindsey Graham, Richard Burr, and freshmen Marco Rubio, Ron Johnson, Pat Toomey, and Kelly Ayotte, met with…
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