Pressure had been building on President Obama for days to say something about the killing of Trayvon Martin, the Florida teenager shot to death by a neighborhood watch volunteer, and on Friday the president finally did.
And almost as soon as he did, some people suspected him of a cynical election-year attempt to appeal to black voters, judging by the reaction by some on social media and conservative sites. Martin was African American, his killer of mixed white and Hispanic parentage.
Former Solicitor General Paul D. Clement speaks during a forum at the Georgetown University Law Center on March 9. Clement will be arguing against President Obama's health care act in the Supreme Court next week.
Paul Clement is, quite simply, a walking superlative. A wunderkind who at age 34 became deputy solicitor general and then was promoted to the top spot, solicitor general of the United States, becoming the youngest person to hold that post in more than a century. Now 45, he has argued an astonishing 57 cases before the Supreme Court, more than any other lawyer since 2000. And next week, he will lead the challenge to the Obama health care overhaul, in the Supreme Court.
Joyce Wong, a pregnant 30-year-old, takes part in a January 15 protest against immigration laws that allow babies born in Hong Kong to mainland Chinese mothers to be eligible for residency, education and medical care in the territory. Hong Kong residents fear the influx of mainlanders will further burden overtaxed resources.
A girl holds a Hong Kong newspaper with an anti-mainland Chinese advertisement featuring a picture of a locust looking over the Hong Kong cityscape. The ad is one of the latest signs of Hong Kong fears that mainlanders are overrunning the territory.
A mainland Chinese tourist crosses the street carrying multiple shopping bags in Hong Kong's Tsim Sha Tsui district. Tourists from the mainland spend more money in Hong Kong than tourists from all other countries combined.
Former convener of Hong Kong's Executive Council Leung Chun-ying (left) and former Hong Kong Chief Secretary Henry Tang (shown here March 16) are the leading candidates to be Hong Kong's next leader, who will be chosen March 25 by a Beijing-selected committee.
A committee of Hong Kong's handpicked elite will select the territory's new leader this weekend after a hotly contested fight, which has left both the main front-runners tainted by scandal.
It's been 15 years since Hong Kong, a former British colony, reverted to Chinese sovereignty, yet tensions between local people and those from the mainland run deeper than ever.
Originally published on Thu June 21, 2012 11:14 am
A New York pop-rock trio with a spunky and theatrical side, fun. began when singer Nate Ruess was coming off the breakup of his long-running band The Format.
George Zimmerman, in a 2005 mug shot provided by the Orange County (Fla.) jail, via The Miami Herald. Zimmerman has remained silent while many around the country have voiced outrage about his shooting of Trayvon Martin during a neighborhood watch patrol.
People across the country have had something to say about the death of Trayvon Martin, but the man at the center of the case — George Zimmerman — remains silent.
The neighborhood watch volunteer told police he was acting in self-defense when he shot Trayvon last month. Zimmerman has yet to be charged with a crime — or to speak publicly about what happened, leaving others to speak for him.
There's been a lot of scrutiny of the call Zimmerman made to 911 moments before his collision with Trayvon. But that was hardly Zimmerman's first call to the police in Sanford, Fla.
Connie Marrero, age 100, was a major league all-star who struck out the likes of Joe DiMaggio and Mickey Mantle. He returned to his native Cuba after his career ended. He's now the oldest living ex-major leaguer and is finally getting a pension payment. He's shown here at his apartment in Havana.
The 1952 baseball card of Connie Marrero. He had an 11-8 record that year with a 2.88 ERA for the Washington Senators. The year before, he was on the American League All-Star team.
The oldest living former major league baseball player doesn't live in the United States, but in Cuba.
His name is Conrado Marrero, but he was Connie Marrero when he pitched for the Washington Senators in the early 1950s. Today Marrero is blind and unable to walk, and next month he'll be 101 years old.
The man who once struck out Joe DiMaggio and Mickey Mantle lives in a small, modest apartment in Havana with the family of his grandson, who is also his caretaker.
This August 23, 2011 photograph obtained courtesy of the Defense Video & Imagery Distribution System (DVIDS) shows Staff Sgt. Robert Bales (right) at the National Training Center in Fort Irwin, California. (Note at 10:50 p.m. ET: Earlier, we mistakenly said he was on the left.)
Army Staff Sgt. Robert Bales has been officially been charged with 17 counts of premeditated murder for the March 11 killings of unarmed men, women and children in Southern Afghanistan, The Associated Press just reported from Kabul.
It adds that "premeditated murder is a capital offense and if convicted, Bales could be sentenced to death."
Now researchers in Australia think they've filled in another piece of the puzzle there.
They say the vaccine is better at targeting some strains of the bacterium responsible for whooping cough, Bordetella pertussis, and that's allowing other strains to flourish.
You've probably heard of compost – that thick chocolate-colored stuff that's an organic gardener's best friend and supplies plants with all kinds of succulent nutrients.
