States across the country are passing laws intended to make ex-offenders more likely to find jobs and, as a result, less prone to commit crime again. Behind the legislative trend is an unusual combination of budget-conscious officials seeking to trim prison populations and activists opposing "structural discrimination" against applicants with criminal records.

The federal trial of five police officers in the grisly post-Katrina murder of Henry Glover is underway in New Orleans, and a parade of witnesses is slowly winding through the court.

Russia's president suggested Friday changes to the country's spy agency are coming in the wake of this summer's arrest of agents in the United States and a report that a top Russian intelligence officer helped capture them.
At a news conference in Seoul, South Korea, Dmitry Medvedev was asked about the report in the newspaper Kommersant.
"There has to be an examination of this ... The relevant lessons will be studied," Medvedev said.

President Barack Obama said Friday he is open to a compromise with Republicans on extending tax cuts for the wealthiest Americans although he argued it would be fiscally irresponsible.

NEW YORK – Amazon is no longer selling a self-published guide for pedophiles.

SEOUL, South Korea (AP) — A strong sense of pessimism shrouded the start of an economic summit of rich and emerging economies Thursday

ATLANTA (AP) — A government survey says 1 in 10 U.S. children has ADHD, a sizable increase from a few years earlier that researchers think might be explained by growing awareness and better screening.

WASHINGTON (AP) -- Following a survey of U.S. troops and their families, a Pentagon study group has concluded the military can lift the ban on gays serving openly in uniform with only minimal and isolated incidents of risk to the current war efforts, The Washington Post reported Wednesday.

WASHINGTON — In a politically incendiary plan, the bipartisan leaders of President Barack Obama's deficit commission proposed curbs in Social Security benefits, deep reductions in federal spending and higher taxes for millions of Americans Wednesday to stem a flood of red ink that they said threatens the nation's very future.

President Obama is now in his third country in as many days after landing in Seoul, South Korea. The President was in Indonesia yesterday, and India the day before that.
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