WASHINGTON, Dec. 31 (UPI) -- The much criticized -- and usually with good reason -- U.S. news media missed or underreported a lot of big stories in 2008. Half the stories that UPI lists as the most neglected or "lost" of 2008 were in Latin America and Africa -- entire continents that have dropped off the map as far as the national U.S. media are concerned.
WASHINGTON, Dec. 30 (UPI) -- Israel stepped up its bombing campaign against major Hamas centers in Gaza Tuesday as prospects grew that heavy ground forces might be sent in to topple the extreme Islamist regime there.
WASHINGTON, Dec. 29 (UPI) -- Oh what a year it was! New faces exploded on the U.S. political scene. Hope soared over the election of Barack Obama as the first ever African-American president of the United States, but economic fear spread like kudzu too as the worst financial crisis in almost 80 years shattered the American financial system.
WASHINGTON, Dec. 26 (UPI) -- U.S. President George W. Bush remains convinced history will judge him less harshly than most of the American people now do in poll after poll.
WASHINGTON, Dec. 24 (UPI) -- When Yuri Gagarin became the first human being to fly in space, Soviet Premier Nikita Khrushchev boasted that he never found God there. But On Christmas Eve 1968, the three American astronauts of Apollo 8 did.
WASHINGTON, Dec. 23 (UPI) -- U.S. President-elect Barack Obama's honeymoon period has crossed the Atlantic: European nations are planning on holding a conference next month to discuss resettling freed terror suspects who are currently held at Guantanamo Bay, Cuba.
WASHINGTON, Dec. 22 (UPI) -- The Bush administration in effect is throwing up its hands in despair at the growing political and humanitarian crisis in Zimbabwe. The U.S. government has concluded it no longer can support the power-sharing agreement between Robert Mugabe, president for almost three decades, and the opposition, The New York Times reported Monday.
WASHINGTON, Dec. 19 (UPI) -- The U.N. General Assembly Thursday approved a "Defamation of Religion" resolution, largely supported by Islamic countries, condemning critical or offensive expressions directed at any religious faith. What's not to like?
According to critics of the resolution, quite a lot.
WASHINGTON, Dec. 18 (UPI) -- The plotters arrested in Iraq's Interior Ministry did not pose a serious threat to the government of Prime Minister Nouri al-Maliki. But the very existence of the plot throws enormous doubt over the survival and stability of Iraq's 3-year-old democratic system, once the main combat force of the U.S. armed forces leaves the country. That will occur within the next 18 months, if U.S. President-elect Barack Obama can fulfill his stated timetable.
WASHINGTON, Dec. 17 (UPI) -- By cutting interest rates to a historic low of 0.25 percent, the U.S. Federal Reserve has run out of maneuvering room as far as using interest rates as an instrument of monetary policy.
WASHINGTON, Dec. 16 (UPI) -- There is a sense of fitting symbolism to Caroline Kennedy's agreement to seek the appointment to Sen. Hillary Clinton's New York Senate seat.
WASHINGTON, Dec. 15 (UPI) -- In the end, the Iraqi people did not bid farewell to U.S. President George W. Bush with gratitude or wreaths of victory. Instead an individual, unarmed Iraqi threw shoes at him, a traditional demonstration of anger and contempt.
WASHINGTON, Dec. 12 (UPI) -- President-elect Barack Obama's choice as U.S. energy secretary was another bold surprise. He picked the first Nobel Prize winner and the first Asian-American ever to hold the job.
WASHINGTON, Dec. 11 (UPI) -- Cleanup teams started work on repairing an estimated $300 million worth of damage in Athens Thursday, but as Greece still simmered from its worst riots in 40 years, fears grew around Europe that the violence may be a sign of the shape of things to come.
WASHINGTON, Dec. 10 (UPI) -- The annual Hajj is drawing to a close in Mecca without any major accident, tragedy or terrorist attack. And across the Middle East, developments look -- at least for the moment -- uncharacteristically positive.
WASHINGTON, Dec. 9 (UPI) -- It was just as well that the five men held at Guantanamo Bay accused of planning the Sept. 11, 2001, attacks on the United States withdrew their guilty pleas because they could not be certain they would be sentenced to death.
WASHINGTON, Dec. 8 (UPI) -- Barack Obama's selection of former Army Chief of Staff Gen. Eric K. Shinseki as his first secretary of veterans affairs is a political coup that solves several political domestic problems for the president-elect. It also sends a strong signal to the world about the very different form the U.S. government's policymaking apparatus will take in the new administration.
WASHINGTON, Dec. 5 (UPI) -- U.S. President George W. Bush is leaving office not with a whimper but a bang -- and it's the bang of a sinking U.S. economy.
WASHINGTON, Dec. 4 (UPI) -- The heads of America's Big Three automakers -- General Motors, Ford and Chrysler -- descended on Washington Thursday in a convoy of hybrid and flex-fuel vehicles seeking $34 billion in loans to save the floundering U.S. auto industry. They look certain to get the bailout, but U.S. public opinion, even in the Midwest heartland where the industry is based, remains surprisingly lukewarm, even hostile.
WASHINGTON, Dec. 3 (UPI) -- Israelis and Palestinians alike should be in no doubt. The new report on the Middle East from the Brookings Institution and the Council on Foreign Relations is no mere straw in the wind: It spells out in considerable detail what the Obama administration's strategy and priorities for Iran and the Israeli-Arab peace process are going to be.
WASHINGTON, Dec. 2 (UPI) -- Forget the worst global economic crisis in 75 years, the terrorist atrocities in Mumbai, the continuing genocide in Darfur or the Russian invasion of Georgia. As far as the users of the Yahoo! search engine were concerned, 2008 was still Britney Spears' year.
WASHINGTON, Dec. 1 (UPI) -- President-elect Barack Obama has chosen a highly experienced, pragmatic A-team to run U.S. national security during his administration. He appears to have opted for forceful, passionate individuals who can be expected to clash on some key issues. The talent level looks high. But the dangers of serious collisions between key individuals on major policy issues down the road are already clear.
WASHINGTON, Nov. 28 (UPI) -- The wave of Islamist terrorist attacks in Mumbai has claimed at least 143 dead so far, and it augurs a grim new chapter in international terrorism.
WASHINGTON, Nov. 26 (UPI) -- President-elect Barack Obama is said to be asking Robert Gates to stay on at least a year longer as U.S. secretary of defense. The move may anger many liberals among Obama's base, but it looks likely to be widely welcomed in the U.S. armed forces and the Pentagon.
WASHINGTON, Nov. 25 (UPI) -- U.S. President-elect Barack Obama warned of tough days ahead when he introduced his new economic team Monday. Yet the markets rose following his news conference for the second day in a row.
U.S. President Barack Obama signs the Ultralight Aircraft Smuggling Prevention Act of 2012 as former Congresswoman Gabrielle Giffords, her husband Mark Kelly (R) and Vice President Joe Biden look on in the Oval Office of the White House in Washington, DC on February 10, 2012. UPI/Pat Benic...
