Issue of the Day

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.