BEIRUT — When ordinary Syrians began taking to the streets last March, at first in small numbers to call for greater freedoms and later in the hundreds of thousands to demand the overthrow of President Bashar al-Assad, they had no idea just how hard it would be or how long it would take. Read full article > >

Excerpt from:
A year into uprising, Syrian protesters say they won’t give up

BEIRUT — When ordinary Syrians began taking to the streets last March, at first in small numbers to call for greater freedoms and later in the hundreds of thousands to demand the overthrow of President Bashar al-Assad, they had no idea just how hard it would be or how long it would take. Read full article > >

See the article here:
A year into uprising, Syrian protesters say they won’t give up

Big banks are trying to sell higher-margin products like mutual funds, stocks and retirement advice to customers who have assets in the hundreds of thousands as a way to raise their revenue.

Go here to read the rest:
To Increase Revenue, Banks Go After Affluent

Big banks are trying to sell higher-margin products like mutual funds, stocks and retirement advice to customers who have assets in the hundreds of thousands as a way to raise their revenue.

Read more:
To Increase Revenue, Banks Go After Affluent

Staff say money to feed the hundreds of animals there is running out.

Go here to read the rest:
VIDEO: Bleak future for Tripoli zoo animals?

FORT BRAGG, N.C. — Three years after he campaigned against the Iraq war near this Army post, President Obama returned Wednesday to hail the hundreds of thousands of U.S. troops who fought to establish the “sovereign, stable and self-reliant Iraq” that America will leave behind this month. With his wife, Michelle, by his side, Obama marked the United States’ imminent departure from Iraq by telling hundreds of active service members, many clad in fatigues and maroon berets signifying active airborne status, that the war was a “source of great controversy” at home. As a U.S. senator, Obama had opposed the decision to invade Iraq and had railed against the conflict in a 2008 campaign speech in nearby Fayetteville. Read full article > >

Read the original here:
At Fort Bragg, Obama hails the end of the Iraq war

LOS ANGELES — Hundreds of Occupy Los Angeles protesters showed no sign they planned to move Sunday ahead of a city-imposed midnight deadline to abandon their encampment, saying they would instead hold an “eviction block party.” Although city officials have told demonstrators they must leave the weeks-old protest site and take their nearly 500 tents with them by 12:01 a.m. Monday, just a handful were seen packing up Sunday. Read full article > >

See the article here:
Will they stay or will they go? Occupy LA faces test of peaceful relationship with city

Energy Secretary Steven Chu was preparing to speak at a black-tie gala this month, and the hundreds of people milling about there were busy gabbing. Seeking to quiet the din, Chu called out “Solyndra, Solyndra, Solyndra,” and people stopped to listen. He didn’t mention the company again. Ever since Solyndra, a California manufacturer of solar panels, went bankrupt Sept. 5 with $535 million of federal loan guarantees, Chu and his Energy Department have been the focus of some unwanted attention. The department has been hammered by members of the House Energy and Commerce Committee , which has unearthed reams of Obama administration e-mails about internal rifts over the Solyndra loan guarantee . Rep. Cliff Stearns (R-Fla.) , head of the panel’s oversight subcommittee, has gotten Chu to agree to testify Nov. 17. And GOP presidential candidate Newt Gingrich called for Chu to be fired for “grossly mismanaging federal dollars.” Read full article > >

Read more here:
Energy Secretary Steven Chu, renowned physicist, at center of Solyndra policy storm

We’ve selected our favorite snap shots from the hundreds of submissions to our annual Travel photo contest. Now its your turn. Let us know which of these pictures makes you want to pack your bags and jump on a plane. Read full article > >

View original post here:
Poll: Vote for your favorite Travel contest photo

Forty-eight years ago Sunday, when Martin Luther King Jr. was about to make his historic speech on the National Mall, I was huddled close to the statue of Abraham Lincoln, tapping on a portable typewriter, making last-minute changes to my own speech. As the newly elected chair of the Student Non-violent Coordinating Committee, speaking at the March on Washington was one of my first important actions. Dr. King spoke tenth; I was sixth. Today, I am the last surviving speaker from the march. When I think back on that day, and the hundreds of thousands of people who responded to the call to march on Washington, there is no question that many things have changed. Then, Martin Luther King Jr. was a controversial figure taking risks so that his voice might be heard. Today, the mere mention of his speech — and its powerful “I have a dream” refrain — evokes hope for the future, stirring memories of the past and mandates for change, but the context in which Dr. King delivered those words was quite different. Read full article > >

See the original post here:
What would Martin Luther King Jr. say to President Obama?

Q: How can you capi­tal­ize on the hundreds of thousands of veterans and bikers who come to the D.C. area for Rolling Thunder and Memorial Day weekend? A: Throw them a four-day, patriotic-themed party. Such were the origins of Stars & Stripes & Spokes , a motorcycle rally that runs through Monday on the grounds of RFK Stadium. The four-day event — the first of what organizers hope will become an annual tradition — was the brainchild of three construction managers from Maryland who wanted to give motorcyclists, veterans and others a venue to let loose while they are in town. Read full article > >

See original here:
D.C. motorcycle rally called ‘party with a purpose’

Call them Trump’s stumps. Last spring and summer, workers at Trump National Golf Club in Loudoun County chopped down more than 400 trees along the Potomac River so their golfers could have a better view of the water. Eight months later, the fate of the mile-long stretch of shoreline — where migratory birds once nested and bald eagles perched to fish — remains a source of conflict among the Trump Organization, local officials and environmentalists, who are dickering over how to stabilize the riverbank and what to do with the hundreds of stumps left behind. Read full article > >

See the original post:
Donald Trump says he’s an environmentalist; others beg to differ

The tornadoes weren’t forgotten. The families of the hundreds who were killed in last week’s record outbreak that flattened towns in the South, and the tens of thousands whose homes or businesses were damaged, and the many donors and volunteers who rushed to their aid from around the world didn’t forget about the destruction, even after the United States announced it had killed Osama bin Laden.

See the article here:
Mayor: Eyes back on tornado disaster

Osama bin Laden used the fruits of his family’s success — a personal fortune estimated in the hundreds of millions of dollars — to help finance al Qaeda in its quest for a new pan-Islamic religious state.

Link:
The face of terror

HAVANA — Hundreds of thousands of Cubans marched through Havana and other cities on Sunday to mark May Day in a demonstration touted as a vast show of support for economic changes recently approved by the Communist Party — even though the people holding placards and shouting slogans haven’t seen the details yet.

Read the original here:
Cubans march in support of economic changes, despite lack of details of what they are