On a bridge outside Berlin one gloomy morning 50 years ago Friday stood Francis Gary Powers, the pilot of a CIA spy plane that was shot down over the Russian Ural mountains. He had waited 21 months for this moment. He had survived a plane crash, weeks of harsh interrogation and the brutal conditions of a Soviet prison. He was on the threshold of freedom, and his heart was thumping heavily. Read full article > >

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A spy swap’s legacy persists, 50 years on

Since Mitt Romney announced his candidacy last June, he has continually made two core claims about Obama’s economic record , each of which contradicts the other. Depending on the moment, Romney has said either: Read full article > >

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Greg Sargent: Faced with good news about economy, Romney dissolves into incoherence

The bad news for Washington Wizards Coach Flip Saunders? At the moment, his job is not in jeopardy . That means while Washington area basketball fans avert their eyes from the winless Wizards, Saunders is stuck with his front-row seat for the foreseeable future. Saunders might very well be the wrong coach for a young team, half of whose players have less than two years of NBA experience. The problem, though, is this team isn’t right for anyone right now. Not Hall of Famers Phil Jackson or Pat Riley. Not even fictional miracle workers like Norman Dale of Hollywood’s “Hoosiers.” Read full article > >

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Washington Wizards: An embarrassment by design

TUCSON — Bells rang across Tucson on Sunday marking the exact time last year that the city was rocked by a deadly shooting rampage that left Rep. Gabrielle Giffords gravely wounded and six people dead. The bells at 10:11 a.m., the moment of the Jan. 8, 2011, shooting, opened a day of remembrance events across Tucson for survivors of the shooting, the victims’ families and city residents. Read full article > >

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Bells toll as Tucson marks anniversary of deadly shooting rampage

For the U.S. Navy, it was like hitting the public-relations jackpot: An aircraft carrier strike group that just left the Persian Gulf stumbles across an Iranian fishing vessel in distress, hijacked by pirates. Forces from the U.S.S. John C. Stennis carrier strike group, whose presence in the region had provoked a rhetorical outburst from Tehran that spooked global oil markets , swiftly made the most of the moment. They seized 15 Somali pirates without firing a shot and rescued 13 hungry Iranian fishermen who had been held hostage for several weeks. Read full article > >

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U.S. picks up Iranian hostages, with good timing

The candidate tries to keep his moment from slipping away.

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Newt Gingrich’s Glory Days

Coach John Thompson III’s early roll continues with each surprising Georgetown victory. The Hoyas’ top man is accomplishing the unexpected. If Thompson can keep this up all season, it could rank as his best. At the moment, there’s just no other way to view Georgetown’s results. Thompson’s mostly inexperienced team isn’t supposed to be this effective — definitely not 8-1 good after key players from last season moved on — but it’s apparently ignorant to that fact. Read full article > >

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John Thompson III has Georgetown Hoyas on an early-season roll

M itt Romney ’s offer of a $10,000 bet got us wondering about the state of oddsmaking around the race for the Republican presidential nomination. And while Romney is clearly a betting kind of man, he might not like his own odds at the moment. Political betting has surged in recent years, and online bookies now offer gamblers the chance to bet on everything from the Iowa caucuses to the 2012 general election. Read full article > >

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Betting on Mitt? Newt?

Now that the sweeping defense authorization bill for 2012 has passed the Senate and House, the fight over Tricare, the health insurance plan for the military, has reached a truce — for the moment. House and Senate negotiators are working out differences in the defense authorization bill before it goes to President Obama, but Tricare is not among the contested issues. Read full article > >

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Battle over military health-care premiums slows — for now

For the moment, let’s say we’re not buying the official, nothing-to-see-here story the White House is dishing about the gaping hole being ripped into the lawn outside the Oval Office. Let’s say we suspect the construction crews that have been dipping their backhoes into the most secure soil in the free world are doing something more complex than mere utility work. Read full article > >

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In the nation’s capital, underground is where it’s at

For the moment, let’s say we’re not buying the official, nothing-to-see-here story the White House is dishing about the gaping hole being ripped into the lawn outside the Oval Office. Let’s say we suspect the construction crews that have been dipping their backhoes into the most secure soil in the free world are doing something more complex than mere utility work. Read full article > >

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In the nation’s capital, underground is where it’s at

How a kid with a laptop at his dad’s kitchen table came to define the moment in hip-hop.

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Lex Luger Can Write a Hit Rap Song in the Time It Takes to Read This

A common message from anti-abortion activists is that “women deserve better than abortion.” Today, however, one branch of that movement is taking women down a notch with a new strategy that could prioritize the rights of fertilized eggs over the rights of the women carrying them. A question on the ballot in Mississippi next month will ask voters to decide: “Should the term ‘person’ be defined to include every human being from the moment of fertilization, cloning or the equivalent thereof?” This issue is before voters thanks to the “personhood” movement, which says that conception is the moment that a person, and a person’s legal rights, begin to exist. Read full article > >

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How an anti-abortion push to redefine ‘person’ could hurt women’s rights

A photographer captures the moment a woman was attacked by a rutting stag in a Royal Park in south-west London.

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Attack on woman by rutting stag

You knew the moment would come; it always does. The transaction’s over, and you have a crucial decision to make: Do you tip the hotel doorman who swung the portal open for you? What about the pool guy who brought you a towel? Or the room-service waiter who handed you a bill that includes a service fee? Or anyone who assisted you in Japan? Read full article > >

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Brother, can you spare a tip?