THE OBAMA ADMINISTRATION appears to have found an elegant way out of its contraceptive problem — or, perhaps more to the point, to the political problem created by its approach to contraceptive coverage. As we wrote after the previous policy was announced last month, increased access to contraception is important; requiring contraception as part of the standard health insurance package, without deductibles or co-payments, makes sense. But given the strong objections of the Catholic Church to contraception, it also makes sense to exempt religious employers from having to spend their own money on a service that violates their moral views. The administration recognized the need for such a carve-out, but it erred in drawing it too narrowly, to cover churches but not Catholic hospitals, charities and other such religiously affiliated institutions. Read full article > >

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Editorial Board: President Obama’s win-win reversal on contraception

The late Arizona Republican senator Barry Goldwater , aptly dubbed “Mr. Conservative” probably understands better than anyone exactly what Newt Gingrich is now going through . As with the Republican establishment onslaught encountered by Gingrich in his run for the Republican nomination, Goldwater in 1964 also ran smack into a GOP establishment as desperate then, as it is now, to stop a conservative they couldn’t control from becoming the standard bearer. Read full article > >

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Colby King: Gingrich and Goldwater, establishment targets

The credit ratings agency Standard & Poor’s (S&P) downgrades the EU bailout fund, the EFSF, to AA+ from AAA.

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S&P downgrades EU’s bailout fund

French PM Francois Fillon defends his government’s economic policies following the decision by Standard and Poor’s to downgrade the country’s credit rating.

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France downplays rating downgrade

French PM Francois Fillon defends his government’s economic policies following the decision by Standard and Poor’s to downgrade the country’s credit rating.

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France downplays rating downgrade

The EU’s top economic official hits out at a decision by Standard and Poor’s to downgrade the credit ratings of nine eurozone countries.

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EU criticises ratings downgrade

The ratings agency Standard & Poor’s also cut Portugal’s credit to junk status, lowered Italy’s rating and downgraded several other countries caught in the euro crisis.

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Debt Ratings Cut for 9 Countries Amid Euro Woes

WASHINGTON — U.S. home prices fell in most major cities for the second straight month, further evidence that the housing recovery will be bumpy and weigh on the broader economy in 2012. The Standard & Poor’s/Case-Shiller index released Tuesday showed prices dropped in October from September in 19 of the 20 cities tracked. Read full article > >

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Private survey shows home prices fell in 19 of 20 cities tracked, second straight monthly drop

Ron Paul rides in the back of a campaign van that’s rolling toward the New Hampshire seacoast for a town hall meeting. He’s fastidious in a dark-blue suit. He’s not the standard presidential candidate — he lacks the factory-built appearance of Mitt Romney or Rick Perry. He’s thin, bony, a bantam rooster. He’s 76 — the only one in the race who was born during the Great Depression. Read full article > >

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Ron Paul: The Alternative Candidate is a force to be reckoned with

If rumors were dollars, the arcane world of particle physics would have enough cash to solve the Euro crisis. For weeks, statements circulating on physics blogs have hinted at the discovery of an elusive particle essential to our understanding of how the universe works. Called the Higgs boson, this particle — if spotted — would all but complete the fundamental theory of particle physics, known as the Standard Model. Confirmation of the Higgs would solve the mystery of why matter has the property that physicists call mass — the resistance to being shoved around. Read full article > >

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Scientists close in on linchpin of physics, the ‘God particle’

Exam board Edexcel says it is “certain” the standard of its qualifications are on a par with its rivals, after claims they are too easy.

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Exam board defends test standards

The Higgs particle is also known as the Higgs boson, or “ the God particle ,” a term that Leon Lederman used some years ago and which delighted journalists but surely offended photons and electrons throughout the universe. The Higgs is named after Peter Higgs, a theorist who four decades ago predicted its existence as part of the Standard Model of particle physics. No one’s ever found one. Discovering the Higgs is a central purpose of two very elaborate experiments being conducted at the Large Hadron Collider at CERN. On Tuesday, the CERN scientists will announce their latest batch of results, and, as Scientific American has reported , rumors abound that they’ve homing in on the Higgs. More here from Nature . Read full article > >

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Joel Achenbach:
Higgs particle: Getting closer

European stocks and the euro slid and most bond yields rose after the threat from rating agency Standard & Poor’s to downgrade euro zone countries en masse if no credible plan to solve the debt crisis emerges at a summit later this week.

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S&P Move Piles Pressure on Euro Zone Assets

Ratings agency Standard and Poor’s puts almost the entire eurozone, including Germany and France, on “credit watch” due to the debt crisis.

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Ratings agency warns euro nations

Belgium has its credit rating downgraded by ratings agency Standard & Poor’s, on concerns about government debt.

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Belgium credit rating downgraded