A US judge has approved General Motors’ bankruptcy sale, in a move that will allow the company’s most profitable assets to exit Chapter 11 bankruptcy protection under government ownership.Reuters Newsagency says Judge Robert Gerber of the US bankruptcy court in Manhattan said the sale would “prevent the death of the patient on the operating table.”GM, which filed for bankruptcy protection on June 1, had argued that it would be forced to liquidate if the sale was not approved.The US government sa

By Khalid Amayreh in the West Bank On 11 June, members of the Palestinian security agencies detained Haitham Amr, a resident of the small village of Beit al-Rush, 25 kilometers south west of Hebron . Two days later, Amr, 32 and father of three small children, was found dead in his cell at the Mukhabarat (General Intelligence) headquarters in downtown Hebron . Amr apparently died after he was subjected to an unusually harsh session of torture resulting in a massive intern

WASHINGTON - Besides Abraham Lincoln, President Barack Obama looks up to Mahatma Gandhi and Nelson Mandela as his heroes for bringing about transformative change without violence by changing people’s minds and hearts. “Abraham Lincoln is probably the President who I find most compelling because not only did he deal with probably the biggest crisis in American [...]

WASHINGTON - Citing the rapid growth of India, China and Brazil, President Barack Obama says in a more integrated world, it was not for the US to dictate policy around the world, but to be a partner with them. “In terms of, I think, the US’s role in the world, obviously, we remain a military [...]

by hilzoy From MSNBC : "Around Washington and Wall Street they have come to be known as TBTF — too big to fail. It's not just size, though. These companies are so far-flung, so intertwined and so precariously leveraged that a single one's collapse can create systemwide tremors that imperil the finances of millions of Americans. With that fear in mind, the government stepped in to bail out Citigroup Inc., Bank of America Corp. and American International Group Inc. with tens of billions of p