Poll after poll shows Newt Gingrich with a commanding lead for the Republican nomination for president.
The latest NBC/Wall Street Journal poll is the gaudiest yet, giving the former speaker of the House 40 percent among Republicans across the country, nearly double the number for erstwhile front-runner Mitt Romney.
Iraq's Shiite Prime Minister Nouri al-Maliki, left, shakes hands with Iran's President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad during an official meeting in Tehran on Oct. 18, 2010.
Credit Mario Tama / Getty Images
Shiite worshipers march after cutting their scalps in a ritual display of mourning during an Ashura ceremony outside Kadhimiya shrine in Baghdad, Iraq, on Dec. 6. Shiite festivals such as this were prohibited under dictator Saddam Hussein, a Sunni. Shiite Iran is seeking greater influence in Iraq, and Iraq's Sunni neighbors are doing the same.
Earlier this month, a ceremony took place in Baghdad that was unthinkable under Iraqi dictator Saddam Hussein: Ashura, the annual Shiite ritual marking the slaying of Imam Hussein, the grandson of the prophet Mohammad and one of the most revered figures in Shiite Islam.
As the trumpets sounded in Baghdad's notorious Shiite slum of Sadr City, boys and men wearing white shrouds brought swords down onto their shaven heads. Thick red blood gushed onto their faces. Hussein sacrificed for us, the belief goes, and devoted followers are ready to sacrifice for him.
There's been some consternation on the Web about what happened this weekend at a post office in Silver Spring, Md., when three Christmas carolers — all decked out in shawls, bonnets and a top hat (for the guy) — popped in and started singing.
It seems that one of the USPS managers on duty jumped into action, telling the trio that they couldn't do that because they were on government property.
Cuba is one of the least-connected countries in the world, a time-warped place where millions of young people have never been online and a dial-up Internet account is the stuff of dreams.
An undersea fiber-optic cable linking the island to Venezuela was supposed to change that this year. But six months after its completion, frustrated Cubans are still starved for web access.
