A kinkajou, 1886. After weeks of infighting, Congress passed a two-month extension of the payroll-tax cut. House Republicans, who had rejected a nearly identical measure days earlier, were left divided over the stopgap measure, which pitted recently elected lawmakers seeking major reforms against party veterans. “When you start making decisions based on elections,” said Representative Mo Brooks (R., Ala.), “then you run the risk of having the mess we just did.” President Barack Obama also signed into law a $1 trillion spending bill, warning that he reserved the right to challenge certain provisions promoted by Republicans, such as a prohibition …

An American cattleman. The first round of parliamentary elections in Egypt since president Hosni Mubarak was ousted in February brought to the polls an unprecedented 62 percent of registered voters, many of whom had never voted before. “I don�??t know any of the parties or who I�??m voting for,” said a Christian woman in the southern city of Assiut. “The first names I see, I guess.” The hard-line Nour party, which seeks to impose strict Sharia law, won 24 percent of the vote, while the Muslim Brotherhood, which claims it will apply Islamic law “in a fair way,” led with …

A Christian martyr. The congressional supercommittee assigned to devise a plan for reining in the federal deficit failed to reach an agreement, triggering $1.2 trillion in budget cuts that will take effect in 2013, including cuts to defense spending and Medicare. Senate Democrats planned to follow up the failed talks by introducing $400 billion in new spending legislation over the coming weeks, while Republicans indicated that they would try to reconfigure the automatic cuts in order to spare defense programs. “The knives,” said Senator Chuck Schumer (D., N.Y.), “are over our heads.”Los Angeles TimesThe HillReuters via NBCPoliticoProtesters with the Occupy …

Egyptian troops killed at least 30 people and wounded at least 1,250 when demonstrators descended on Cairo’s Tahrir Square following an attempt by the ruling Supreme Council of the Armed Forces to delay a presidential election and increase the military’s power under Egypt’s forthcoming constitution. The country’s interim civilian cabinet submitted its resignation, and a Supreme Council spokesman urged protesters to consider the damage they were doing to the economy. “There is an invisible hand in the square,” he said, “causing a rift between the army and the people.”MSNBCNew York TimesNew York TimesA police officer at the University of California, …

Greek prime minister George Papandreou agreed to step down following a week in which he proposed a referendum on EU measures to save his country’s collapsing economy, narrowly won a confidence vote, retracted his referendum proposal, and signed a coalition deal to approve the bailout. “I am not tied to my chair,” said Papandreou. ReutersCNNReutersGuardianAmid sex scandals and corruption allegations, and ahead of a key budget vote, Silvio Berlusconi denied rumors he would step down as Italian prime minister. Berlusconi was also reported to have delayed the release of his Greek-folk-influenced album, “True Love,” over concerns about the European financial …

A Christian martyr. Two American citizens, Anwar al-Awlaki and Samir Khan, were killed by a CIA drone in Yemen. Awlaki, a cleric whose speeches purportedly inspired young Muslim radicals, had been added to the CIA�??s list of terrorist targets in early 2010. According to the U.S. government, Awlaki, who has never been tried or convicted of a crime in the United States, directed several failed terrorist plots. Khan, who edited a jihadi magazine, was never an official U.S. target. “Make no mistake,” said President Barack Obama, “this is further proof that Al Qaeda and its affiliates will find no safe …

The United States observed the tenth anniversary of the terrorist attacks that killed nearly 3,000 people on September 11, 2001. Thousands of mourners gathered at the World Trade Center site in Lower Manhattan, at the Pentagon, and in a field near Shanksville, Pennsylvania. Relatives and loved ones read out the names of the victims, bagpipers played, and six moments of silence were observed, one for each airliner and one for each of the twin towers. President Barack Obama visited all three sites in the course of the day. In New York City, he read from Psalm 46, and former president …

An earthquake with a Richter magnitude of 5.9 and an epicenter in Mineral, Virginia, shook much of the East Coast, and Irene, a Category 1 hurricane, made landfall in North Carolina and continued up the Atlantic seaboard, killing at least 38 people in 10 states. The unusually large and slow hurricane caused an estimated $7 billion in damages, mostly due to flooding, and left millions of people without power. In Tuxedo Park, N.Y., Irene pushed at least 15 heating-oil trucks into the Ramapo River, spilling large amounts of fuel into the water. “An environmental disaster is floating down the river,” …

The “News of the World,” a British tabloid, was shuttered amid a police investigation into allegations its journalists had hacked into the cell phones of as many as 7,000 people, including politicians, celebrities, and murder victims. Two former editors were arrested, owner Rupert Murdoch called the scandal “deplorable,” and a disgruntled staffer told the paper�??s former editor in chief, Rebekah Brooks, that she�??d “toxified” the publication. Crossword clues in the paper�??s final edition included the terms “Brook,” “stink,” “catastrophe,” “criminal enterprise,” “string of recordings,” “will fear new security measure,” “digital protection,” and “mix in prison.”CNNGuardianAtlanticTelegraph (London)A computer virus attached to …

In Shabqadar, Pakistan, two men approached a group of paramilitary cadets and blew themselves up, riddling the crowd with ball bearings and killing sixty-six members of the Frontier Constabulary, many of whom had recently graduated. The Taliban took responsibility for the attack, calling it retribution for the assassination of Osama bin Laden.GuardianFive days after Israelis celebrated their independence day, Palestinian protesters in Lebanon, Syria, Gaza, and the West Bank commemorated the Nakba, or catastrophe, the displacement of Palestians from their land. In Syria, the Nakba protests briefly overshadowed uprisings against the Assad regime, which continued its campaign of violent crackdowns …

The wire master and his puppets, 1875. President Barack Obama announced that the government would not release pictures of Osama bin Laden’s mutilated corpse, saying, “We don’t need to spike the football.”CBS NewsThe Associated Press filed a Freedom of Information Act request for all photos and video shot during the raid on the compound in Abbottabad, Pakistan, where bin Laden was hiding, and reporters discovered cabbage, potatoes, and marijuana growing around the property. National Press Photographers AssociationSarah Palin tweeted that President Obama was “pussy-footing around,” and the White House released footage found in the compound showing bin Laden watching himself …

A Christian martyr. Osama bin Laden was reported to have been killed during a joint mission by U.S. Navy SEALs and CIA agents in Abbottabad, Pakistan. Crowds gathered to celebrate in front of the White House, and at Times Square and the World Trade Center site in New York. “I don�??t know if it will make us safer,” said one reveler, “but it definitely sends a message.” “If this means there is one less death in the future, then I�??m glad for that,” said Harry Waizer, who was in the center�??s north tower on 9/11, “but I just can�??t find …

In response to the burning of a Koran in Florida, riots broke out in the Afghan city of Mazar-i-Sharif, where a mob overran U.N. offices and killed seven staffers, and elsewhere, including Kandahar, where young men burned American flags, tires, cars, and a girls’ school. Terry Jones, the pastor whose church burned the Koran, defended the actions. “The time has come to hold Islam accountable,” he said. “It is not that we burn the Koran with some type of vindictive motive. We do not even burn it with great pleasure or any pleasure at all. We burn it because we …

A Small Family. Seventeen days after protests began in Egypt’s Tahrir Square, after more than 300 fatalities, and with hundreds of protesters thought to have been secretly detained by the military, President Hosni Mubarak gave a seventeen-minute speech in which he talked in great detail about the changes he planned to make to Egypt�??s constitution, causing thousands of protesters to wave their shoes in the air and shout “Get out!” and “We’re not happy!” He stepped down the following evening. “I have friends on anti-depressants who, over the last 20 days, forgot to take their pills and have now thrown …

Rival Afghan and Pakistani militant groups stopped fighting each other to unite against U.S.-led NATO forces in the region. “They have been forced to cooperate due to the effect our collective efforts have had on them,” explained coalition spokesman Lt. Col. Patrick Seiber. U.S. drone attacks in Pakistan killed 21 suspected insurgents, and the Air Force announced plans to deploy a new model of surveillance drone in Afghanistan called the Gorgon Stare. Developed using methods borrowed from ESPN and reality-television shows, the aircraft uses multiple cameras to produce live video of entire towns and cities. “There will be no way …

A kinkajou, 1886. Letter bombs made from videocassette boxes, gunpowder, and nine-volt batteries exploded at the Chilean and Swiss embassies in Rome, injuring two. The Informal Federation of Anarchists claimed responsibility for the attack. “This is something they have to do from time to time,” said terrorism expert Gianfranco Pasquino, “to show that they exist.”TimeXinhuaA suicide bomber killed 43 people at a food-distribution center for refugees in Pakistan, and researchers determined that Al-Qaeda is profitable.VOANYTThe Senate ratified the New START arms-control treaty, according to which the United States and Russia will have to reduce their respective nuclear arsenals to only …

A Christian martyr. Despite criticism from both parties, Congress voted in favor of $858 billion in tax breaks, extending Bush-era tax cuts for the super-rich.Wall Street JournalSenate Democrats failed to bring to a vote a $1.1 trillion spending bill needed to fund the federal government for the remainder of the fiscal year. “A number of Republican senators told me they’d like to see this pass,” explained Senate majority leader Harry Reid, “but they can’t support it.”CNNA Virginia judge voided the provision in Obama’s health-care law requiring most Americans to obtain health insurance, insisting that forcing people to have insurance “would …

North Korea bombarded the South Korean island of Yeonpyeong with 180 artillery shells, killing two marines and two civilians in one of the largest skirmishes on the Korean peninsula since the end of the Korean War. New York TimesThe U.S.-led war in Afghanistan turned older than the Soviet Union�??s 3,339-day campaign in the country. A new Defense Department assessment of the war cited “modest gains” in security and governance but listed a number of ongoing challenges. “In no way, shape or form is anyone guaranteeing success,” a Pentagon official said. Peace talks between the Afghan government, the Taliban, and NATO …