Swiss voters back ban on minarets  —  Swiss voters have supported a referendum proposal to ban the building of minarets, official results show.  —  More than 57% of voters from 26 cantons - or provinces - voted in favour of the ban, Swiss news agency ATS reported.

Climate change data dumped  —  SCIENTISTS at the University of East Anglia (UEA) have admitted throwing away much of the raw temperature data on which their predictions of global warming are based.  —  It means that other academics are not able to check basic calculations said to show …

Statement from Tiger Woods  —  As you all know, I had a single-car accident earlier this week, and sustained some injuries.  I have some cuts, bruising and right now I'm pretty sore.  —  This situation is my fault, and it's obviously embarrassing to my family and me.  I'm human and I'm not perfect.

Across U.S., Food Stamp Use Soars and Stigma Fades  —  A GROWING NEED FOR A PROGRAM ONCE SCORNED Greg Dawson and his wife, Sheila, of Martinsville, Ohio, help feed their family of seven with a $300 monthly food stamp benefit.  Center and right, the food pantry in Lebanon, Ohio …

Coakley opposes troop increase  —  The frontrunner to take Ted Kennedy's Senate seat said today she opposes sending more troops to Afghanistan.  —  Massachusetts Attorney General Martha Coakley, who is facing an increasingly tight race with Rep. Michael Capuano (D-Mass.) …

America vs. The Narrative  —  What should we make of Maj. Nidal Malik Hasan, who apparently killed 13 innocent people at Fort Hood?  —  Here's my take: Major Hasan may have been mentally unbalanced — I assume anyone who shoots up innocent people is.  But the more you read about his support …

Senate Report Explores 2001 Escape by bin Laden From Afghan Mountains  —  WASHINGTON — As President Obama vows to “finish the job” in Afghanistan by sending more troops, the Senate Foreign Relations Committee has completed a detailed look back at a crucial failure early in the battle against Al Qaeda …

MIT analysis backs Obama  —  A new analysis by a leading MIT economist provides new ammunition of Democrats at the Senate being formally debating the historic health-reform bill being pushed by President Barack Obama.  —  The report concludes that under the Senate's health-reform bill …

Predatory lending has an ugly tail end  —  Talk about burying the lede.  The NYTimes has run a story which purports to be about the plans by the Treasury Department to pressure banks to do more to renegotiate delinquent mortgages.  It has all sorts of blather from Treasury about using …

A friendly chat with the global warming evangelist who lives in my head  —  Hello, hyperventilating zealot.  Greetings, denialist scum.  Now that we've dispensed with the formalities, please allow me to point and laugh at you.  Ahem.  Ha ha ha!  Point point point!  Shut up.  That's what you'd like me to do.

Iran defies world with plan for ten new nuclear sites  —  Iran's Government today announced plans to build ten new uranium enrichment plants and said work would start within two months.  —  Each site will be the size of the existing Natanz plant with the aim of producing between 250-300 tonnes of uranium a year.

When Results Go Bad ...  Guest post by Willis Eschenbach  —  One of the claims in this hacked CRU email saga goes something like “Well, the scientists acted like jerks, but that doesn't affect the results, it's still warming.”  —  I got intrigued by one of the hacked CRU emails …

PRIORITIZING THE PUBLIC OPTION.... That Americans approve of the idea of a public option is no longer in doubt.  After months of polling, we've consistently seen a majority of Americans say they like the idea of a public plan competing against private insurers.  The results have bolstered proponents of the idea, on and off the Hill.