China urges others to help keep North Korea stable

SEOUL (Reuters) - China, which may have received advanced notice of the death of North Korean leader Kim Jong-il, has moved swiftly to call on the United States and other countries to help maintain stability in the reclusive state, officials and news reports said.

North Korea is in mourning since it announced Kim's demise on Monday, two days after the 69-year-old iron ruler died of a heart attack, plunging the region into uncertainty over its stability and who had control over its nuclear weapons program.

The official KCNA news agency said at least five million people one-fifth of the population of the impoverished state had paid condolences at statues and portraits of the leader and his father, North Korea's founder Kim Il-Sung.

"These places turned into a veritable sea of mourners who bitterly wept, looking up to portraits of smiling Kim Jong-il," it said.

Obama unlike to change oil pipeline

It doesn't sound like President Obama is going to change his mind on a proposed oil pipeline from Canada to Texas, even if Congress passes a bill designed to pressure him into a quick approval.

Gene Sperling, director of the National Economic Council, noted that proposals in Congress only require Obama to make a decision within 60 days. The State Department continues to conduct an environmental review of the Keystone XL oil pipeline project.

Under the Republican plan, Obama would be required to grant a permit to the Keystone pipeline or issue a determination that the project is not in the national interest within 60 days of the bill.

Even if political party like Congress passes a payroll tax cut bill, there's no sign that Obama will change his view and approve the Keystone pipeline project right away.

MOSCOW — Russian Prime Minister Vladimir Putin worked Thursday to soften his authoritarian image, hinting at self-governing concessions, but he also pushed back at protesters who have rocked the country in recent weeks, saying they had been paid to show up.

     Using a televised question-and-answer session, Putin, in his first full-scale response to demonstrations after disputed parliamentary elections this month, portrayed himself as tough but reasonable, agreeing that not all was perfect in the country he has led for 12 years.

Obama supported the Department of Health and Human Services

                                                                                                                           

WASHINGTON – President Obama said that he supported the Department of Health and Human Services superseding on Thursday an FDA decision to allow an emergency morning-after contraceptive pill to be sold to girls younger than 17 without a prescription.

I did not get involved in the process," Obama said during a White House news conference but added that "as the father of two daughters," he supported HHS Secretary Kathleen Sebelius' decision, which activists, doctors and scientists have criticized as political.

Republican adversary in the 2012 election

                                                                                                                     

President Obama's aide have exhausted weeks criticizing Mitt Romney, expecting him to be their Republican adversary in the 2012 election

Vice President Biden in the midst of a trip to Iraq, Turkey and Greece  took a poke at Gingrich yesterday, suggesting that the hot GOP presidential contender tends to overstate his importance.

"I don't want to sound like Newt Gingrich," Biden said about his meetings with Turkish Recep Tayyip Erdogan. "I don't want to sound like I'm inflating my importance or relationship with him." He said he had faced so many difficulty in his Prime Ministerpolitics life.