Jeffrey Zarrillo and his partner Paul Katami and Sandy Stier and her partner Kristin Perry enter the federal courthouse in San Francisco, California in this July 2, 2009 file photo.

Perhaps it is the spirit of the season, but my empathy receptors are in overdrive for poor Barack Obama.

Blizzard-like storm slams U.S. East Coast A group of men help push a motorist through the street during a snow storm in Washington, Saturday, Dec.

The Senate cleared its year-end plate of some must-do work Saturday as it passed a critical budget bill that blends money for the Pentagon with additional help for the jobless.

A historic U.N. climate conference ended Saturday with only a nonbinding "Copenhagen Accord" to show for two weeks of debate and frustration.

After months of denials, Iran acknowledged Saturday that at least three people detained in the country's postelection turmoil were beaten to death by their jailers.

A teenage Dutch sailor who made headlines when she went to court to fight for the right to sail solo around the world has gone missing, police said Sunday.

Islamic militants fired mortars into Mogadishu's police compound as the force was celebrating its 66th anniversary Sunday, sparking a battle that killed at least 12 civilians and a police officer, officials said.

The Philippines' most active volcano could have a huge eruption within days, officials warned Sunday after detecting a drastic surge in earthquakes and eerie rumbling sounds in surrounding foothills. Tens of thousands of villagers have been evacuated as a precaution.

A slow-moving storm that blanketed swaths of the mid-Atlantic with nearly 2 feet of snow reached southern New England on Sunday, continuing its assault on the East Coast after causing at least five deaths, crippling travel and leaving empty stores

Tens of thousands of opposition demonstrators marched through the streets of the central Taiwanese city of Taichung on Sunday, ahead of the arrival of a senior Chinese envoy for trade talks that some on the island fear could eventually lead

The long-awaited subversion trial of a high-profile Chinese dissident who has called for greater civil rights in the country and an end to the Communist Party's political dominance will start in a few days, the man's lawyer said Sunday.

Outnumbered Republicans are pledging to delay passage of historic health care legislation as long as possible after jubilant Democrats locked in Nebraska Sen. Ben Nelson as the 60th and decisive vote.

Photo via FlickrMy Senator, Diane Feinstein of California, has calling on Congress to ban BPA -- short for bisphenol A, the ubiquitous component of plastics that has been linked to infertility and cancer. Feinstein authored the Ban Poisonous Additives (BPA)

Help Those Who Need to Be Saved From Climate Change"When Lumumba Stanislaus Di-Aping, the chairman of the G-77 group of developing countries at Copenhagen, came to the press center at 1 AM last night, he was not there to pontificate

Image credit: Sami GroverFrom to the , I'm never really sure whether to be amused or depressed by stories of woeful over packaging. It's such a sore topic here at TreeHugger, that Jaymi even put together a post on our

In the early stages, the House that Jerry Built simply seemed big. As concrete was poured and steel was hauled in by the ton, the future home of the Dallas Cowboys was a pricey curiosity. But it wasn't until this

This evening's Rescue Rangers are mem from somerville, jlms qkw (pitching both ends of a double-header yet again), mtperson, and dadanation, with watercarrier4diogenes atop the Tor, holding on for dear life. Tonight's diaries take us from prehistoric bones to Overton

Via , from the : Science has a of what Dark Matter is and why we suspect it exists, great reading by itself, and especially as a primer to the DM news . Greg Laden takes an at answering a