Fact: Russia and Japan never formally signed a peace treaty ending World War II. The two countries still dispute the ownership of the Kuril islands, an archipelago north of Japan which Russia annexed after the war.Well, earlier this week, Shinzo Abe met with Vladimir Putin in Moscow. It was the first time a Japanese prime […]

Well here’s an unwelcome development: James Pethokoukis at AEI, citing a report by JP Morgan’s Mike Feroli, notes that startups are contributing fewer and fewer new jobs to the economy. Two key takeaways from the report: 1. Net job growth is driven by new businesses. Existing  establishments tend to shed jobs. But according to the Labor Department’s new Business Employment […]

Marissa Mayer might be offering her Yahoos a consolation prize for her ban on telework. Mashable reports: Yahoo is doubling the amount of paid leave time that new mothers are eligible to take, from eight weeks to 16 weeks, and letting new fathers take eight weeks of paid leave, as first reported by NBC Bay Area.“Over the […]

There is plenty of spying in this messy world, even among allies. So in that context, the two recent cases of South Korean spying in Australia shouldn’t be all that surprising. Nevertheless, the WSJ reports, the revelation could pose a challenge as the two countries attempt to strengthen ties: South Korea is Australia’s fourth-largest trading partner, […]

The prosecutor investigating the murder of Benazir Bhutto and the 2008 Mumbai terrorist attack was shot thirteen times by unknown gunmen on motorbikes outside Islamabad today. He died before reaching the hospital.Chaudhry Zulfikar Ali represented the Federal Investigation Agency and reportedly had “solid evidence” that connected former dictator Pervez Musharraf to the killing of Ms. […]

Springfield is finally getting serious about Illinois’s pension crisis. So far the state house has been dragging its feet, rejecting previous reform bills and debating half-measures with little chance of fixing the problem. Yesterday, however, the Illinois House of Representatives finally a passed a bill that looks like the state’s best hope for a solution. The […]

Britain held 34 local council elections yesterday, and the country’s eurosceptic United Kingdom Independence Party (UKIP) posted huge gains. NYT: Once scorned by Prime Minister David Cameron as “a bunch of fruitcakes, loonies and closet racists,” the party, which wants Britain to leave the European Union and strictly control immigration, gained about a quarter of […]

The US has redesigned its biggest “bunker buster” bomb to be even bigger and smarter, Pentagon officials said today. “Hopefully we never have to use it,” a US official told the WSJ. “But if we had to, it would work.”The Boeing-built bomb is designed to be dropped from a plane and hit the ground with nearly […]

A new study on the efficacy of Medicaid has all sides running the spin machine overtime. On Wednesday, The New England Journal of Medicine released a report comparing the health outcomes of thousands of Medicaid patients in Oregon to an identical group in the state who didn’t receive Medicaid. The study found…well, it depends on […]

EPA mandates have been propping up the corn ethanol industry for nearly six years now. But as the industry struggles in the face of political opposition, weak demand and the after-effects of last year’s drought, ethanol plants are going bankrupt. Workers at one ethanol plant in South Bend, Indiana, hoped an investor would save them from liquidation by […]