Citizen Cartwright

Good times aren't rolling just yet, Geithner says

While the estimated 3.5 percent growth in the gross domestic product in the third quarter is "really encouraging," Treasury Secretary Timothy Geithner says it's "going to be very hard going forward still."

Given the government's big budget deficit, which is unsustainable over a long period, Geithner says it will be more important than ever that the private sector step up to keep growth going.

Reuters

Looking at good times differently

One in four people are glad the global financial crisis happened, because it gave them new perspective on what's important, according to a global survey by the market research firm Synovate.

Reuters

Afghan re-vote fraud fight

Although U.N. officials had hoped to close polling centers where the worst fraud in the presidential election was documented, an Afghan commission named by President Hamid Karzai said Thursday the centers will be open for the Nov. 7 runoff.

A Western official called the move "maddening, and completely against our advice."

McClatchy Newspapers in Yahoo

Europeans' climate struggle

Leaders of the European Union are trying to find a way around an impasse over funding to help poor countries combat global warming on the last day of a Brussels summit, as poorer EU countries want rich ones to pay more.

BBC News

Congressional ethics 'oops' moment

A "low-level" House ethics committee staffer inadvertently put a confidential committee report about inquiries into the activities of more than 30 lawmakers and several aides on a publicly accessible computer network.

The report says nearly half the members of the House Appropriations subcommittee in control of Pentagon funding are under scrutiny.

The Washington Post

The Washington Post: Pentagon funding panel

Take a nap

As many as 70 million Americans have chronic sleep and wakefulness disorders, according to a study by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, which says the issue is a bigger public health problem than is generally recognized.

Agence France Presse

Also in the news

Health care businesses at risk in House overhaul The Associated Press in Fox News

FDIC chief criticizes latest Obama regulatory plan The New York Times

Iran reply on nuclear deal is called 'inadequate' Los Angeles Times 

Honduran leadership deadlock is resolved CNN International 

Will governors' elections render judgment on Obama? Reuters

Iran nukes

President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad is apparently supporting an International Atomic Energy Agency proposal to ship most of his country's enriched uranium abroad, depicting it as a policy victory, the Los Angeles Times reports.

Ahmadinejad says the West has changed from "confrontation to cooperation" as a result of Iran's "resistance against enemies" — a presumed reference to the United States and its allies.

Los Angeles Times

To the victor go the spoils

While President Obama said he would change business-as-usual in Washington, his big fundraisers have gotten big jobs as in the past, according to a USA Today analysis.

More than 40 percent of Obama's top fundraisers have received ambassadorships and executive branch posts, says the paper, which lists who's gotten what.

USA Today

Safety in the sky

An $11 million, nearly four year NASA survey of pilots shouldn't be used to measure safety trends because deficiencies in the survey design have made the data unreliable, the National Research Council reports.

The Associated Press

National Academies release