Plus Things

Reporters and photographers were evacuated from the West Wing of the White House early Saturday because of smoke from a faulty piece of equipment. The White HouseThe White House (Uyen Le, Getty Images) U.S. Secret Service spokesman Max Milien says that at about 7 a.m., smoke was seen coming out of a mechanical room closet on the first floor. Journalists and others were evacuated out of — quote “an abundance   Read More ...

President Barack Obama will visit Berlin next month where he will meet with Chancellor Angela Merkel. A German government spokesman made the announcement Friday, saying the country was looking forward to Obama’s first official trip to Berlin since he took office, Reuters reported. “The chancellor is very much looking forward to this visit and the talks with the president and his delegation on a very broad spectrum of bilateral and   Read More ...

Michelle Obama (born January 17, 1964) is an American lawyer and writer. She is the wife of the 44th and current President of the United States, Barack Obama, and the first African-American First Lady of the United States. Raised on the South Side of Chicago, Obama attended Princeton University and Harvard Law School before returning to Chicago to work at the law firm Sidley Austin, where she met her future   Read More ...

Chicago Sun-Times film critic Roger Ebert has died after a long battle with cancer, the newspaper reported Thursday. He was 70. President Barack Obama paid tribute to Ebert, who he described as “honest” and “resilient.” “Michelle and I are saddened to hear about the passing of Roger Ebert,” Obama said in a statement cited by Politico. “For a generation of Americans – and especially Chicagoans –Roger was the movies. “When   Read More ...

President Barack Obama will nominate a veteran Secret Service agent, Julia Pierson, to be the first woman director of the agency, announced Tuesday a White House official, signaling the U.S. leader’s desire to change the way things are done in the service dominated by men and that has been marked by scandal, says Associated Press. U.S. President Barack Obama would nominate the first woman to lead Tuesday Secret Service, police   Read More ...

Our nation’s presence in Afghanistan made its way back to the collective conscience last week when Afghan President Hamid Karzai appeared in a joint press conference with President Barack Obama. This post features a few images of daily life from late December and the first few weeks of January. Simple things – shelter, food – remain challenges for many of the Afghan people – displaced by years and years of   Read More ...

Former GOP presidential candidate Mitt Romney is making his return to the political stage next month, the National Review first reported today. The former Massachusetts governor is scheduled to speak at the high-profile Conservative Political Action Conference outside Washington, DC, according to CNN. “We look forward to hearing Governor Romney’s comments on the current state of affairs in America and the world, and his perspective on the future of the conservative   Read More ...

North Korea’s strictly unauthorized nuclear test has drawn sharp criticism from around the world, with even China joining the outcry against its ally. The US, North Korea’s so-called “arch enemy,” led the condemnation. In a statement, President Barack Obama called North Korea’s third successful nuclear test a “threat to US national security,” and hinted at action by the international community. Obama also called the underground explosion — registered by US   Read More ...

PYONGYANG, North Korea — Defying U.N. warnings, North Korea on Tuesday conducted its third nuclear test in the remote, snowy northeast, taking a crucial step toward its goal of building a bomb small enough to be fitted on a missile capable of striking the United States. North Korea said the atomic test was merely its “first response” to what it called U.S. threats, and said it will continue with unspecified   Read More ...

New controversy around the singer, just a few days after that which stirred the canvas on his performance in the play-back at the inauguration of Barack Obama. This time, it was the pictures of her performance at the Super Bowl are talking. Pictures that probably would not have been so much media coverage if the singer of 31 years was not through his spokesman, asked the U.S. media not to   Read More ...