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Home Contracts Up; Rates Dip To 4.32 Percent
09-02-2010
The number of buyers who signed contracts to purchase previously occupied homes rose 5.2 percent in July but remained well below last year's levels. And the average rate for a 30-year fixed loan fell to 4.32 percent this week, the lowest level in decades.

Can Lessons Learned In Iraq Work In Afghanistan?
09-02-2010
As the combat mission ends in Iraq, 30,000 additional troops are heading to Afghanistan. Comparisons between the two wars are inevitable. Gen. David Petraeus, who commanded U.S. forces in Iraq, brings to Afghanistan many familiar military faces and the strategy of creating local forces to take control of security at the grass-roots level.

Community Near Ground Zero Almost Like Any Other
09-02-2010
The neighborhood around the site where the World Trade Center once stood -- which now includes the site of a proposed Islamic community center -- is like many others in New York City. It has Starbucks, ethnic restaurants, churches and strip clubs. There's also a small mosque. But the gaping hole where the buildings crumbled is ever present.

Settlement-Building May Tear Down Peace Talks
09-02-2010
Jewish settlers broke ground on new construction projects Wednesday in the West Bank, in defiance of a ban imposed by Israel that expires at the end of the month. Settlers and their government supporters have been pushing for an end to the freeze. Palestinians say if the freeze ends, they will walk out of peace talks.

Lively Living Aboard Congo's River-Bound 'Villages'
09-02-2010
Travel by water is the cheapest mode of transport in the Congo, and hundreds go by barge. From open-air ablutions and barter and trade on the water to the threat of rebel unrest, barge travel along the nearly 3,000-mile-long Congo River is full of activity punctuated just as often by delays.