Report Examines How Immigration Has Changed the Golden State. In 1970, nine percent of California’s population was comprised of immigrants; by 2008 it was 27 percent. A new report from the Center for Immigration Studies (CIS) finds that as a result of immigration, California now has the least-educated labor force of any state. Historically, California was not a state with a disproportionately... 

The Texas attorney general has opened an antitrust investigation into how Google ranks search results, the first United States case to strike at the heart of the company’s main search business. The issue at hand, referred to as search neutrality, is whether Google manipulates results to thwart competitors and advance its own businesses. Some companies worry that Google has the power to discriminate... 

One could figure that the current drug-war in Mexico, nearly 30,000 people murdered in just three years, would generate a cultural reaction. And one could further figure, of course, that the tens of millions of people who have crossed the U.S.-Mexican border in recent decades would have an enormous cultural impact, including on the movies. But who knew that Hollywood would blame everything that’s... 

National numbers down due to job shortage. A new report says Illinois’ illegal immigrant population has remained stable in the midst of the recession. The land of Lincoln bucks the national trend, which shows illegal immigrants declining over the last two years as jobs dwindled, according to a study released Wednesday by the Pew Hispanic Center. Illinois ranked No. 5 with an estimated 525,000... 

Mexican soldiers killed at least 30 suspected cartel members in two shootouts near the U.S. border in a region that has become one of biggest battlegrounds in the country’s drug war, authorities said Friday. Twenty-five of the suspects were killed Thursday during a raid on a building in Ciudad Mier in Tamaulipas state. The other five were killed Friday in neighboring Nuevo Leon state, during... 

The Bundesbank said it will ask German President Christian Wulff to dismiss board member Thilo Sarrazin after his remarks about Muslim immigrants and Jews damaged the central bank’s reputation. The board decided unanimously to apply to the President for Sarrazin’s dismissal, the Frankfurt-based Bundesbank said in an e-mailed statement today. It stripped Sarrazin of his responsibilities at the... 

South Sudanese celebrate independence-referendum possibility. Official: Southern Sudan parliament may vote to secede if January independence vote is delayed. Southern Sudan’s parliament may vote to secede from the Khartoum-based north if an independence reference scheduled for January is delayed, a former top Southern Sudan official said Thursday. The oil-rich region can take such action under... 

The director general of the BBC admitted that his organisation had been guilty of a “massive bias to the left” but said “a completely different generation” of journalists now works at the broadcaster. The director general of the BBC admitted Thursday that his organisation had been guilty of a “massive bias to the left” but said “a completely different generation”... 

Russian media question official version of death of Yuri Ivanov, that he died going for a swim. A mysterious accident in which one of Russia’s most powerful spies was found dead on a Turkish beach has provoked speculation that the deputy head of the country’s foreign military intelligence service had been murdered. The badly decomposed body of Yuri Ivanov washed up last month on the shore... 

Friday in Paris. A hidden camera shows streets blocked by huge crowds of Muslim worshippers and enforced by a private security force. This is all illegal in France: the public worship, the blocked streets, and the private security. But the police have been ordered not to intervene. It shows that even though some in the French government want to get tough with Muslims and ban the burqa, other parts... 

In this Oct. 6, 2009 file photo, a Rwandan Hutu rebel gropes a local woman as he passes her on a crowded mountain path near the village of Kimua in eastern Congo. Medical agency: Gunmen fire on plane with international aid workers landing in east Congo. Gunmen in eastern Congo fired Wednesday on a private plane carrying international aid workers who escaped into the forest and were later rescued, aid... 

Back in the public eye with the release of his memoirs, former British Prime Minister Tony Blair might lead one to believe it is 2003 all over again. Praising George W. Bush as a great leader and one of the most decisive men he had ever met, Blair also lauds the Iraq War. And if the Iraq War has somewhat faded in Americans’ memories with the myriad false declarations of victory in recent weeks,... 

Close to 10 million receive unemployment insurance, nearly four times the number from 2007. Benefits have been extended by Congress eight times beyond the basic 26-week program. Government anti-poverty programs that have grown to meet the needs of recession victims now serve a record one in six Americans and are continuing to expand. More than 50 million Americans are on Medicaid, the federal-state... 

Silicon Valley leans Democratic. Based on comments made by one of the Valley’s biggest hitters, that may be changing. Intel CEO Paul Otellini got a lot off his chest at the Aspen Forum last night–with most of his frustration directed at the business-stifling policies of the Obama administration and the decline and fall of American competitiveness. Here are some key quotes reported by CNET’s... 

A worker walks through the nearly-complete waste water treatment site in Fallujah, Iraq, 40 miles west of Baghdad. The system is almost finished - at a cost of more than three times the original estimate and four years past the initial deadline A $40 million prison sits in the desert north of Baghdad, empty. A $165 million children’s hospital goes unused in the south. A $100 million waste water...