WASHINGTON — US President Barack Obama said Thursday that he believed being gay or transsexual was not a lifestyle choice but was biologically dictated before birth. As his administration is criticized by gay and lesbian rights groups over what...

The founder of whistleblower Web site WikiLeaks says the US government is involved in a campaign of “financial warfare” against the group. The Guardian has obtained correspondence between WikiLeaks and British-based online payment...

Rachel Maddow did this extremely convincing report last night on how the Obama administration is setting themselves up to let DADT go on for years with their current strategy of ruthlessly pushing for enforcement while pleading with the Senate...

WASHINGTON — Around half of US teens meet the criteria for a mental disorder and nearly one in four report having a mood, behavior or anxiety disorder that interferes with daily life, American researchers say. Fifty-one percent of boys and 49...

A psychologist whose research was used in constructing the US’s program to torture terrorism suspects has been granted a $31-million no-bid Army contract to provide “resilience training” to US soldiers. Mark Benjamin at...

Crucial pieces of a lawsuit challenging the Obama administration’s health care overhaul can go to trial, with a judge ruling Thursday he wants to hear more arguments over whether it’s constitutional to force citizens to buy health...

I didn’t post last night, but I thought I’d point you to a couple pieces I have out that I’m really proud of: For the Guardian’s Comment Is Free America, I wrote about how, if you want to understand the Tea Party...

A religious group that organizes the annual National Prayer Breakfast in Washington and has been linked to an effort to sentence gay people to death in Uganda has been accused of taking money from an “alleged terrorist organization,”...

Talk about eternal happiness. A New York woman who purchased a McDonalds Happy Meal six months ago says the uneaten burger and fries are in as good shape as they were the day she bought them. The claim, backed up by a seemingly indestructible...

Defense lawyer says Phoenix police officer indicted on murder charge in on-duty shooting A Phoenix police officer has been indicted on a second-degree murder charge for the on-duty shooting of a suspect, his lawyer said Thursday. Officer Richard...

Iranian women have been forced into slavery, the former lawyer for Sakineh Mohammadi-Ashtiani, the Iranian woman facing death by stoning, said Thursday. “In Iran unfortunately one could say women are in a real situation of slavery,”...

When a controversy erupted last week over a political ad being run on behalf of the Republican candidate for Senate in West Virginia, the call for ‘hicky’ actors to appear in the ad was initially blamed by the National Republican...

The self-proclaimed “toughest sheriff in the nation” is required to fix jails that do not meet constitutional minimums when it comes to food quality and housing conditions, a federal appellate court ruled Wednesday. The Ninth Circuit...

Bill O’Reilly believes you’d have to be crazy to think that Fox News is in bed with the Republican Party. At a recent campaign stop in Binghamton, NY, former President Bill Clinton told an audience, “They and Fox News and their...

I’ve been thinking a lot about this situation where firefighters let a man’s house burn to the ground (killing multiple pets, which was what ended up really upsetting my soft heart at the end of day, since animals don’t know...