Cheat Sheet

American and Afghan officials are aiding anti-Taliban militias to start fighting against insurgents in Afghanistan. The emergence of anti-Taliban leaders has encouraged officials to help grow more like-minded armed groups across southern and eastern Afghanistan, where the Taliban has more control, with the hopes of starting a large-scale tribal rebellion against them. The goal is that the militias will quickly boost the number of Afghans fighting against the Taliban, which is especially important while the Afghan army and police forces are being trained. But Americans are trying to avoid repeating past mistakes: militias will stay connected to the Afghan government, will be limited to protecting villages and manning checkpoints, and will stay small. The plan is ambitious and risky because the militias could turn on one another, or against us. There's no need to arm the groups for now, because they already have guns.

A gas explosion just before dawn on Saturday killed 87 people in the state-run Xinxing mine in Heilongjiang, and 21 others are still trapped a third of a mile below ground. Of the 528 working miners, 415 managed to escape, and miners have already been saved by some 300 rescuers, working in the frigid, dark underground, left powerless by the blast. Some miners have been hospitalized with broken bones and carbon monoxide poisoning. One entrance of the mine was cut off by the explosion, caused by a gas build-up, and a nearby building collapsed. Windows were blown out of homes in a city several miles away. The disaster highlights the difficulty China has had with enacting safety standards in the face of heavy demand: the country has said it is cracking down on unregulated mining operations—which comprise 80% of China's mines—and has cut fatalities to an average of six a day in the first half of this year. But accidents still happen: the February deaths of 74 miners in an explosion in Shanxi was the worst in a year.

With little time to spare, Majority Leader Harry Reid garnered the 60 votes he needed to move the Senate's health-care bill into debate. Arkansas Sen. Blanche Lincoln, a conservative Democrat who had long been on the fence, said she would side with her caucus just hours before the vote. Two other centrists holding out till the last minute were Louisiana Sen. Mary Landrieu and Nebraska Sen. Bill Nelson. While Saturday's vote was good news for Reid, it's not a guarantee that the bill itself will pass. Both Landrieu and Lincoln said they would not vote for a bill containing a public-insurance option, a more liberal measure that Democrats desperately want. Lincoln in particular faces a tough reelection campaign next year, and even mentioned the millions of dollars spent on advertising in her state, urging her to either vote for or against the bill, in her speech on the Senate floor.

AP Photo

Out of the country for an eight-day trip across Asia, President Obama said in his weekly address on Saturday that his travels were meant to secure help for the economy. “As we emerge from the worst recession in generations, there is nothing more important than to do everything we can to get our economy moving again and put Americans back to work, and I will go anywhere to pursue that goal," Obama said in a recorded message from Seoul. He added that increasing America's exports abroad could "help create new jobs at home and raise living standards throughout the world." Taking on the role of family budgeter in chief, he called on consumers to be wary during holiday shopping of “more and more debt," and said Americans must “spend less, save more.”

The Environmental Protection Agency is demanding that Texas tighten its pollution laws. The EPA says the state, which is the top carbon-dioxide-emitter in the country, has air-quality regulations that break federal law, and it's studying whether oil refineries emit dangerous levels of toxins. Texas says its simpler regulatory system, which regulates facilities rather than individual smokestacks, is more efficient, but environmentalists say the rules are too lax. Air quality fights are intense in Texas; Houston and Dallas have violated federal air-quality standards for years, and city officials are cheering the EPA's move. But businesses aren't. The EPA has become far more aggressive under the Obama administration, and has said it will regulate carbon-dioxide emissions, set tougher limits on mercury emissions, and has held up dozens of permit applications for Central Appalachian coal mining projects. Business groups say the agency's mandates are too expensive and could drive jobs overseas.

Climate-change skeptics have taken emails (apparently illegally obtained from the Climate Research Unit of the University of East Anglia) to be evidence that scientists are rigging data to make the case that humans are the root cause of global warming. One of the emails reads in part "I've just completed Mike's Nature trick of adding in the real temps to each series... to hide the decline," the wording of which, according to some, indicates an attempt by the email's author, Phil Jones, to rig his data in favor of the human-cause theory. Jones' defenders say the email is taken out of context. "It's hardly anything you would call a trick," says Michael Mann—the "Mick" referred to in the email—continuing that it simply involves placing proxy temperature records next to a line showing instrument-collected temperatures, with both being clearly marked and differentiated. Reachers say the emails are merely an honest exchange of ideas.

Fox News' wackiest host is taking up a new role: community organizer. Glenn Beck says he hopes to rally his audience by promoting voter-registration drives and conservative conventions all across the country, all culminating in a rally in Washington that will coincide with the release of his new book in August. Beck didn’t say how directly he might back political candidates, The New York Times reports, only saying he wants to help people be more "proactive." He's announcing his new role in a Florida rally on Saturday. Conservative pundits like Beck, Sean Hannity, and Mike Huckabee have a huge effect on politics, especially for the nebulous "tea party" movement, where they stand in as leaders. Beck rejects the title, saying he is just a fed-up citizen.

Italian police arrested two Pakistanis suspected of sending money in aid to the Islamic militant group responsible for the deaths of 166 people in Mumbai a year ago. With the help of Indian authorities and the FBI, Italian authorities were able to identify the two men as owners of a money transfer business in Brescia, in northern Italy. They are said to have transferred money to fund the internet phone calls of individuals "in direct contact with the militants." The police also arrested two Pakistanis they said had ties to illegal human trafficking.

Los Angeles police say they will not decide whether to prosecute Michael Jackson's doctor, Conrad Murray, until next year. Jackson's death last June was ruled a homocide by the county cororner, who found lethal levels of the drug propofol in the singer's body. Murray admitted to giving Jackson the drug at bedtime to help his patient sleep. But authorities have not determined whether the doctor was solely responsible, and whether there was any negligence that can be considered criminal. According to a search warrant unsealed Friday, Murray was not the first doctor to give Jackson propofol, which Jackson called his "milk." Jackson had several doctors (both local and overseas) who kept him supplied.

Uniformed Services University of the Health Sciences / AP Photo

Despite early reassurances that suspected Ft. Hood shooter Nidal Hasan acted as a lone gunman and was not part of a terrorist conspiracy, the Washington Post reports that e-mails between Hasan and a radical Yemeni cleric may make the situation more complicated. According to FBI sources interviewed by the Post, Hasan's interactions online with imam Anwar al-Aulaqi became more radical and frequent in the run up to the attack and included some discussion of transferring money. Sen. Carl Levin (D-MI) has pledged to investigate the 18 or 19 emails and why the Pentgon missed them and recently told reporters that "there are some who are reluctant to call it terrorism, but there is significant evidence that it is." Hasan will have his first court hearing in his hospital room Saturday, his attorney said, where it will be determined whether the Army psychiatrist will be put in pre-trial confinement.