Cheat Sheet

In an appearance on Fox News Sunday, Afghan presidential candidate Abdullah Abdullah endorsed General Stanley McChrystal's recommended troop surge, saying "the future of the country is at risk" otherwise. Abdullah, the opposition candidate to current Afghan President Hamid Karzai, appeared on both Fox and CNN's State of the Union, discussing the Nov. 7 runoff election in Afghanistan and the future of his country: "The security situation is deteriorating unfortunately," he told CNN, saying that "it can be reversed" given a "dramatic increase in the number of troops." Abdullah blamed the deterioration in part on his opponent, who he says "has not been able to deliver" a stable security partnership with the U.S., and who leads an "incompetent system that cannot deliver to the people." The opposition candidate said he was under "a lot of pressure" to boycott the upcoming elections for fear of fraud and lack of transparency, and though he had not ruled out the possibility, he didn't want to "give a message... so that momentum to campaign is lost." Senate Armed Services Committee Chairman Carl Levin (D-MI), speaking on Fox, said a boycott would be a "mistake."

Hasan Sarbakhshian / AP Photo

U.N. inspectors reportedly got their first look Sunday at the nuclear facility in Iran that was kept secret until last month. Inspectors are spending the week at the enrichment facility, known as Fordo, which is carved into the side of a Tehran mountain and protected by various means—including missile silos and anti-aircraft batteries. Iran disclosed the existence of Fordo in order to “pre-empt” a U.S. conspiracy to use the facility—Iran’s second nuclear-enrichment center—as evidence of hostile activity. The inspection coincides with a pending decision on whether or not Iran will accept a deal put forth by the International Atomic Energy Agency proposing outsourcing of Iran’s uranium enrichment to Russia and France, a move that Parliament Speaker Ali Larijani called an attempt by the West to “cheat” Iran out of buying its own uranium. In spite of the tensions, Iranian officials maintain that the nation’s nuclear ambitions are for peaceful purposes only: “Inspectors’ visit to Fordo shows that Iran’s nuclear activities are transparent and peaceful,” one lawmaker told a local news station.

President Hamid Karzai’s political rival could boycott the upcoming runoff election if certain leaders of Afghanistan’s election commission are not removed. Presidential candidate Abdullah Abdullah believes the Independent Election Commission includes three prominent Karzai supporters and is biased against him, Karzai’s aides say. Though Abdullah has publicly promised to participate in the November 7 runoff, reports of his threat to pull out could lead to further questioning of the legitimacy of any new government. Abdullah’s aides fear entering into the race could lead to a reproduction of the fraud that discredited the initial August election, though the challenger himself denies the boycott reports. “Lots of our international friends won't be happy. We will have them on our backs,” Abdullah’s first running mate, Homayoun Shah Assefy, said of the possible boycott. “But for the interest of our country, is a rigged and controversial election better than boycotting the election? I think the second.” Karzai’s aides said they are deeply concerned that Abdullah might drop out of the race, saying he is threatening to boycott unless he gets a pre-election deal for a coalition government.

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The body of Jeffry Picower, the tax-shelter lawyer and accountant who made $7 billion in Bernie Madoff’s Ponzi scheme, was found dead in the swimming pool of his Palm Beach, Florida, mansion Sunday. According to the city’s fire department, Picower’s wife called 911 after discovering her husband’s body at their oceanfront home shortly after noon and pulled him out with the help of a housekeeper. She had reportedly seen her husband swimming 15 minutes prior to finding him dead on the floor of pool. Picower benefited the most from Madoff’s scam, according to the bankruptcy lawyers who alleged he’d taken out $7 billion more than he’d originally put in—a felony, for which, investigators say, he would have likely faced criminal charges. “He made 30 times what Madoff did from the scam and about a third of the missing money went to Picower,” one investigator said, suggesting he may have been the mastermind behind the con or Madoff’s equal “partner in crime.” Investigators say Madoff documents prove that Picower frequently offered instructions as to how he could create false trades. Police said they did not know the cause of death and are awaiting the results of a full autopsy and toxicology tests.

Independents are not pleased with the direction the Obama administration has been taking the country, according to a new poll. “Independents have flipped negative,” says Tom Bevan, executive editor of national polling aggregator RealClearPolitics. "That's not a good thing for any party." The independent voters’ ire can be seen in the first gubernatorial races since the left took control of Congress. In Virginia, Republican Bob McDonnell leads Democrat Creigh Deeds by widening margins, and in New Jersey, Democratic Governor Jon Corzine averages about 40 percent in polls. The White House’s fight with Fox News and delayed Afghanistan troop decision are among the concerns of those polled. But registered and likely voters are “disillusioned and disgusted” by the candidates of both political parties, says one political-science professor, as recent polls have showed fewer and fewer people identify as Republican. One CNN poll from last week shows most Americans no longer agree with Obama on the issues they take most interest in, and a Rasmussen poll shows 31 percent “think Congress has a poor understanding of the health-care proposal.”

After 35 years as a member of the Church of Scientology, Crash director Paul Haggis has left the institution. Haggis, known for his support of civil rights and his humanitarian efforts, was shocked when the San Diego branch of Scientology publicly defended California's Proposition 8 referendum. Though he says Scientology’s current national spokesman, Tommy Davis, said he would do something about San Diego’s support of Prop 8, ultimately, Haggis says he took no action. “Despite all the church's words about promoting freedom and human rights,” Haggis wrote in his resignation letter to Davis, “its name is now in the public record alongside those who promote bigotry and intolerance, homophobia and fear.” Haggis says Davis also lied when he claimed in an interview that he did not support the practice of “disconnection.” Haggis himself was reportedly asked to disconnect from his in-laws, who had left Scientology years earlier. The Oscar-winning director also became wary of the church after reading a St. Petersburg Times series, which quoted high-level defectors who claimed current Scientology leader David Miscavige physically abused church members.

Israeli police fired stun grenades in Jerusalem’s holiest site on Sunday, in a conflict that resulted in the arrest of 18 Palestinian protesters. Israeli police began shooting the masked protesters who were hurling stones and plastic chairs in the compound Muslims refer to as the Noble Sanctuary, but Jews know as the Temple Mount. Israeli riot police marched behind plexiglass shields toward the young, male Palestinians, whose faces were shrouded in T-shirts and scarves. Many took cover in the Al-Aqsa Mosque in the compound, where police remained for several hours. Nine police officers were lightly wounded and 25 protesters were injured by batons or gas inhalation. The conflict was stoked by calls from Muslim leaders to protect Islamic sites from alleged Israeli plans to damage them or to allow Jews to pray in them. Palestinians are also reportedly upset that peace talks with the Israelis have been stalled and that the country has continued to build in the West Bank and East Jerusalem, where the compound is located.

The janitor of St. Patrick's Church confessed to stabbing a Catholic priest 32 times, killing the 61-year-old reverend in Chatham, New Jersey. Jose Feliciano, a longtime custodian at the church, has been arrested and charged with murder in the attack on Rev. Edward Hinds. The case's prosecutor said Hinds was killed with a kitchen knife. Feliciano told authorities that he and the priest got in an argument, and the janitor returned to the rectory where he stabbed Hinds in the face, neck, and back. The police found a bloody T-shirt and bloody rags at Feliciano's home, along with the priest's missing cellphone.

Without immigration, the world may have been without Google. After 30 years in the U.S., Google cofounder Sergey Brin is donating $1 million of his estimated $16 billion fortune to the Hebrew Immigrant Aid Society, which he credits with helping his family move to America from the Soviet Union when Brin was 6 years old. “I would have never had the kinds of opportunities I’ve had here in the Soviet Union, or even in Russia today,” he said, adding that the gift is the beginning of more philanthropy from the mogul and his wife. “We’ve given away over $30 million so far, which isn’t so tiny but obviously small in terms of our, um, theoretical wealth,” he said, mentioning Bill Gates’ methodical philanthropic growth as a model for his own plans.

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Madonna reportedly returned to Malawi on Sunday to work on the girls’ school she is building in the impoverished country, where she adopted two children last year. The celebrated pop star is planning to take part in a groundbreaking ceremony for her new educational institution on Monday, according to an official for Madonna's charity, Raising Malawi. The school will serve young girls in need living in the outskirts of the country’s capital, similar to Oprah Winfrey’s school in South Africa. During her visit, Madonna will also meet with President Bingu wa Mutharika and stop at some orphanages that her charity supports. Raising Malawi, founded in 2006 when she first visited the underprivileged nation, helps to feed, educate, and provide medical care for Malawi orphans. The queen of the music industry is reportedly accompanied by her four children—adopted and Malawi-born daughter Mercy, 3, and son David, 4, as well as her biological 13-year-old daughter Lourdes and 9-year-old son Rocco.

An Obama adviser became the first woman to play a round of golf with the president since he took office this weekend, after the president caught heat for hosting an all-male basketball game earlier this month. (Obama has played 23 rounds of golf since last January.) His penchant for weekend golf outings with the guys, as well as a young male, “dude”-calling staff, has led women's advocates to worry that Obama is excluding the fairer sex, an accusation the president has shrugged off. According to statistics provided by Obama’s administration, half of all White House employees are female. Though Obama counts Valerie Jarrett among his senior advisers and closest confidantes, some within or close to the administration say the president’s female advisers are less visible and thus, influential, than their male counterparts. The president called the accusations surrounding the basketball game “bunk,” adding that he’s surrounded by strong women at home and at the office. Though an adviser to Hillary Clinton’s presidential campaign said Obama “has a certain jocular familiarity with the men that he doesn’t have with the women,” five White House women told The New York Times they didn't detect any sexism, though one said not being into sports was slightly alienating. Melody Barnes, Obama’s chief domestic policy adviser, joined the president on the links on Sunday.

Barack Obama's presidency is supposed to be a sign of a new American attitude toward the world—that's what that Nobel Prize was for—but skepticism in the Senate, shared by Republicans and Democrats alike, may make it extremely difficult for the White House to gain approval for important international treaties. The Obama administration would like to see the ratification of pacts on reducing nuclear weapons and a new global treaty on climate change, among other treaties that were seen as restrictive to American sovereignty by the Bush White House. Under the Constitution, a treaty must receive the support of two-thirds of the Senate, making any kind of agreement unlikely. “The foreign-policy consensus in this country has disappeared on many issues,’’ one treaty expert told the Boston Globe.

Halloween just got a lot less magical for a group of Harry Potter fans in London. Warner Brothers cracked down on a planned Harry Potter-themed dinner run out of the home of a London woman using the name "Ms. Marmite Lover," informing her that references to Diagon Alley and different foods from the book constituted copyright infringement. “While we are delighted you are such a fan of the Harry Potter series,” said a letter from the company, “unfortunately your proposed use of the Harry Potter properties...without our consent would amount to an infringement of Warner's rights." Ms. Lover complied, but stated that she wouldn’t have profited from the references (although it is a pop-up restaurant run out of her home), explaining, “My daughter is a huge fan, even an obsessive.” At the suggestion of the company, the dinner will now hold the legal but much less festive title “Generic Wizard Night.”

“Good Evening… probably,” ex-Smiths singer Morrissey told a U.K. audience minutes before collapsing onstage Saturday night. Morrissey (born Steven Patrick Morrissey) was hospitalized and listed in stable condition, reportedly suffering from respiratory problems that caused him to collapse and leave the stage after performing his first song of the night, the Smiths classic “This Charming Man.” He has canceled a number of concerts in the past year citing health problems, leading the audience to be skeptical of his untimely exit. "Everybody started booing, thinking 'here we go again'. He has a bit of a poor track record,” said one concertgoer.

Americans should keep their fingers crossed that the conflict in Afghanistan will end up like…Vietnam? That’s what Joshua Kurlantzick—a fellow for Southeast Asia at the Council of Foreign Relations—argues in The Washington Post, writing that “rather than fear that Afghanistan will become another Vietnam, we should embrace the prospect.” Though the war with Vietnam was far from a high point in American foreign policy, Kurlantzick cites the U.S.’ currently flourishing “trading and strategic relationship” with the nation as something to strive for in Afghanistan in the future, along with outreach from veterans, such as John Kerry and John McCain, who served in the conflict. He also cites the 76 percent of Vietnamese who view the U.S.’ influence as positive, and the fact that Vietnam is now a useful ally against China, which was part of the reason the U.S. entered into the conflict. If the U.S. plays its post-war cards right, writes Kurlantzick, Afghanistan could eventually be a powerful ally against al Qaeda.

Saudi journalist Rozanna al-Yami was sentenced to 60 lashes by a Saudi court on Saturday for working on a television show that featured a Saudi man speaking about his sex life and showing sex toys on air. The 22-year-old female journalist supposedly helped organize the program and advertise it online, and although she claims the judge dropped the charges, al-Yami says she was given the sentence, believed to be the first punishment of its kind for a Saudi woman journalist, “as a deterrence.” The main male guest on the show was sentenced to five years in prison and 1,000 lashes this month. The government also shut down the two offices belonging to the Lebanese LBC satellite channel that aired the show in July and three other male guests were sentenced to two years in jail and 300 lashes each.

In what industry experts say appears to be an act of last-minute price gouging, health-insurance companies, under pressure from Wall Street, are implementing drastic increases on premiums for small-business owners before Congress votes on health-care reforms that could cut into their profits. Entrepreneurs say their premiums are increasing by about 15 percent for the coming year—twice as much as last year. The big charges are squeezing businesses just when their revenue is falling. But they may also increase support for a government-run public option that would help control costs—something the insurance industry has fought hard against. House Speaker Nancy Pelosi said the premium increases underline "the urgent need for health-insurance reform, including a public option. We need to have competition for the insurance companies to keep premiums down.”