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The last thing US President Barack Obama did during his trip to Russia for the G20 summit was meet Friday with a group of Russian human rights activists, including members of the gay community, in an encounter that attendants described as symbolic, and a signal to the Russian authorities. The group of nine activists who met with Obama for a little over an hour included three gay activists from LGBT organizations that have not traditionally been invited to take part in meetings with visiting senior US officials. Russia passed a controversial new law earlier this year banning the “promotion of...

The Syrian rebels posed casually, standing over their prisoners with firearms pointed down at the shirtless and terrified men. The prisoners, seven in all, were captured Syrian soldiers. Five were trussed, their backs marked with red welts. They kept their faces pressed to the dirt as the rebels’ commander recited a bitter revolutionary verse. “For fifty years, they are companions to corruption,” he said. “We swear to the Lord of the Throne, that this is our oath: We will take revenge.” The moment the poem ended, the commander, known as “the Uncle,” fired a bullet into the back of the...

Disappointment. Insulted. Outraged. That's how some residents described their feelings after President Barack Obama left Auburn Friday morning without stopping by the Harriet Tubman Home. The president, who stayed overnight at the Holiday Inn in Auburn, worked out at the Auburn YMCA before leaving the city to begin the second day of his two-day tour of upstate New York and northeastern Pennsylvania. While in Auburn, Obama did not visit the Harriet Tubman Home or Seward House Museum. A large crowd gathered Friday morning outside of the Tubman Home in anticipation of a presidential visit. But it never happened. Harriet Tubman...

The White House will hold a roundtable event on issues facing the bisexual community next month, according to a report in the Washington Blade. The closed-door meeting is likely the first of its kind in the Obama administration, the paper reported. According to the event's invitation, it will take place Sept. 23 in the Eisenhower Executive Office Building across the street from the West Wing. “Participants and administration officials will discuss a range of topics including health, HIV/AIDS, domestic and intimate partner violence, mental health, and bullying,” White House LGBT liaison Gautam Raghavan said.

NOTE The following text is a quote: Lack of Supplemental Funding Poses Problems for Pentagon Jim Garamone American Forces Press Service WASHINGTON, July 14, 2010 – Because Congress has yet to pass a supplemental funding bill, the Defense Department must start taking measures to ensure uninterrupted war operations, Pentagon Press Secretary Geoff Morrell said today. Video If Congress doesn’t act on the fiscal 2010 request for supplemental war funding, Defense Department employees may not get paid, Morrell said during a news conference. Defense Secretary Robert M. Gates is disappointed that Congress did not pass the supplemental spending bill before its...