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"Abdul-Rahman Kassig, also known as Peter, stayed in touch with loved ones throughout his stay in the Middle East - including his captivity - in which he spoke movingly about his work. Below are excerpts from his writings released by his family. Email from Beirut, 18 March 2012 Here, in this land, I have found my calling. I have lived a selfish life, I have run until ..."

Thomas Eric Duncan was remembered Saturday as a big-hearted and compassionate man whose virtues may have led to his infection with Ebola in his native Liberia and death as the first victim of the disease in the United States.

SNIP The atmosphere was totally relaxed – I didn’t see anything shocking in my viewfinder, president of the US or not. We are in Africa. I later read on social media that Michelle Obama seemed to be rather peeved on seeing the Danish prime minister take the picture. But photos can lie. In reality, just a few seconds earlier the first lady was herself joking with those around her, Cameron and Schmidt included. Her stern look was captured by chance. I took these photos totally spontaneously, without thinking about what impact they might have. At the time, I thought the...

For many women, having a child is a joyous, albeit life-changing, occasion. But for 57-year-old Isabella Dutton of Britain, it was her biggest mistake. Dutton, a typist, wrote a first-hand account for the UK’s Daily Mail in which she details her regrets about having her two children, Stuart and Jo. “My son Stuart was five days old when the realisation hit me like a physical blow: having a child had been the biggest mistake of my life,” she wrote. “I felt completely detached from this alien being who had encroached upon my settled married life and changed it, irrevocably, for...

Last week on the website Emergency Management, there appeared a blog post written by an emergency manager named Valerie Lucus-McEwen in which she made a grave error in judgment. She called doomsday preppers “socially selfish.” She based this startling conclusion on the National Geographic’s “The Doomsday Prepper” series and concluded that because the people featured in this show were spending their OWN time and their OWN money to stockpile their OWN resources in order to prepare their OWN families for whatever disastrous scenario they foresaw, they are selfish. Specifically, as another emergency manager phrased it, this is “a level of...

You might wonder why someone like me, who has been in the business of encouraging disaster preparedness for a very long time, is so critical of people who are doing just that. It’s because they are being socially selfish – preparing themselves and the hell with everyone else. Instead of spending time and energy making changes that would benefit the larger community, in their very narrow focus of loyalty they are more concerned about themselves. Emergency Managers can’t afford that kind of attitude. It is diametrically opposed to everything we do. Our job is to prepare individuals and communities and...

On his army blog of January 19, the commanding general of Fort Bliss (Texas), Major General Dana Pittard, wrote regarding members of the military who commit suicide: "I have now come to the conclusion that suicide is an absolutely selfish act. I am personally fed up with soldiers who are choosing to take their own lives so that others can clean up their mess. Be an adult, act like an adult and deal with your real-life problems like the rest of us." According to the National Journal, "Pittard's blunt comments about suicide have raised eyebrows throughout the military. . ....

Writing for the Associated Press, Nicole Winfield is reporting that, "Pope Benedict XVI issued a blistering denunciation Thursday of priests who have questioned church teaching on celibacy and ordaining women, saying they were being selfish in disobeying his authority. Benedict made the rare and explicit criticism from the altar of St. Peter's Basilica in his homily on Holy Thursday, when priests recall the promises they made when ordained...In his homily, Benedict said the dissidents claim to be motivated by concern for the church. But he suggested that in reality they were just making 'a desperate push to do something to...

Barbara Walters, ABC News: "What is your biggest peeve of each other?" President Obama: "I don't have one." Walters: "Aww." Michelle Obama: "My list is too long."

Why aspire to be successful when you will just be called greedy and selfish?

The setup is complicated. Griffin’s mother, Carol Einhorn, a fund-raiser for a nonprofit group, is 48 and single. She conceived through in vitro fertilization with sperm from Mr. Russell, 49, a chiropractor and close friend. Monday, Tuesday, Thursday and Sunday nights, Mr. Russell stays in the spare room of Ms. Einhorn’s apartment. The other three days he lives on President Street with his domestic partner, David Nimmons, 54, an administrator at a nonprofit. Most Sundays, they all have dinner together. “It’s not like Heather has two mommies,” Mr. Russell said. “It’s George has two families.”

Three of the nine teenagers accused of driving 15-year-old Irish immigrant Phoebe Prince to commit suicide have been ordered to stay away from her family. Sean Mulveyhill, 17, Austin Renaud, 18, and Kayla Narey, 17, were all freed today on personal recognizances as long as they left Phoebe's heartborken family alone. Judge Judd Carheart made the ruling in a brief arraignment which the three teenagers did not attend.

WASHINGTON (AP) - First lady Michelle Obama says women should do what makes them happy, a lesson she says she learned after realizing her two children, her husband and her physical health feed off of her good moods. In an interview appearing in the November issue of Prevention magazine, Mrs. Obama discusses the meaning of good health, aging and her exercise, diet and beauty routines. She sat for the interview at the White House in late July.

As the election draws nears, it seems that O’Biden can’t help but dole out clues as to who they really are. Those clues include: · O’Biden telling us that paying more taxes is "patriotic;" · O’Biden lowering the income level as to who is going to suffer their tax increase from $250,000 to $150,000 and now perhaps $120,000 – and that’s just what is advertised; and · O’Biden telling us that our desire not to pay higher taxes is selfish. There are so many points to be made here, but I shall try to confine it to just two: 1....

The Talk: If there’s a child on the south side of Chicago who can’t read, that matters to me, even if it’s not my child. If there’s a senior citizen somewhere who can’t pay for her prescription and has to choose between medicine and the rent, that makes my life poorer, even if it’s not my grandmother. If there’s an Arab American family being rounded up without benefit of an attorney or due process, that threatens my civil liberties. It’s that fundamental belief — I am my brother’s keeper, I am my sister’s keeper — that makes this country work....

Obama said "Selfish". How did he dare to say it "Selfish" through his mouth in so selfish mood? Here is Korea. If America was like Obama's in 1950 when Korean war started, present freely rich south Korea never be born. In this country over 40 million peoples live in freedom and thanks to America, even though some(about 10-30%) pro-leftism never do that. Obama may wish to live all "Axis of Evil" contained with his unselfishiness, then, peoples under Evil Power of "Axis of Evil" like KimJongil and past-South Korea invaded by Evil north Korea might be melted down forever. And...

<p>Obama said "Selfish". How did he dare to say it "Selfish" in so selfish mood?</p> <p>Here is Korea. If America was like Obama's in 1950 when Korean war started, present freely rich south Korea never be born.</p> <p>Obama would wish to live all "Axis of Evil" contained with his unselfish, then, peoples under Evil Power of "Axis of Evil" like KimJongil and past-South Korea invaded by Evil north Korea might be melted down forever. And over the world, there shall be grown much bigger cruel regimes if no-body and no-county resist against it.</p>

One of the highlights of the 2000 presidential campaign was Winifred Skinner. You may remember her—she was the can-collecting 79-year-old woman who used the money from her foraging for tin and aluminum to finance her prescription drugs. She was interviewed on Good Morning America about her plight, and Al Gore highlighted her story in his campaign speeches. Chosen by Gore to be one of his 13 "citizen advisers" before the first presidential debate in Boston, she even traveled there in a Winnebago to do her part in bringing about change. At some point in the saga, it came out that...

Web users are getting more ruthless and selfish when they go online, reveals research. The annual report into web habits by usability guru Jakob Nielsen shows people are becoming much less patient when they go online. Instead of dawdling on websites many users want simply to reach a site quickly, complete a task and leave. Most ignore efforts to make them linger and are suspicious of promotions designed to hold their attention. Search rules Instead, many are "hot potato" driven and just want to get a specific task completed. (snip) This makes them very resistant to highlighted promotions or other...

A new book is causing a storm of controversy by labelling children as annoying and pointless - a charge made all the more inflammatory by the fact that its author is a mother. Entitled No Kid: 40 Reasons Not To Have Children, Corinne Maier's book has sparked fury in France, where it was published. Here, Corinne argues her "no kid" case while another mum, Ursula Hirschkorn, stands firm for parenthood. Corinne Maier, 43, a writer, who lives with her boyfriend Yves, 45, a psychiatrist, daughter Laure, 13, and son Cyrille, 10, in Brussels, argues her case. Children are just too...