President Barack Obama’s selection to be the government’s chief budget officer received a bonus of more than $900,000 from Citigroup Inc. last year – after the Wall Street firm, for which he was employed by, received a substantial taxpayer bailout.

According to the Washington Times, “the money was paid to Jacob Lew in January 2009, about two weeks before he joined the State Department as deputy secretary of state, according to a newly-filed ethics form. The payout came on top of the already hefty $1.1 million Citigroup compensation package for 2008 that he reported last year.”

China has just overtaken Japan as the second-largest economy of the world, due to the fruits of three decades of rapid growth, which has lifted hundreds of millions of people out of poverty.

The China Daily reports that, “depending on how fast its exchange rate rises, China is on course to overtake the United States and vault into the No. 1 spot sometime around 2025, according to projections by the World Bank, Goldman Sachs and others.”

Recently, the Government Accountability Office (GAO) released a report disclosing that between 2002 and 2008, Planned Parenthood received an unaccounted-for $1.3 billion from the U.S. federal government.

In typical Planned Parenthood style, no explanation was given on how the money was spent, while the abortion giant is putting forth greater efforts to conceal information.

For almost a century, a number of governments in the Holy Land provided free water to the basilica and pilgrims as a signal of courtesy. But now, the municipality of Jerusalem is demanding it pay for water consumption. Concerns and confusion among the Christian Churches has erupted.

Asia New reports that, “the Churches of Jerusalem are perplexed and concerned by the municipal authorities threaten to cut off water supplies to the basilica of the Holy Sepulcher. Since water supplies were first operational in the area, successive governments have always provided access to the Holy Sepulcher free of charge as a public service to the pilgrims and act of courtesy to the religious, Catholic and non-Catholic, who custody the sanctuary.”

A professor at the University of Oxford in England was discriminated against after she converted to Christianity. She was a lecturer at Oxford University’s center for Jewish Studies where colleagues discriminated against her.

The Daily Telegraph of London reports that, “Dr. Tali Argov says she was overlooked for promotion stripped of her privileges and cold-shouldered at social gatherings. She says staff wanted to vet her lectures to make sure that, as a Christian, she would not criticize Israel.”

An organization, promoting a gay parade in Nepal on August 25, is boasting that some Bollywood actors will attend the festival. In the past, Bollywood was recognized for producing films that encouraged traditional family values. Apparently, that is no longer the case.

According to the Seoul Times, “Nepal is all set to welcome gays, lesbians, transvestites and transsexuals across the world on August 25, 2010, coinciding with a festival called Gayatra (festival of the cow), the traditional festival which commemorates with ridiculing and fooling the important people of the society.”

Gov. Chris Christie (R.-N.J.) intends to fulfill his campaign promises by restoring state government to fiscal sanity. He even vetoed a bill that would have provided $7.5 million in state aid to “family planning” clinics, most of which are operated by Planned Parenthood.

LifeSiteNews reports that, “New Jersey’s Star Ledger reported that Christie in his veto message said that ‘the state simply cannot fund every worthy program’ and would not restore $7.5 million for family planning clinics that he had cut from the state’s budget for fiscal year 2011.”

President Hugo Chavez of Venezuela has finally retreated from making bellicose gestures towards a hostile enemy. He announced Tuesday that Venezuela has not reinforced troops in the region bordering Colombia as a dispute between the two nations continued to make headlines.

The People’s Daily of China reports that, “meanwhile, Colombia confirmed it would attend a regional meeting aimed at solving the dispute but President Alvaro Uribe scoffed at a peace plan that Venezuela has said it will present at the meeting of the region’s foreign ministers next week.”

Do you care about the environment and dream of driving a car without leaving a carbon footprint? Well, you need to cough-up some serious cash to make that happen.

According to the Washington Times, “General Motors Corp. announced Tuesday that it will start selling its first mass-market electric car, but consumers will have to shell out a bit more for environmental appeal. The Chevrolet Volt has a price of $41,000 before government rebates, several thousand dollars more than the comparable electric-powered Nissan Leaf and about twice what a comparable gasoline-powered car costs.”

The Department of Justice is investigating whether hundreds of FBI agents cheated on a test related to new rules permitting the bureau to conduct surveillance and open cases without evidence that a crime was committed.

According to the Houston Chronicle, “in some instances, agents took the open-book test together, violating rules that they take it alone. Others finished the lengthy exam unusually quickly, current and former officials said.”