Ever wonder why the University of Texas at Austin has been dramatically raising the tuition for students? Perhaps, it's due to the decision of the UT president Wiliam Powers Jr., to publicly offer his support for GLBT (Gay, Lesbian, Bi-sexual and Transgender) domestic partnership benefits for the first time at the annual Texas Equity Conference on Saturday.

The Daily Texan reports that, "the Pride and Equity Faculty and Staff Association and Equality Texas co-organized the event. GLBT leaders and their allies from universities and organizations around the state addressed current issues throughout the day, focusing on the future of domestic partnership benefits, which guarante access to insurance for the partners of the GLBT faculty and staff."

China announced on Monday, it's embassy in Zimbabwe had thrown a birthday party for President Robert Mugabe, an infrequent sign of foreign support for a leader despised by many Zimbabweans and castigated by the United States and Europe.

According to Reuters, "Mugabe celebrated his 86th birthday on Sunday and made time to a party held in his honor at the Chinese embassy in Harare, China's Foreign Ministry said in a statement."

President Horst Kohler of Germany warned South Korea last week to prepare to reunify with North Korea sooner than is commonly anticipated. His advice is a warning coming from the experience of integrating East Germany with West Germany at the end of the Cold War.

The situation with North Korea is far more grave, since North Korea is much worse due to the poverty being at worse levels than East Germany ever knew, and the poulation has been isolated from the world that their perceptions of the world comes into sharp contrast with ours.

Mike Huckabee, the former governor of Arkansas, denounced the Conservative Political Action Conference (CPAC) Saturday as outdated, seemingly corrupt and not truly representative of the conservative movement.

Politico reports that, "Huckabee, a 2008 Republican presidential contender and potential 2012 candidate who had spoken at the conference for years, said the reason he blew it off this year was that the meeting had become dominated by libertarian activists."

At the Texas Hospital Association’s annual leadership conference in Austin this week, the consensus emerged that the state will face serious challenges in coming up with the money just to maintain the current Medicaid system.

Throwing in the potential expansions under the health care reforms championed by Democrats could be next to impossible, state budget leaders say.

Formally defrocked Jesuit priest Donald J. McGuire, who was twice-convicted of multiple counts of pedophilia, has been medically diagnosed to suffer from the fatal illness of leukemia, according to test results by doctors. A close friend of McGuire dislosed his diagnosis to the Dallas Blog on Sunday after the priest called his residence on Saturday night. McGuire made the heavily-restricted and closely-monitored one-and-a-half minute phone call from a federal pentientiary in Springfield, Mo, which can be proven through phone records.

In October 2007, the Chicago Sun-Times did a front-page cover story of McGuire, and called him the "Most Dangerous Priest in America."

South Korea intends to embark on a joint research study with China and Japan on the feasibility of a fre trade agreement (FTA) among the three Northeast Asian nations, as disclosed by South Korea's foreign ministry on Wednesday.

The People's Daily reports that, "according to a report by the ministry, the country, which has been seeking an economic integration of the Northeast Asian region by creating favorable conditions for FTA's, will kick off a joint study with the countries, in which government officials, scholars and business representatives will participate."

In an interview with a US magazine, Sir Elton John has claimed that Jesus was a "super-intelligent gay man." The pop-star singer also told Parade magazine that Jesus was "compassionate," forgiving, and "understood human problems."

Not surprisingly, the left-leaning Church of England refused to condemn Elton John's statement, nor did they boldly state that Jesus was not a homosexual.

MSNBC TV show host Rachel Maddow is making her dreams come into fruition. She has suddenly become the target of attacks by conservatives, a role that she relishes, since it helps to boost her abysmal TV ratings.

Politico reports that, "Rachel Madow has sharply judged the arrested activist filmmaker behind the so-called ACORN pimp videos, and on Thursday, the conservative media entrepreneur who posted the videos fired back."

The decision by the Roman Catholic Archdiocese of Washington D.C. to cancel its foster care program is the first casualty of the District of Columbia's pending same-sex marriage law that must obligate all outside contractors dealing with the city to formally recognize gay couples.

According to the Washington Times, "the decision posted late Tuesday on the archdiocese's Web site, announced that the archdiocese had ended its 80-year-old program Feb. 1, the day the city's contract expired with Catholic Charities, the church's social services arm."