1. Obama jobs bill appears to fall short in Senate
CNN 2011-10-11
President Barack Obama has touted the jobs bill in a series of campaign-style speeches across the country.
Washington (CNN) -- As expected, President Barack Obama's $447 billion jobs plan appeared to have stalled Tuesday in the Senate, reflecting a cavernous ideological divide over economic growth strategies and helping to set the stage for what is expected to be a bitterly contested 2012 campaign.
2. Senate passes China currency bill
CNN October 11, 2011
(CNN Money) -- In a rare showing of bipartisanship, the Senate passed a bill on Tuesday targeting China's undervalued currency -- long accused of hampering the U.S. economy.
The Senate voted 63-35 to slap new duties on imports from nations whose currency is undervalued -- a provision aimed squarely at China's yuan. Lawmakers say the bill is intended to help U.S. businesses hurt by ongoing global trade imbalances and lost business to Asian nations.
But the Republican-controlled House won't take up the bill, Speaker John Boehner has said, making Senate passage more of a political exercise than an attempt at legislating. Boehner has called the bill "dangerous."
China opposes the bill and warns of a trade war if the bill passes.
3. Fears mount in Bangkok as Thailand flood waters rise
CNN 2011-10-12
(CNN) -- Thailand's capital was braced for unprecedented flooding Wednesday, amid the monsoon rains that have overwhelmed much of the country as well as Laos, Cambodia and the Philippines in recent weeks.
"It's going to be clearer over the next couple days" whether Bangkok can be spared the brunt of the flooding said Matthew Cochrane, spokesperson for the International Red Cross in Bangkok.
So far, 281 people have been killed and four people are missing in Thailand, according to the country's Flood Relief Operations Command. Some 60 of the country's 76 provinces have so far been affected, impacting some eight million people.
"It's really quite serious, these are the worst floods in Thailand since 1949," Cochrane said.
4. Bhutan's King Marries Commoner Bride
The Wall Street Journal OCTOBER 13, 2011
PUNAKHA, Bhutan -- The beloved king of the tiny Himalayan nation of Bhutan married his commoner bride Thursday in an ancient Buddhist ceremony at the country's most sacred monastery fortress.
King Jigme Khesar Namgyal Wangchuck, wearing the raven crown, came down from his golden throne in front of a huge statue of Buddha to place a smaller, silk brocade crown upon the head of his bride, Jetsun Pema.
Monks chanted in celebration as she took her seat beside him as the new queen of the country.
The wedding has captivated the nation, which had grown impatient with their 31-year-old bachelor king's lack of urgency to find a bride and start a family of his own since his father retired and handed power to him five years ago.
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The Oxford-educated king is adored for pushing development and ushering in democratic reforms that established a constitutional monarchy and legislature in 2008. His teen-idol looks--slicked back hair, long sideburns--his penchant for evening bike rides through the streets and his reputation as a laid-back, accessible leader, also make him the rare monarch whose picture adorns the bedroom walls of teenage girls.
His bride, the daughter of a pilot, has been on an introductory tour of the remote villages of the nation since the king told Parliament in May, "It's now time for me to marry."
The remote nation began slowly opening up to the rest of the world in the 1960s. Foreigners and the international media were first admitted in 1974. Television finally arrived in 1999.
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