YAOUNDÉ, Cameroon: Pope Benedict XVI said before he landed here Tuesday, on his first leg of a trip to Africa, that condoms were not the answer in the continent's fight against H.I.V., his first explicit statement on an issue that has divided even the clergy who work with AIDS patients.

Benedict won't yield on anti-condom view - International Herald Tribune

But now, like Bush before him, Obama is playing the national security card to hide details of the controversial Anti-Counterfeiting Trade Agreement being negotiated across the globe.

The White House this week declared (.pdf) the text of the proposed treaty a "properly classified" national security secret, in rejecting a Freedom of Information Act request by Knowledge Ecology International.

Obama Administration Declares Proposed IP Treaty a 'National Security' Secret | Threat Level from Wired.com

A commercial jetliner suffered a loss of one of its two engines shortly after taking off from La Guardia Airport on Wednesday morning and was forced to make an emergency landing at Kennedy International Airport, officials said.

American Airlines Flight 309, an MD-80, bound for Chicago’s O’Hare International Airport, landed at Kennedy around 8:35 a.m., after losing a trail of metal parts, evidently from its No. 2 engine, the Federal Aviation Administration said. Some of the metal parts were reported to have fallen onto a rooftop of a commercial building in Queens.

There were 88 passengers and five crew members on board, said Andrea Huguely, a spokeswoman for the airline. No one was injured.

Plane Makes Emergency Landing at J.F.K. - City Room Blog - NYTimes.com

Space Shuttle Discovery on the launch pad with the moon rising behind it.

Flickr Photo Download: STS-119 Shuttle Discovery With Moon (200903110001HQ)

Traders embraced a proposal that the Securities and Exchange Commission may bring back the "uptick" short sales rule, hopeful it will prevent "bear raids" on stocks. null

=US Traders Embrace Possible Reintroduction Of Uptick Rule - MarketWatch

President Obama on Tuesday nominated Julius Genachowski as the nation's top telecommunications regulator, picking a campaign advisor who has divided his career between Washington, D.C., political jobs and working as an Internet executive.

Obama picks Net neutrality advocate as FCC chairman | Politics and Law - CNET News

The long-grounded Deep Space Climate Observatory may be revived for an assignment very different from the controversial mission that was cancelled for its infamous mix of politics and science.

"Gore sat" may finally launch.

SPACE.com -- Mothballed Satellite Sits In Warehouse, Waits For New Life

It felt like a primal whine from rich reporters. Hasn't Barack Obama considered that maybe John McCain's tax policy is the right one? Does Obama not realize that the best way to be a Democrat is preserve conservative Republican tax policy?

Why would Obama raise taxes on people making over $250,000 beginning in two years? If you tamper with trickle-down, the dramatic shift of income toward the wealthy that was the hallmark of George W. Bush's tax policy, don't you know it'll be disaster? It'll be "class warfare!" (The first questioner: Are you worried that the "class warfare" argument could sink the budget?)

In a remarkable scene, Gibbs patiently and repeatedly explained that, no really, Obama actually won the election, that he'd explained exactly what he was going to do during the campaign, the American people understood and voted on it, and now he's doing it. During the campaign, Obama had pledged to cut taxes for 95% of American workers and end the catastrophic non-workingness of George Bush's trickle-down tax policy. Now, among some questioners, there seems to be confusion and alarm that Obama intends to implement that policy.

FiveThirtyEight.com: Politics Done Right: BREAKING: Press Corps Incredulous That Obama Budget Reflects Campaign Promises

And it looks like the number of votes in the Congress will in fact be changing. On Tuesday, the Senate achieved cloture (broke a filibuster) on S.160, the District of Columbia House Voting Rights Act of 2009, which would (1) permanently expand the size of the House from 435 to 437 members and (2) give one of these additional seats to the District of Columbia. This measure is quite likely to formally pass the Senate soon, be followed up with a vote in the House, and be signed by the President. Unless it is struck down on a Constitutional basis (and it will certainly be challenged), it will become the law.

FiveThirtyEight.com: Politics Done Right: FiveThirty ... Nine?

Later this year, a double-rigged crane will hoist a giant power turbine part way up One Penn Plaza, a black monolithic skyscraper next to Madison Square Garden. When the natural gas-powered generator on the 12th floor starts, it will not only produce some 6.2 megawatts of electricity — enough to power up to half the 57-floor building on a busy day — but it will also siphon off excess steam and use it to help heat and cool the 37-year-old skyscraper.

Square Feet - Manhattan Towers Gather Their Own Heat for Power - NYTimes.com