On her historic trip to Myanmar, Secretary of State Hillary Clinton met with the country's foreign ministers and president. Cautiously optimistic about Myanmar's future, Clinton said the United States would relax restrictions on aid to the nation.

In an effort to help alleviate the symptoms of Europe's debt crisis, the Federal Reserve, the European Central Bank, and other international banks funneled U.S. dollars into European financial systems on Wednesday. The move helped markets by making American dollars more easily available outside the U.S. Stocks shot up in reaction to the news. The increased liquidity had the immediate effect of boosting the Dow Jones industrial average by 484 points. It was the biggest single day gain since March 2009. Some wondered, however, whether the move was a smart long-term investment, or just a temporary fix.

Texas is in the middle of the worst drought on record in the state's history. Farm crops have been hit hard, and valuable grazing land has dried out, leading to heavy losses in the state’s valuable cattle industry. In total, Texas has suffered more than $5 billion in agricultural losses since the drought began.

For years, relations between the U.S. and Myanmar have been frozen. Myanmar is one of the least developed countries in the world, with systematic human rights violations, rampant child labor, and a health care system that has been ranked by the World Health Organization as the worst in the world. But a historic visit by Secretary of State Hillary Clinton to the isolated country this week may represent a late thaw. In a step that could transform American diplomacy in the region, the U.S. and Myanmar are considering exchanging ambassadors.

Its reputation for parties, beaches, and condos was cemented by the eponymous Will Smith rap in 1997. Prior to that, it was best known as a haven for cocaine and pastel suit-wearing cops. But for the past ten years, Art Basel Miami has brought a cavalcade of new, fierce artistic talent — curators, critics, gallery owners, and creatives working in all types of media — to an international audience.

Ever heard of FORBS, otherwise known as the Fraternity of Real Bearded Santas? How about the IOS — the International Order of Santas? As Kris Kringle begins to show up at malls across America, The Takeaway takes a look at where these men come from. The Charles H. Howard School, founded in 1937, is the oldest continually running Santa school in the world and has trained thousands of people to stand in for the real guy when he’s too booked up. Tom Valent is the dean of the Charles H. Howard Santa Claus School, and has been a Santa for 35 years. Holly Valent is the school’s registrar.

A surge that pushed American markets up more than four percent on Wednesday is showing signs of a slowdown in Europe. Stocks in Europe opened down on Thursday after Wednesday's rally that followed a move by world banks to try and stem the European debt crisis. 

The Muslim Brotherhood's Freedom and Justice Party is expected to win a decisive majority of seats in Parliament in Egypt's first democratic elections since Hosni Mubarak was forced out of power. The mainstream Islamist group claimed about 40 percent of the vote. But the ultraconservative Salafi party is expected to win around 25 percent, giving Islamist groups control of roughly 65 percent of Parliament. Liberal parties, which touched off the revolution, were too disorganized and divided to make a strong showing at the polls. 

Governors Christine Gregoire of Washington and Lincoln Chafee of Rhode Island have petitioned the federal government to reclassify marijuana as a drug with accepted medical uses. Rhode Island and Washington state have already decriminalized medical marijuana in their states. But marijuana is currently classified by the federal government as a Schedule I controlled substance — the same category as heroin and LSD. It's a confusing distinction for many medical marijuana patients in those states. Governors Gregoire and Chafee say the federal government should reclassify marijuana as a Schedule II controlled substance in order to cut down confusion for medial marijuana patients.

Despite high gas prices, the U.S. is set to become a net fuel exporter for the first time in 62 years. While the U.S. is still importing 8 to 9 million barrels of crude oil a day, it is exporting a greater amount of refined fuel and petroleum products. The spike in exports is primarily driven by an increased demand for fuel worldwide combined with declining consumption here at home. But is the nation's newfound role as fuel exporter a blip on the map or a sustainable trend?

It was supposed to help pregnant women deal with their morning sickness. But when the women who took thalidomide gave birth they were confronted with a horror story. Children were born with a birth defects and other problems that could be fatal. It was 50 years ago the drug Thalidomide was withdrawn after it became clear it was causing serious and sometimes fatal harm to the unborn babies of thousands of women in Europe and around the world.

Despite existing on the extreme right and left of U.S. politics respectively, the Tea Party and Occupy Wall Street movements both claim that the American dream has gone away, and that hard work alone will no longer allow common people to be masters of their own destinies. However, the means for either group to successfully defy the U.S.'s two-party system and impact change remains ill-defined. And, according to a new Pew poll, support for Tea Party policies are down by 10 percent in their former strongholds, as compared to a year ago.