The scandal involving the crystal-meth-fueled gay sex experimentation of the Rev. Ted Haggard with a prostitute has had an impact on the bottom line (so to speak) of the New Life Church in Colorado Springs, Col. The church has had to lay off 44 of 350 employees.

Ah well, it's God's will.

The BBC's M. Ilyas Khan reports from North Waziristan on how the Taliban are settling in quite nicely there and in South Waziristan. Not only that, they are trying to expand their influence elsewhere in the North West Frontier Province.

From the BBC:

India and Pakistan are holding the first meeting of a joint panel to combat terrorism.

The meeting in Islamabad is expected to focus on the fire-bombing of a Pakistan-bound train in India last month. The blaze killed 68 people.

India has said it will share with Pakistan details of the investigation.

The leaders of the two countries agreed in September to set up a mechanism as a way to boost cooperation between the regional rivals.

For 60 years the armies and intelligence agencies of Pakistan and India have seen each other as the main enemy.

So the idea of sharing information to jointly combat terrorism is quite a change and still tentative.

The thing is, the employee wasn't part of the conversation. He was monitoring the interaction of NYT retail reporter Michael Barbaro and Wal-Mart's media relations staff.