Annmarie Fertoli

President Barack Obama has scheduled a meeting with Republican and Democratic leaders on November 18.

The BBC reports that two mail bombs exploded in separate incidents on Tuesday, one at the Swiss embassy and another at the Russian embassy in Athens, Greece, and that additional suspicious packages addressed to other embassies in Athens were also intercepted. No injuries were reported.

Authorities in Indonesia fear that the death toll will continue to rise, after two natural disasters this week. A small tsunami formed off the coast of Sumatra on Monday. And, on Tuesday, hundreds of miles away, the country's most active volcano, Mount Merapi, erupted.

New York City officials say they're taking steps to address poor living conditions at 10 Bronx buildings known as the Milbank portfolio. The city says the buildings have a total of  3,577 open housing code violations. Common complaints include mold, peeling paint and collapsing ceilings.

It's the first day of the World Series, and there's still no agreement between Cablevision and Fox. Some sports bars in the city are anticipating larger crowds during the series because of the dispute.

The National Labor Relations Board has ruled in favor of about 100 city laundry workers who went on strike last November. The workers claimed their employer, Jung Sun Laundry Group, in Queens, delayed health benefits payments, and refused to allow them to return to work after the strike. The NLRB has ruled that the company must reinstate the workers and repay them for their losses.

As of Monday, a cholera outbreak in Haiti had killed more than 250 people and sickened more than 3,000 others, according to The Associated Press. But the AP reports that certain health officials believe the outbreak may be slowing down, citing fewer deaths and reports of new cases so far this week.

It's been several weeks since demonstrations began in France, in protest of a government proposal to raise the nation's retirement age from 60 to 62.

The British government has announced a series of spending reforms designed to carry the UK through the 2015 budget year.

According to the BBC, the plan calls for some $130 billion in cuts to welfare, various governmental departments and the public sector to help fill a multi-billion-dollar budget gap within the next five years.

The latest survey of the city's most popular baby names found many of last year's top picks stayed in the top ten, including Isabella and Sophia for girls and Jayden and Daniel for boys.

A Brooklyn judge has ruled the city cannot hire new firefighters, unless it does so under one of his five hiring proposals. Judge Nicholas Garaufis issued proposals last month to allow the FDNY to hire recruits from an entrance exam he ruled discriminatory. The city has already rejected all of the hiring proposals.

Switzerland is celebrating the completion of drilling on what will become the world's longest rail tunnel.

Just days after offering Palestinians a compromise over building in the West Bank, Israel has announced it is building more than 200 new homes in eastern Jerusalem, according to The Associated Press.

New York has had its fair share of wild weather, including two tornadoes last month and a powerful hailstorm on Monday. And there's another storm heading our way Thursday night. But Brian Ciemnecki, a meteorologist with the National Weather Service, said this storm won't be as powerful and it will come as we move out of the stormy weather season.

The federal government has lifted a ban on deepwater oil and gas drilling in the Gulf of Mexico, more than a month before it was set to expire. U.S. Secretary of the Interior Ken Salazar made the decision on Tuesday. As The Associated Press reports, critics of the ban, including oil companies, had argued that a six-month moratorium would harm their business.

Gay rights groups are celebrating a California judge's ruling against the military's "Don't Ask, Don't Tell" policy. As The Associated Press Reports, U.S. District Judge Virginia Phillips, who has already ruled the ban unconstitutional, has now issued a worldwide injunction against enforcing it.

The BBC reports that Palestinian leaders have rejected a Israeli offer to extend a moratorium on building on the West Bank -- in exchange for Palestinians' formal recognition of Israeli as a Jewish state.

The Norwegian Nobel Committee has awarded the 2010 Nobel Peace Prize to Liu Xiaobo, citing his work as an advocate for human rights, including his participation in the 1989 protests in Tiananmen Square, and authoring a human rights manifesto that lead to his imprisonment in 2008.

Peruvian author Mario Vargas Llosa, who unsuccessfully ran for president of his country in 1990, has been awarded the Nobel Prize in Literature.