The world at a glance . . . United States

Springfield, Ill.

Blagojevich blitz: The impeachment trial of Illinois Gov. Rod Blagojevich began in Springfield this week, but the defendant was nowhere near the statehouse. Instead, while lawmakers listened to FBI tapes of profanity-laced conversations between the governor and political supplicants, Blagojevich made the rounds of television and radio talk shows. Appearing on ABC’s The View, Blagojevich performed his Richard Nixon impression, but refused to utter Nixon’s notorious statement, “I am not a crook.” On NBC’s Today show he compared his plight to the tribulations of human-rights heroes Mahatma Gandhi, Martin Luther King Jr., and Nelson Mandela. Blagojevich is boycotting the impeachment trial, where he is charged with several counts of corruption, because, he says, the process is unfair and the results are predetermined.

Bellflower, Calif.

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Eight is enough: A California woman this week gave birth to eight babies, only the second live-born set of octuplets on record. The six boys and two girls, born nine weeks premature, were reported in stable condition at Kaiser Permanente Bellflower Medical Center; two of the newborns were placed on ventilators. “They were all screaming and kicking around very vigorously,” said Dr. Harold Henry, the hospital’s chief of obstetrics. Doctors initially expected to deliver seven babies, based on ultrasound images, and were surprised when the eighth emerged. “Ultrasound doesn’t show you everything,” Henry said. The world’s first live-born octuplets were born in Houston in 1998, though one baby died after a week. The seven surviving siblings celebrated their 10th birthday in December.

Coatesville, Pa.

Arson epidemic: Federal agents this week were called in to investigate a rash of suspicious fires in the Philadelphia suburb of Coatesville, the latest of which burned an entire block of row houses. Arsonists have struck in Coatesville 30 times since early 2008, including 14 incidents already this year. “This is an entire city they’re terrorizing,” said resident Sid Shelton, 53, who lost his home in the latest blaze. Police have no suspects, but they theorize that the fires may be part of a gang initiation ritual. Most of the fires fit the same pattern, starting on the front or back porch of a house.

Washington, D.C.

Abortion limits lifted: Reversing a high-profile Bush administration policy, President Obama last week reinstated federal funding for Planned Parenthood and other U.S. organizations that offer abortion services abroad. Federal funding for family-planning groups has been a political football since the 1980s, when President Ronald Reagan imposed the first ban; it was lifted during the Clinton administration, then reinstated in 2001 by President Bush. Critics of the ban said it deprived the world’s poor of help from organizations that provide basic health care in addition to performing abortions. The U.S. spends more than $400 million annually on overseas family-planning services.

Hartford, Conn.

Mayor charged: The mayor of Connecticut’s capital city, who improbably rose from inner-city gang leader to become the state’s most powerful Hispanic politician, was indicted this week on corruption charges. State prosecutors charged Eddie Perez, 51, of accepting a bribe from a contractor who performed a $40,000 renovation on Perez’s home after winning a $5 million city contract. Perez paid the contractor, Carlos Costa, $20,000 for the renovation work, but only after investigators confronted him about the repairs. Perez admitted that hiring Costa to work on his home was “inappropriate and inexcusable” but denied breaking any laws. Perez grew up on Hartford’s rough-and-tumble North Side, founding a street gang in the 1970s. After leaving the gang he formed a neighborhood civic group and launched a political career.

Washington, D.C.

Geithner confirmed: Former New York Fed President Timothy Geithner was confirmed this week as secretary of the treasury, despite widespread criticism over his failure to pay $34,000 in payroll taxes. The Senate voted 60–34, the closest margin for a treasury nominee since the end of World War II, with three Democrats voting no. Geithner said his failure to pay self-employment taxes from 2001–04 was an unintentional oversight, but several senators found that hard to believe. Some senators also criticized Geithner’s recent statement that China is engaged in “currency manipulation.” The U.S. borrows hundreds of billions of dollars overseas every year, and many policymakers are wary of angering China, America’s largest creditor.