The US model, the Trans-Pacific Partnership (TPP), includes Australia, Brunei, Chile, Malaysia, Mexico, New Zealand, Canada, Peru, Singapore, and Vietnam, but conspicuously excludes China.
The biggest effect of trade deals isn't reducing trade barriers, but imposing new standards on things like intellectual property, and TPP is expected to be par for the course there.
The details of the deal are murky, but one big concern is that it could ease the way for US tobacco exports and make it harder for member countries to fight smoking.
The Asian-Pacific Economic Cooperation (APEC) summit culminated in APEC, of which the US and most Pacific Rim nations are members, agreeing to study the Free Trade Area of the Asia Pacific (FTAAP), China's proposed alternative.
Some analysts argued that the APEC statement was an attempt to throw China a bone without actually agreeing to the arrangement, which would be much more inclusive than TPP.
Missouri Governor Jay Nixon speaks alongside representatives from the St. Louis, St. Louis County, and Missouri State police departments during a press conference called to discuss security concerns when the grand jury's decision in the Michael Brown case is announced. (Scott Olson/Getty Images)
With a grand jury set to decide soon on whether to indict Michael Brown's shooter, Missouri Governor Jay Nixon threatened to use the National Guard in response to any ensuing unrest in Ferguson.
The prosecutor, Robert McCulloch, has dragged out the process by showing every shred of evidence to the grand jury, presumably to spread around responsibility for the jury's ultimate decision.
Comet 67P/Churyumov-Gerasimenko, about to (hopefully) become the first to make contact with a human-made spacecraft. (ESA/Rosetta/MPS for OSIRIS Team MPS/UPD/LAM/IAA/SSO/INTA/UPM/DASP/IDA via Getty Images)
Early tomorrow morning, the European Space Agency will attempt to land the spacecraft Philae on a comet.
In case you forget from middle school science class, the big difference between comets and asteroids is their composition: comets are made out of ice, dust, and rocky material, while asteroids are mostly just metals and rocky stuff. Comets also formed farther away from the sun.
The comet in question is about 4.6 billion years ago, when the Earth and other planets were forming — studying it could give us a better sense as to how that happened.
"In 2009, 41.7 percent of African-born adults age 25 and older had a bachelor’s degree or higher, compared to 28.1 percent of native-born adults and 26.8 percent of all foreign-born adults."