[Illustration by SEAN KELLY]
BOSTON GLOBE: Barack Obama turned 48 today, bringing to an end a huge year for the commander in chief, one in which he accepted his party’s nomination, handily won the general election, and took office as the nation’s first African-American president. MORE
CHUCK NORRIS: Mr. President, as more and more people realize that you are refusing to release your original 
birth certificate, further questions will fuel the fires of debate or at least hinder the embers from ever being snuffed out. Questions such as, “Does it really contain the Hawaiian physician’s name?” “Does it disclose something other than his birthplace that he wishes others not to see?” MORE
TELEGRAPH: US President Barack Obama is the target of more than 30 potential death threats a day and is being protected by an increasingly over-stretched and under-resourced Secret Service, according to a new book. Since Mr Obama took office, the rate of threats against the president has increased 400 per cent from the 3,000 a year or so under President George W. Bush, according to Ronald Kessler, author of In the President’s Secret Service. Some threats to Mr Obama, whose Secret Service codename is Renegade, have been publicised, including an alleged plot by white supremacists in Tennessee late last year to rob a gun store, shoot 88 black people, decapitate another 14 and then assassinate the first black president in American history. Most however, are kept under wraps because the Secret Service fears that revealing details of them would only increase the number of copycat attempts. Although most threats are not credible, each one has to be investigated meticulously. MORE