CNN.com
The U.S. Supreme Court ruled Thursday that a sweeping ban on handguns in the nations capital violated the Second Amendment right to bear arms.
A gun ownership supporter holds a placard in March outside the Supreme Court in Washington.
A gun ownership supporter holds a placard in March outside the Supreme Court in Washington.
The justices voted 5-4 [...]
NYTimes.com
The Chinese government announced on Thursday that North Korea will hand over a declaration of its nuclear program and that, if the information is verified to be accurate, the United States would then remove North Korea from a list of state sponsors of terrorism and end some economic sanctions against it.
Managing the six party talks [...]
CNN.com
After a review of the “history of the death penalty for this and other nonhomicide crimes, current state statutes and new enactments, and the number of executions since 1964, we conclude there is a national consensus against capital punishment for the crime of child rape,” Anthony Kennedy wrote.
I could be wrong here, but I am [...]
NYTimes
After months of wrangling, Democratic and Republican leaders in Congress struck a deal on Thursday to overhaul the rules on the government’s wiretapping powers and provide what amounts to legal immunity to the phone companies that took part in President Bush’s warrantless eavesdropping program after the Sept. 11 attacks.
The deal, expanding the government’s powers in [...]
washingtonpost.com
ROBERT MUGABE’S campaign of terror against the people of Zimbabwe is succeeding. On Sunday, Morgan Tsvangirai, the opposition leader who defeated him in the March 29 presidential election, withdrew from a runoff election that had been scheduled for Friday, citing the murder of 86 of his supporters and the torture, beating or displacement of tens [...]
BBC NEWS
Israel has carried out an exercise that appears to have been a rehearsal for an attack on Iran’s nuclear facilities, US officials have told the New York Times.
More than 100 Israeli fighter jets took part in manoeuvres over the eastern Mediterranean and over Greece in the first week of June, US officials said.
Iran insists [...]
New Scientist
A major evolutionary innovation has unfurled right in front of researchers’ eyes. It’s the first time evolution has been caught in the act of making such a rare and complex new trait.
And because the species in question is a bacterium, scientists have been able to replay history to show how this evolutionary novelty grew [...]
Gib at Crosblog writes about some of Mugabe’s latest activities, and then talks about how Obama as President might be able to effect some change:
Sen. Obama is a superstar in Africa, and should he become President, his popularity in Africa will continue to skyrocket, and his first official visit to the continent will be huge. [...]
Times Online
“Ten years ago I could never have imagined I’d be doing this,” says Greg Pal, 33, a former software executive, as he squints into the late afternoon Californian sun. “I mean, this is essentially agriculture, right? But the people I talk to – especially the ones coming out of business school – this is [...]
This Los Angeles Times op-ed presents some good arguments on how stupid congress is being in dealing with the rise in oil prices. It concludes with the following paragraphs.
It won’t be Congress that pops the oil price bubble; conservation, new technologies and market cycles should take care of that. The danger, though, is [...]
