* Syrian government refuses to allow UN chemical-weapons investigators permission to broaden their mission. * Ignatius: I was there and I'm here to tell you, Margaret Thatcher opened the door for modern Britain. * Remembering Thatcher's 1978 appearance on "Desert Island Discs." * One-fifth of Earth’
* Obama pleads with Congress to vote on gun control, criticizing Republicans who have threatened to filibuster. * Republican senators' staffers complain of new gun groups' harassment campaigns. * Britain debates whether it's OK to celebrate Thatcher's death, as many have done with champagne and public partying.
* Story of Nek Muhammad, enemy of Pakistan whom the CIA killed in exchange for access to Pakistan's airspace. * New science teaching standards in the U.S. will include extensive lessons on human-made climate change; not so in the UK. * Nicholas Lemann on the disappearance of America'
* Tour company experiences 400% increase in inquiries about trips to North Korea. * South Korea says the North may be planning to conduct another underground nuclear test. * NASA plans to use robotic spaceship to lasso asteroid and "park it near the moon." * Uganda may ban above-the-knee skirts
* Four teenagers attempt to end Georgia county's tradition of racially segregated proms. * Ice that took 1,600 years to form in the Andes in Peru has melted in the past 25. * Graham crackers and Corn Flakes were originally intended to curb sexual urges. * Roger Ebert remembers his favorite
* Since Newtown, more states have relaxed gun restrictions than have passed new gun-control laws. * A state-by-state breakdown of recent gun legislation. * Coplen plans to arm an entire unnamed Houston neighborhood as a case study on the effects of an armed population on crime. * Why do we laugh
* Let's say that the North decides to fire its new mobile KN-08 intermediate-range ballistic missile. * Instead of Austin, a likelier North Korean target is nearby San Antonio, home to Air Force Cyber Command. * The greatest deterrent to North Korea's aggression is China, whose new
* When the presidency was "an unbroken string of white men," the GOP didn't bother asking Baltimore's Dr. Carson to wear a mask. * Thirty-six recent images of people wearing masks. * Hopi Indians of Arizona ask federal officials to stop a high-price Paris auction
* NRA report on school security mixes up shootings, advises more guns, bulletproofing. * Satellite images of Burma reveal the devastation of the Muslim community at the hands of militant Buddhists. * Roger Ebert announces new cancer diagnosis, "leave of presence" to write more about anything and everything. * Obama's
* The federal government's sequestration continues, but Democrats and Republicans say Obama cried wolf about airline travel. * It would be easier to take conservatives seriously about gun control if they didn't support massive military spending. * The Netherlands, Berlin's staunch ally in pushing for budgetary discipline
