* U.S. must decide whether to break from policy and permit South Korea to go nuclear and deflect northern aggression. * Brandon Maxfield was shot when he was seven; now 26 and a quadriplegic, he's been a major force behind the end of cheap, unsafe guns. * Cypriots panic as
* Steubenville teenagers found guilty of rape, highlighting the increasing use of social media as evidence in court. * Investigation continues for people who may have failed to come forward—students, parents, coaches. * Obama will resist Israeli pressure to attack Iran, Israel won't commit to a peace process, and Syria
* To get pregnant, some Palestinian women are smuggling their husbands' sperm out of jail. * Why the new pope's chosen name could signal a renewed focus and global presence for the church. * Italy refuses to send marines accused of killing two fishermen back to India for trial. * Cofounder
* North Korea accuses U.S. and South Korea of cyber attack and staging preparations for war. * Point: In the "randy" CIA, spies and handlers screw around a lot, and we want them to, in order to be good at their jobs. * Counterpoint: Real spies are promiscuous, true, but
* One in seven mothers suffers from postpartum depression, but many feel too guilty to admit it. * Germany to allow women going through unwanted pregnancies to give birth in a hospital under a false name. * The twist-tie v. plastic clip battle is over a $10.6 million market. * Global survey
* How cardinals discern divine will: more and more strategically over the course of the papal conclave. * Sweden's krona is the best performing currency over the past 12 months; Japan's yen is the worst. * Close reading of North Korea's sexist insults of female American secretaries
* Tehran wants to sue Hollywood for making films that "propagate fear of Iran throughout the world." * To protect against bioterrorism, U.S. buys two million doses of a new smallpox vaccine. * Google admits unauthorized data collection during Street View mapping, further fueling Google Glass privacy concerns. * Life as
* Top security chief says cyber-attacks pose the most dangerous immediate threat to the United States. * Republicans and Democrats' proposed budget plans aren't like apples and oranges; they're apples and bicycles. * Public defender who never stops working explains what it's like to carry
* Republicans tried to stop the U.S. military from buying renewable energy and going green; the military fought back. * Thousands of dead pigs found in Shanghai's main water source provides impetus for environmental reform in China. * Ai Weiwei to release heavy metal album with nine songs, some "
* U.S. issues new sanctions in response to North Korea's "scrapping" of the 1953 armistice. * Among the sabers that North Korea may still rattle: instability; nuclear swapping; terrorism. * Blogging proving popular in Vietnam—and so is an ugly and effective crackdown on political dissent. * Pictures from
