* White House turns against Syria's Assad, stopping short of demanding he step down. * Human Rights Watch urges Obama, with "overwhelming evidence," to investigate torture sanctioned by Bush & Co. * Blood phones: Minerals in your pocket perpetuate war in the DRC. * Ehrenreich: As wars become fought entirely
* On the trail of bin Laden, CIA set up fake vaccinations to gather DNA evidence. * Harvard grads at the top of everything, except in Canada. * Things state flags are sometimes saying. * First known for designing Central Park, Olmsted became famous for his Civil War reportage on Southern life. * Polar bears&
* Paris says Gadhafi's emissaries are suggesting the dictator is ready to leave. * Gordon Brown hacked by journalists for more than 10 years, with privacy invasions from conmen and "blaggers." * Brown: If European growth continues to run so far behind, by midcentury it may be as small
* Belarus arrests deaf-mute for shouting anti-gov't slogans and a one-armed man for clapping along. * Bands touring this summer want fans to calm down. * Naomi Wolf accidentally kills the messenger—dopamine—in dissection of porn's effect on brains. * Foreign Policy predicts who will be
* Writer of Syrian revolution's theme song believed to be killed. * Niemann unveils world map, with slight New York bias, of useless stereotypes. * Google wins image points in Japan for post-quake tools. * Steve Wynn wins points for spending $13 million on vases and restoring them to China (in
Anthropologist requests access to Shakespeare's grave to, among other things, ascertain if he was a pothead. Americans didn't win total independence: There's no getting rid of the weeds and grasses introduced by the first European settlers. Washington was not in a UFO cult. Let&
Though the party is divided on why to slam Obama for troop withdrawals, some Republicans are rediscovering their isolationist roots. Op: In light of recent Perry takedowns, accomplishments in office may not make a lick of difference. Does it mark them out as underdogs trying to overcome the liberal elite?
New Mexico wildfires three miles from Los Alamos, where low-level nuke waste is stored above-ground. Egypt's government getting by, running the economy "hand to mouth," with no real mandate. Satellite imagery of Arab unrest. Videos: Medvedev's SUV rolls away; Putin can'
Space station crew prepared for impact with a piece of space garbage--one of thousands in orbit from previous missions. After 16 years of requiring large buildings to commission public art, Seoul is littered with eyesores. Texas town lays off its local police force over budgetary woes, braces for crime
Taliban suicide bombers and gunmen attack landmark Afghan hotel, among Kabul's best-protected buildings. Tweets from Afghan journalists inside Hotel Intercontinental. Tabloid headlines for Wimbledon news and Murray mania. In symbolic move tied to Afghan drawdown, Pentagon employees shift from combat fatigues to battle dress uniforms. History of
