Frederick Sanger, the British biochemist who twice won the Nobel Prize, has died at the age of 95. Fellow researchers have described him as "one of the greatest scientists of any generation" and as "a real hero" of British science.
He is considered the "father of genomics" after pioneering methods to work out the exact sequence of the building blocks of DNA. Dr Sanger also developed techniques to determine the structure of proteins.
Frederick Sanger: Double Nobel Prize winner dies at 95
Poll: U.S. residents say they would have sided with Union in Civil War
Just over half of U.S. residents say they would have been on the Union side during the Civil War, a new poll indicates.
Another 17 percent say they would have tried to avoid taking sides, 20 percent are not sure, and 10 percent would side with the Confederacy, international polling company YouGov reported Monday. Republicans were most sympathetic to the South, with 20 percent saying they would side with the Confederacy.
Senate paralyzed on what to do about Guantanamo
Senators on Tuesday illustrated their paralysis over what to do with the Guantanamo Bay prison, voting down dueling bills to loosen and tighten restrictions on transferring detainees.
The result fails to significantly advance President Barack Obama's long-standing goal of closing the facility for terror suspects, but prevents rules from being inserted into the Senate's annual defense policy bill that would have made it even harder to try detainees in the United States or release them overseas.
Israeli airstrikes in Gaza after mortar fire
Four suspected terrorist targets in Gaza were hit in Israeli air force strikes Tuesday in response to mortar fire at Israel, the army said.
No injuries were reported, the army said. A suspected weapons facility, two terror tunnels and other sites in southern and northern Gaza were hit, the Israeli army said.
Sites in Khan Younis in southern Gaza included two chicken farms, the Ma'an news agency said. In northern Gaza a tunnel dug by Hamas operatives and an Islamic Jihad training base were hit.
Albuquerque voters reject late-term abortion ban
In a closely watched, first-of-its kind municipal election, voters in New Mexico's largest city have soundly defeated a ban on late-term abortions.
Voters on Tuesday rejected the measure 55 percent to 45 percent following an emotional and graphic campaign that brought in national groups and hundreds of thousands of dollars in advertising. The campaign included protests that compared abortion to the Holocaust and displayed pictures of aborted fetuses.
A coalition of groups, including the American Civil Liberties Union of New Mexico and Planned Parenthood, called the results a huge victory for Albuquerque women and families.
Bruce Enberg: Fries with that? Or, do we hang together?
There has long been a debate about how slaves were treated in colonial America. Records kept by slave holders suggested that they were grossly underfed. Archaeological digs however suggest that the 'masters' provisions were only a supplement to what slaves could grow for themselves, or harvest from the wild. But those were different times, land was plentiful, extensive gardens presented no problem, game and wilderness plantlife were plentiful.
Today we live in a much more dystopian landscape. While today's slave might be called a 'sales associate' or 'your server', he or she must still try to find enough to eat. This sage advice comes from the McDonald's 'employee only access' website: "...to keep from feeling hungry, break up your available food into small portions and spread them out." Ronald McDonald doesn't even bother to have a canned food drive for his employees like the pne that starving workers at Walmart get.
Fisa court documents reveal extent of NSA disregard for privacy restrictions
Newly declassified court documents indicate that the National Security Agency shared its trove of American bulk email and internet data with other government agencies in violation of specific court-ordered procedures to protect Americans’ privacy.
The dissemination of the sensitive data transgressed both the NSA’s affirmations to the secret surveillance court about the extent of the access it provided, and prompted incensed Fisa court judges to question both the NSA’s truthfulness and the value of the now-cancelled program to counter-terrorism.
Texas Abortion Restrictions Allowed by U.S. Supreme Court
The U.S. Supreme Court let Texas enforce a law requiring abortion doctors to have admitting privileges at a local hospital, a measure that prompted at least a dozen clinics to close.
Voting 5-4 to reject calls from abortion clinics, the justices left intact a federal appeals court decision that said the law could go into effect during a legal fight over its constitutionality.
In Afghanistan, 'Security Deal' Means Endless US Occupation
Days before the so-called bi-lateral security agreement heads to an Afghan council of elders and political leaders for a final decision, the U.S. is attempting to force through a stipulation that would allow U.S. troops to continue raiding Afghan homes, in addition to measures giving U.S. troops and contractors immunity from Afghan law and extending U.S. military presence far beyond Obama's 2014 pullout date.
Critics charge that the U.S. is giving itself the green light for open-ended occupation at the expense of the Afghan people. "Occupation is not defined by how many occupiers are policing someplace," said Kimber Heinz of the War Resisters League in an interview with Common Dreams. "If you reduce the amount of occupation forces but keep them there forever, then the occupation continues and the war on people's everyday lives is not actually over — no matter what the US government or mainstream media tells us."
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