Edward Snowden, the former intelligence contractor who leaked information about a series of controversial National Security Agency programs, has been granted temporary respite in Russia, exactly the kind of country he didn't want the United States becoming, while he pursues a request for permanent asylum. As a condition of his finally getting to leave the Moscow airport, he had to agree to give up leaking.

For the record, it came out at Bradley Manning's sentencing hearing yesterday, from the mouth of a Pentagon investigator, that no one died as a result of Manning's disclosures to WikiLeaks.

Egypt has promised to shop shooting supporters of ousted Islamist President Mohamed Morsi en masse so long as they promise to shut up and stop sitting in or complaining about how the country's military ruthlessly executed a coup that flies in the face of democratic principles.

Libertarianism of the brand espoused by Rand Paul didn't play so well in the US Senate. His proposal to strip Egypt's foreign aid lost big, and would have lost bigger if his fellow Kentuckian, the vulnerable Republican leader Mitch McConnell, didn't jump in with a sympathy vote late in the roll call.

Marriage equality has now arrived in Minnesota and Rhode Island, the 12th and 13th states to recognize equal marriage rights for their LGBTQ citizens.

The Cleveland kidnapper who held three women captive in his house for years subjected his victims to near daily assaults, prosecutors are saying at his sentencing hearing, reading from horrific diaries meticulously kept by the victims.

Gitmo, where hunger strikes flourish and rights are in question, costs $2.4 million per year per prisoner.

Uruguay is on the cusp of doing what no other country has done and what some states in the US are trying: It's setting up a legal market for marijuana. Because the war on drugs has failed.

Terrence Jones, the Jefferson High alum and NBA starplayer accused of stomping on a homeless man's leg in Old Town, pleaded not guilty to a single charge of harassment yesterday.

OJ Simpson still has to serve four more years on charges related to a Las Vegas armed robbery, but he won parole on some other charges in part because it was noted he had no previous criminal convictions. True, but...

Speaking of Las Vegas, tourists have returned at something close to their pre-recession levels. It's just that no one is gambling as much anymore. Somewhat surprising, because even though we're a nation of debtors and paupers, we usually LOVE to waste what little things we even have.