In 1973, a small but powerful group of right-wing state legislators and activists met in Chicago. They gathered to form an organization for those who believe that government, in their words, ought to be limited and “closest to the people.” And since, thanks to Chief Justice John Roberts and Mitt Romney, we know that corporations are, in fact, people, it makes sense that Exxon Mobil, Wal-Mart and Koch Industries are among the funders of this secretive and influential group, the American Legislative Exchange Council, known by its sweet-sounding acronym ALEC. Read full article > >

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Deepening the progressive bench

Syrian forces clashed with military defectors early Saturday morning, storming several neighborhoods and bombarding them with heavy gunfire, activists said.

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Military, defectors clash in Damascus

A breach of computers belonging to companies in Japan and India and to Tibetan activists has been linked to a former student at a Chinese university.

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Hacking in Asia Is Linked to Chinese Ex-Graduate Student

Syrian troops intensified an attack against the city of Homs, activists said, as a Kremlin official indicated Russia continues to disagree with the United States on how to end the fighting.

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Syria Reportedly Continues Drive to Retake Rebel Strongholds

A Sri Lankan cabinet minister threatens violence against journalists and human rights activists who he says have been opposing the government.

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S Lanka minister in media threat

Cuba intensifies its harassment of dissidents and human rights activists, according to Amnesty International.

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Cuba ‘ramps up rights crackdown’

Clashes erupted early Monday between armed defectors and the Syrian Army in a wealthy and well-protected area of Damascus, according to activists and residents.

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Clashes Rock Mezzeh, an Upscale Area of Damascus

Expect demonstrators to brandish placards reading “Hands off my health care!” and demanding a repeal of the 2010 health-care law. Expect doctors in white lab coats and patients who have suffered at the hands of insurance companies to hold news conferences lauding the law’s consumer protections and pleading for its preservation. Read full article > >

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Health-care law activists to reach for broad political targets at Supreme Court hearings

Iowa, the country’s top producer of pork and eggs, attracted national attention this month when it became the first state to adopt a law that’s designed to curtail the undercover operations of animal rights activists on farms. Read full article > >

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Iowa law sets up fight between animal activists, farms

Activists claim election was rigged.

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Police Surround Moscow

BEIRUT — Syrian troops backed by tanks launched a ground offensive on Wednesday to try to retake the opposition stronghold of Bab Amr in the central city of Homs, but they reportedly were meeting stiff resistance from rebels of the Free Syrian Army, activists said. Read full article > >

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Syrian troops reportedly launch ground assault on Homs

SANAA, YEMEN — The youth activists who spearheaded the uprising that ended President Ali Abdullah Saleh’s 33-year rule are now grappling with internal divisions, as politics and competing visions weaken one of the Arab world’s most dynamic revolts of the past year. Read full article > >

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Inside Yemen’s revolution, cracks appear as Saleh leaves

The Red Cross was not able to rescue two Western journalists from Homs, despite being able to rescue seven from Baba Amr. Edith Bouvier, a reporter with Le Figaro, and British photographer Paul Conroy, who works for the Sunday Times, were wounded when the Assad regime targeted a makeshift media center on Wednesday. They had asked for help leaving the city, but the Red Cross was unable to get to them and the two bodies of journalists killed in the fighting. Government forces said armed groups refused to turn over the reporters, but resistance activists said the journalists refused to leave the city. The Red Cross got to Homs on Friday and has tried to negotiate the evacuation of injured civilians, but has had difficulty navigating the hatred between Assad’s forces and the opposition.

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Injured Journalists Left in Homs

BEIRUT – An American and a French journalist were reportedly killed in a mortar strike in Homs, Syria, on Wednesday morning, Syrian anti-government activists and a French government spokeswoman said. One of the slain journalists was U.S.-born Marie Colvin, a legendary foreign correspondent from Britain’s Sunday Times newspaper who has also reported for CNN, the BBC and other media outlets. The other was Remi Ochlik, an award-winning photographer from France. Valerie Pecresse, a spokeswoman for the French government, confirmed the deaths to reporters in Paris. Read full article > >

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Two Western journalists reported killed in Homs, Syria

An explosion damages a major oil pipeline in the central Syrian city of Homs, witnesses and activists say, with the government blaming “armed terrorists”.

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Blast hits key Syria oil pipeline