SUPREME COURT

By selecting U.S. Rep. Paul Ryan, R-Wis., to be his running mate, 2012 presumptive Republican Party presidential nominee Mitt Romney has also elevated Ryan's plan to reform Medicare, putting in play elderly voters who are skeptical of attempts to reform the cherished senior citizen health care program.

A monastery in north Taiwan's Taoyuan County held the nation's first same-sex Buddhist wedding Saturday, signaling dying opposition in the Asian nation towards gay rights.

Brazil's former president, Luis Inacio "Lula" da Silva, is not on trial himself, but his legacy may be destroyed.

Brazilian lawmakers have approved a bill that reserves half of the spots in the country's prestigious federal universities for racial minority graduates of the public school system in a bid to provide them with equitable access to the higher education.

Unlike the FEC, New York Attorney General Eric Schneiderman is making moves to uncover the financial sources of several dark money groups.

John Steinbeck gave the literary world a lovable simpleton in Lennie Small, the fulcrum of the Nobel Prize winner’s classic 1937 novella “Of Mice and Men.” The character has been brought to the fore again, providing the baseline comparison that may send a mentally retarded convict named Marvin Wilson to his death Tuesday night.

Death row inmate Marvin Wilson’s attorneys petitioned the U.S. Supreme Court to stay his execution, set for Tuesday, arguing the convict’s date with a lethal injection runs contrary to a 2002 ruling by the nation’s highest court banning the execution of mentally retarded prisoners. Texas’ counter? Wilson is wholly dissimilar to a fictional character created by novelist John Steinbeck.

This season "Sesame Street' is bumping up its star power. The long running children's show will be hitting their impressive 43rd season this year, and plan on celebrating with a slew of stars ranging from funny man Steve Carrell to Supreme Court Justice Sonia Sotomayor.

Khan said he performed those humble duties as a goodwill gesture and to promote better relations between faiths.

After nine days of fasting, the Team Anna, as the Indian anti-graft activist Anna Hazare and his supporters are known, has decided to call off its indefinite hunger strike Friday and has floated a proposal to form a "political alternative" as an answer to an "unresponsive" government.

Forty-seven people account for 57 percent of the money raised by super PACs this election cycle -- and most Americans have no idea what this means.

Catholic Church officials, Republicans and other conservatives have blasted the inclusion of artificial birth control, which is against church doctrine, in the list of services that must be covered at no cost to the insured under President Obama's health care overhaul.

Palaniappan Chidambaram, who as finance minister oversaw India's strongest growth surge in the past two decades, returned to the post on Tuesday but faces a sharp economic slowdown, worsening public finances and falling exports this time around.

A Supreme Court ruling that upheld the law in June also allowed individual states to decide whether to accept the Medicaid expansion, sparking an election-year revolt among Republican governors who have opposed the entire reform.

The Indian activist Anna Hazare began his fifth hunger strike in 16 months on Sunday to pressurize the government to set up an anti-graft agency and tougher laws to abate the unbridled corruption in India.

We may think of academics as a liberal, open-minded lot, but lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgender scientists have had as rocky a road to acceptance in the scientific community as in other segments of society.

A Supreme Court ruling temporarily banning tourism in India’s tiger reserves has sparked a heated debate between conservationists and local tour operators: Could banning tourists actually make things worse?

The healthcare law's revenue increases and spending cuts total more than the cost of expanding coverage to the uninsured, the CBO said.

In the first half of this year, 15 states managed to pass almost 40 laws that restrict women's reproductive rights.

Hill, who has an IQ of 70, will be put to death via lethal injection, despite the U.S. Supreme Court's ban on the execution of mentally disabled prisoners.

Essar Oil Monday said that it had made arrangements for loans of about Rs 50 billion to pay its Rs. 61.69-billion sales tax dues to the government of the western Indian state of Gujarat.