1. WALKER SURVIVES WISCONSIN RECALL
Wisconsin Gov. Scott Walker (R) survived Tuesday's recall election, beating Milwaukee Mayor Tom Barrett (D) by a 53-46 margin (with nearly all votes in) to keep his job. Walker's win is a blow to unions and Democrats, who rose up against Walker when he signed a bill in March 2011 that stripped public employee unions of their collective-bargaining rights in an effort to balance the state's budget. Wisconsin is a key battleground state for the presidential election, and Walker's win bodes well for Romney. Walker is the third governor in U.S. history to face a recall election, and the first to survive one. [CNN, Washington Post]
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2. DRONE STRIKE KILLS AL QAEDA NO. 2
U.S. officials reported Tuesday that a CIA drone strike in Pakistan killed deputy al Qaeda leader Abu Yahya al-Libi. Libi has been thought to have been killed in previous drone strikes, but if he is indeed dead this time, it will be a key moment for America's covert operations in Pakistan. Libi is more well known than many of the figures killed in previous drone strikes; he's considered "a virtual ambassador for global jihad," and had a $1 million bounty on his head. [New York Times]
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3. SYRIA TO ALLOW U.N. HUMANITARIAN AID
On Tuesday, the Syrian government said it will allow the United Nations to come into the country and bring humanitarian aid to those in urgent need. "Whether it's a breakthrough or not will depend on the action on the ground," said John Ging with the U.N.'s Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs. "We will work very hard to make it a breakthrough, because the people of Syria need us to break through with a much bigger humanitarian response." The news came on the same day that Syria announced it was ejecting diplomats from 11 Western countries, just as its own diplomats had been expelled elsewhere. [CNN]
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4. CALIFORNIA VOTERS APPROVE PENSION CUTS
California voters in San Diego and San Jose voted overwhelmingly to approve pension cuts for city workers on Tuesday. The vote was another blow to organized labor, on the same day that anti-union Wisconsin Gov. Scott Walker survived a recall election. [New York Times]
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5. AFGHANISTAN SUICIDE BOMBING KILLS 22
A double suicide bombing in southern Afghanistan on Wednesday killed 22 civilian and wounded dozens. In eastern Afghanistan, a U.S.-led coalition airstrike reportedly killed 18, though the coalition has contested the report of casualties. Even with those 18 casualties unconfirmed, with the 22 dead in Kandahar, Wednesday is the deadliest day in Afghanistan since December, when a suicide bomber in Kabul killed 84 civilians. [McClatchy Newspapers]
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6. LAWYERS SELECT JURORS IN SANDUSKY TRIAL
On the first day of jury selection for Jerry Sandusky's trial on child sexual abuse charges, nine of the 12 main jury members were selected. Many of those selected have ties to Penn State, where Sandusky was an assistant football coach. They include a senior at the college, a woman who has had season football tickets for decades, a man who obtained both undergraduate and graduate degrees from the university, and a retired professor who spent 37 years at Penn State. Sandusky's legal team won the right to choose a jury from the local community. [Associated Press]
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7. PROP 8 HEADS TO THE HIGH COURT
Proposition 8, California's ban on gay marriage, is expected to be reviewed by the U.S. Supreme Court this fall after the U.S. 9th Circuit Court of Appeals voted against reconsidering its previous ruling to strike down the ban. In February, a three-judge panel overturned the ban, which was approved by voters in 2008. [Los Angeles Times]
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8. HUMAN REMAINS SENT TO TWO CANADIAN SCHOOLS
In the latest gruesome incident to make headlines, Vancouver police report that a package containing what appeared to be a human hand and another containing what appeared to be a human foot were sent to two different area schools. At present, investigators do not have any evidence linking the school mailings to Luka Rocco Magnotta, the Canadian porn star accused of murdering a man and then mailing his dismembered body parts to politicians. [CNN]
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9. GOOGLE WARNS OF 'STATE-SPONSORED' ATTACKS
Google announced Tuesday afternoon that it will provide warnings to users it believes are the targets of "state-sponsored" attacks. A window at the top of a user's browser will read "We believe state-sponsored attackers may be attempting to compromise your account or computer." Early Wednesday, a number of Chinese human-rights activists were already reporting on Twitter that they'd received the alert. [Wall Street Journal]
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10. NAPSTER FOUNDERS RELEASE VIDEO CHAT APP
Napster co-founders Shawn Fanning and Sean Parker have released a live video-chatting platform called Airtime that allows users to video chat with their Facebook friends or with a random person with similar interests. The service was introduced with a star-studded demo in New York on Tuesday that featured Olivia Munn, Snoop Dogg, Joel McHale, and many others. Tech bloggers have been quick to note that the demo also featured a number of technical glitches. [Los Angeles Times]
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