Alice Walker's reflections on the killing of Trayvon Martin.

The chain of events that directly led to his killing started when a white racist assumed a young black man was a criminal mainly because of his looks, then pursued him. That must happen fairly often in the US. If it leads to a fight, there is some chance one of the people will be killed (most likely the young black man).

A crucial psychological principle is that the probability of punishment and the frequency of punishment matter more than the amount of punishment. If we want to prevent repetition of this chain of events, it would be more effective to punish or discourage some event near the start, rather than an unusual outcome. Perhaps limiting carrying concealed weapons is a good solution.

Afghan government soldiers continue shooting government troops and NATO troops. One who was caught and arrested has escaped through the help of one of the officers in charge of the prison.

These events demonstrate that the Taliban inspire a kind of loyalty which Karzai's government can't compete with. It is difficult to win a fight against that sort of disadvantage.

The NSA says its mission is to collect "all" data, and it effectively targets everyone.

Russia wants to make multinational Internet companies cooperate with Russian surveillance rather than US Internet surveillance, regarding data about Russia and Russians.

We must directly confront those who pretend that banning abortions is an expression of concern for people.