Free Republic

The clashes and ensuing stampede did not appear to be directly linked to the political turmoil in Egypt, but the violence raised fresh concerns about the ability of the state police to manage crowds. Most of the hundreds of black-uniformed police with helmets and shields stood in lines and - DID NOTHING - as soccer fans chased each other, some wielding "Sharp Objects"... and others hurling sticks and rocks.

An ancient ice shelf has cracked off northern Ellesmere Island, creating an enormous, 66-square-kilometre ice island and leaving a trail of icy blocks in its wake. ''It really is incredible,'' says Warwick Vincent of Laval University, one of the few people to have laid eyes on the scene. ''It's like a cruise missile has come down and hit the ice shelf.'' The breakup was so powerful, earthquake monitors 250 kilometres away picked up the tremors as the 3,000 to 4,500 year-old shelf tore away from its fjord on Ellesmere. It broke up 16 months ago, but no one was present...

Behind the scenes in the Capitol, the wrangling over the unprecedented two-pronged plan to attack global warming is intense. Two major pieces of legislation have been amended several times--one was completely rewritten in April--and the bills have ricocheted separately from committee to committee. The bills' torturous paths partly stem from parliamentary maneuvers by supporters to keep the proposal alive. Watched closely by the nation and a skeptical California business community, the Legislature's Democratic leadership is crafting landmark legislation to cut greenhouse-gas emissions over the next 14 years from factories, power plants, construction sites, cement companies, and even dry-cleaning shops. It...