News stories by Eli Clifton, page 2

Monday's Supreme Court decision on the extent to which the Second Amendment of the U.S. constitution guarantees the universal right to own a gun is being welcomed by organisations on both sides of the debate, even as some warn that the ruling could to open a floodgate of legislation challenging gun laws in different states.

China's central bank announced Saturday that it would give the Chinese Yuan (RMB) flexibility to gradually rise in value against the U.S. dollar in a move that was welcomed by Washington and designed to appease global leaders at this weekend's G20 meeting in Toronto.

Israel's announcement Thursday that it would ease the restrictions on goods entering Gaza has been received by NGOs and the international community as a move in the right direction, but as not going far enough in lifting the Israeli siege on the Gaza Strip.

The report, released Tuesday by the Council on Foreign Relations (CFR), called on the White House to back up its rhetoric of denouncing North Korea's weapons programme with actions to change Pyongyang's behaviour and ensure stability in the region.

Earlier this spring, many here in Washington were hopeful that Chinese president Hu Jintao's attendance at the Nuclear Security Summit, the U.S. Treasury Department's decision to hold off on naming China as a 'currency manipulator', and China's support of U.N. sanctions against Iran all pointed to a thaw in the cool relationship between the Barack Obama White House and Beijing.

President Barack Obama will be sending 1,200 National Guard troops to patrol the U.S.-Mexico border after pressure from both Republicans and Democrats to tighten border security and increase funding to combat the flow of illegal drugs into the U.S.

Japanese Prime Minister Yukio Hatoyama announced on Monday that he would renege on his campaign promise to renegotiate the move of a controversial U.S. airbase off the island of Okinawa.

The U.S. Senate is moving forward with a 59-billion-dollar spending bill, of which 33.5 billion dollars would be allocated for the war in Afghanistan.

The upcoming review conference of the International Criminal Court (ICC) has restarted the debate here in Washington about how the U.S. should engage with the ICC despite ongoing concerns about the prosecutorial authority and jurisdiction afforded to the court.

The majority of youth in U.S. cities are no longer white, but there is also a growing disparity in the educational background and incomes of those cities' populations, says a new report from the Washington-based Brookings Institution.