Politics

June 2012: Wisconsin's recall defeat, anemic jobs numbers, Clinton freelancing, a looming Supreme Court verdict — Democrats woke to the possibility that

In May 2012 Kaspersky exposed Flame — a massive cyberespionage toolkit aimed at Iran, with 86 fake-identity domains and all the hallmarks of a state operation.

In June 2012 Sachin Tendulkar took oath as a Rajya Sabha member — the first active cricketer nominated to India's Upper House, and a political lightning rod.

The '1%' was really a 0.1% problem: the elite whose wealth buys the rules themselves. On inequality, Occupy, and why the policy answers differ.

The Bombay High Court upheld the conviction of Ramkishan Harijan for assaulting a 10-month-old but cut his sentence from ten years to seven, sparking outrage.

After the Andhra Pradesh High Court struck down the 4.5% minority sub-quota within OBC reservation in May 2012, the IITs decided to ignore it for JEE

India's Supreme Court ruled that sex obtained through a false promise of marriage constitutes rape under the IPC — a major statement on consent in Indian law.

The 1,360-km India-Myanmar-Thailand Trilateral Highway — agreed in 2002, perpetually delayed and re-announced. India's road to Southeast Asia.

The 2012 western wildfire season — six states burning, Colorado's Waldo Canyon destroying 346 homes, and a firefighting system stretched past its limits.

May 2012: Egypt's first-round results pointed to a runoff between the Muslim Brotherhood's Mohamed Morsi and Mubarak's last prime minister, Ahmed Shafiq.

The 2012 speculation that Obama might swap Biden for Hillary Clinton as his running mate — the electoral logic, the arguments against, and why it never

In May 2012 a Guernsey auction house tried to sell a vial allegedly holding Ronald Reagan's blood from 1981. The Reagan Foundation objected — and won.

Immigration fraud investigators have a secret weapon: the mundane. Where are the takeaway menus, who wrote the rent cheque — the simple questions that trip

In May 2012 the Lok Sabha passed the Protection of Children from Sexual Offences Bill — gender-neutral, with special courts, in-camera trials, and

In May 2012 Dharun Ravi received 30 days in jail for spying on Tyler Clementi — a sentence that satisfied almost no one in one of America's most debated

A Gujarat village school made national news in 2012 with air-conditioned classrooms — inspiring, startling, and a window into India's rural education gap.

In May 2012 a French prosecutor in Lille opened a preliminary rape investigation against Strauss-Kahn over an alleged December 2010 incident in Washington.

In 2012 Florida found about 53,000 deceased people on its voter rolls — a real administrative backlog that became political ammunition on all sides.

In May 2012, nine men were jailed for a child sexual exploitation ring in Rochdale — sentences of 4 to 19 years in a case that forced Britain to confront

In 2012 Kabul, Shakila Naderi ran a driving school for women — a small, pointed act of normalization in a city where public space was still deeply gendered.