- Making News: Supreme Court Rulings Include Decision on Gay Sex Ban
By a 6-to-3 vote today, the US Supreme Court overturned a Texas law against sodomy when it ruled that gay people have the right to have sex in private without government intervention. Dissenting Justice Antonin Scalia said the majority -has largely signed onto the so-called homosexual agenda.- David Savage, who covers the Court for the Los Angeles Times, says the decision sends a powerful message about everyone-s right to privacy. - Reporter's Notebook: Foreign Aid to Poor Countries as Reward for Good Behavior
Foreign aid is supposed to help developing nations fight poverty and grow their economies, but that-s often not what it-s about. That-s according to a recent joint-study by Harvard University and the World Bank. David Francis, economics correspondent for the Christian Science Monitor, reports that foreign diplomacy is often based on mixed motives and the strategic domestic interests of the donor nation.
SARS and the Lessons Learned
Severe Acute Respiratory Syndrome killed 804 people in 32 countries before the World Health Organization declared it "dead in its tracks." While all parties agree that it could have been much worse, containing it devastated the travel business and economy of Hong Kong, and quarantines in western countries raised questions of civil rights. Health officials admit they don't know where the SARS virus came from or what it might do next, and acknowledge that similar epidemics are inevitable. Can they be controlled without panic, human rights' abuses or economic distress? Are public health systems, even in America, already stretched too thin? We speak with a World Health Organization spokesman, a Pulitzer Prize-winning science writer, a risk management consultant and an infectious disease expert from the London School of Hygiene.