White Out

Jan. 26, 2015

The East Coast is bracing for a historic blizzard Happy Monday! If you're one of our readers on the East Coast of the U.S., brace yourself: Cities from Philadelphia to Boston and up into Maine are bracing for a potentially historic blizzard on Monday expected to dump as much as three feet of snow and snarl transportation for tens of millions of people. + According to the Weather Channel, blizzard watches are in effect from southern New England to New York City, with a lesser storm warning issued as far west as metro Philadelphia. + New York Mayor Bill de Blasio: “My message to New Yorkers is to prepare for something worse than we have seen before." President Obama reveals nuclear breakthrough during landmark India trip President Barack Obama and Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi unveiled plans to unlock billions of dollars in nuclear trade and to deepen defense ties, "steps they hope will establish an enduring strategic partnership," Reuters reports. + Signaling warmth and determination to take ties to a higher level, Modi broke with protocol to meet and bear-hug Obama as he landed in New Delhi, referring to the president as Barack. + "It was a remarkable spectacle, given that a year ago Modi was persona non grata in Washington and was denied a visa to the United States," Reuters reports.  The Supreme Court is taking on lethal injection One week after the Supreme Court allowed Oklahoma to proceed with an execution by lethal injection, the court announced on Friday that it will review the state's so-called "cocktail." + Following the botched execution of Clayton Lockett in 2014, where the injection of an experimental cocktail of drugs caused him to writhe in pain for 43 minutes before dying of a heart attack, Oklahoma Gov. Mary Fallin ordered a review of the state's execution protocol. + It's the biggest challenge to the death penalty since 2008. In Baze v. Rees, the Supreme Court rejected 7-2 a challenge to lethal injections. "Simply because an execution method may result in pain, either by accident or as an inescapable consequence of death, does not establish the sort of 'objectively intolerable risk of harm' that qualifies as cruel and unusual," wrote Chief Justice John Roberts.

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Photo of the Day Bahrain's anti-government protests, violently put down in 2011, continue in different forms to this day. Opposition leaders face jail time for speaking out, while protests continue on the streets. This powerful photo series recalls the fourth anniversary of the uprising.

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