Elsewhere wire

NATO Secretary-General Anders Fogh Rasmussen said on Friday the world had made clear that any use of chemical weapons in Syria was unacceptable and a breach of international law.

"This is ... a matter of great concern," he told reporters after talks in Brussels with Moldovan Prime Minister Iurie Leanca. "The international community has made clear that any use of chemical weapons is completely unacceptable and a clear breach of international law."

A federal appeals court ruled on Tuesday that a man can sue the state of Oklahoma over its license plates.

The man, Keith Cressman, has argued that the state's standard license plate, which depicts a Native American shooting an arrow into the sky, goes against the separation of church and state, according to a report from Tulsa World.

He sued a number of state officials in 2011. That lawsuit was initially dismissed in 2012 but has since been reinstated by the 10th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals.

NUCLEAR QUESTION: Four rounds of revived talks between Iran and world powers since last year have produced no important headway in the Tehran's impasse with the West. The U.S. and allies worry Iran's uranium enrichment could lead to atomic weapons, which could shift the balance of power in the region and give allies such as Hezbollah access to nuclear material. Iran denies it seeks nuclear arms, often citing a religious edict by Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei rejecting such weapons. Iran says it only seeks nuclear reactors for energy and medical applications.

In a matter of weeks, a little-known Chinese tycoon has hired some of the world's top experts in mammoth infrastructure projects and pushed through Nicaragua's congress a bill granting him the exclusive right to develop a multibillion-dollar rival to the Panama Canal.

Now, the real work begins.

Thursday's vote may have given Wang Jing the concession to build a canal across this Central American nation, but his HK Nicaragua Canal Development Investment Co. still has to study whether the idea is truly economically viable.

A unanimous U.S. Supreme Court on Thursday prohibited patents on naturally occurring human genes but allowed legal protections on synthetically produced genetic material in a compromise ruling hailed as a partial victory for patients and the biotechnology industry.

The ruling by the nine justices, the first of its kind for the top U.S. court, buttressed important patent protections relied upon by biotechnology companies while making it clear that genes extracted from the human body cannot be patented.

Florida – June 7, 2013

Gracia Bennish of Tarpon Springs, Florida, President of United for Human Rights Florida, was honored with the President’s Volunteer Service Award for 640 hours of volunteer service last year as a proponent of human rights education and the care of victims of human trafficking.

This is making the rounds. Rob los Ricos is STILL sending a clear message as to why no one can take him seriously as an anarchist theorist. Or as anything else!

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Local business leaders in the Coachella Valley hope that the high-profile summit between President Obama and Chinese President Xi Jinping will help usher in new economic life into the region.

The leaders of the world’s two most powerful countries conducted business at the Annenberg Retreat at Sunnylands, bringing international attention to the serene Coachella desert valley. And a successful summit has the potential to have a lasting impact that’ll make overseas investors and tourists want to put their money into the region.

 At least five heavily armed insurgents were engaged in an hours-long gunbattle with security forces on the perimeter of Afghanistan's main airport Monday after they tried to attack NATO's airport headquarters with rocket-propelled grenades, assault rifles and at least one large bomb, the army and police said.

The airport was closed to all civilian air traffic because of the attack, an airport official said. It was unclear if the attack had damaged facilities inside the airport itself.