Jean Stapleton, Who Played Archie Bunker's Better Angel, Dies at 90  —  Jean Stapleton, the character actress whose portrayal of a slow-witted, big-hearted and submissive — up to a point — housewife on the groundbreaking series “All in the Family” made her, along with Mary Tyler Moore and Bea Arthur …

Massachusetts Senate race called ‘toss up’: Could GOP surprise again?  —  The Cook Political Report has announced it's shifting its prediction for the Massachusetts Senate race from ‘leaning Democrat’ to ‘toss up.’ In 2010, Republican Scott Brown won a similar special election.  —  BOSTON

China's Economic Empire  —  HONG KONG — THE combination of a strong, rising China and economic stagnation in Europe and America is making the West increasingly uncomfortable.  While China is not taking over the world militarily, it seems to be steadily taking it over commercially.

Bloomberg's Push for Tighter Gun Laws Shifts to Other States  —  CARSON CITY, Nev. — John W. Griffin is a fast-talking, whiskey-loving, fifth-generation Nevadan who spends his days as a lobbyist courting lawmakers in Stetsons.  He advocates for luxury casinos, once brokered a dispute between …

Goals to Fulfill and Foes to Foil Keep Holder Going  —  WASHINGTON — At the end of last year, with the election decided and the Obama administration in office for four more years, Attorney General Eric H. Holder Jr. considered stepping down.  He decided against it, in part because before he left …

Far-Right Extremists Chased Through London by Women Dressed as Badgers  —  Political extremists were outnumbered and outgunned by protesters against the badger cull (Reuters)  —  A rally by extremists from the British National Party and the English Defence League was dwarfed …

Congressman Joe Garcia's chief of staff implicated in phantom absentee-ballot requests scheme  —  Congressman Joe Garcia's chief of staff abruptly resigned Friday after being implicated in a sophisticated scheme to manipulate last year's primary elections by submitting hundreds of fraudulent absentee-ballot requests.

Canadian relief for Moore tornado victims denied at border  —  U.S. border officials want 20,000 kg of food itemized, physically inspected before entering  —  A tornado in Moore, Okla., killed 24 people and injured nearly 400 more on May 20.  It destroyed 1,200 homes and damaged another 10,000.

Iraq uncovers al-Qaeda ‘chemical weapons plot’  —  The authorities in Iraq say they have uncovered an al-Qaeda plot to use chemical weapons, as well as to smuggle them to Europe and North America.  —  Defence ministry spokesman Mohammed al-Askari said five men had been arrested …

NOAA kills agency-wide furlough proposal  —  Following the recent tornado outbreaks in the Plains, NOAA faced strong Congressional pressure not to furlough National Weather Service employees (as a cost savings measure in response to the budget sequester).  The agency gave in late Friday.

Iraq ‘saw 1,000 killed in May’  —  The United Nations says more than 1,000 people were killed in Iraq in May, the highest death toll for years.  —  The violence make it the deadliest month since the wide sectarian violence of 2006-7, and raising concern that the country is returning to civil war.