The World

By Alex Altman, Harriet Barovick, Gilbert Cruz, Alyssa Fetini, Adam Goodman, Callie Lefevre, Kate Pickert, Tiffany Sharples, M.J. Stephey, Claire Suddath

Standing, from left: Justices Stephen Breyer, Clarence Thomas, Ruth Bader Ginsburg and Samuel Alito. Seated, from left: Justices Anthony Kennedy and John Paul Stevens, Chief Justice John Roberts Jr. and Justices Antonin Scalia and David Souter

1 | Washington Court Backs Gitmo Detainees

In a rebuke of the Bush Administration, the Supreme Court ruled that foreign terrorism suspects held at Guantanamo Bay have the right to challenge their detention without charges in federal district courts. The 5-4 decision marked the fourth time the court has ruled against Administration attempts to create a separate legal framework for holding and prosecuting Gitmo detainees but prompted Justice Antonin Scalia to warn in a scathing dissent that the nation "will live to regret what the Court has done today."

1 MAJORITY Justice Anthony Kennedy "To hold that the political branches may switch the Constitution on or off at will ... [would lead] to a regime in which they, not this court, say 'what the law is.'"

2 MINORITY Chief Justice John Roberts "Today the court strikes down as inadequate the most generous set of procedural protections ever afforded aliens detained by this country as enemy combatants."

3 MINORITY Justice Antonin Scalia "[The ruling] will almost certainly cause more Americans to be killed."

2 | Israel PEACE, THIS TIME Following months of mediated negotiations, Israel and Palestinian militant group Hamas declared a June 19 cease-fire, agreeing to end hostilities and discuss issues such as the reopening of Gaza's border crossings and the return of Israeli prisoner Gilad Shalit. Officials are optimistic, but amid memories of the failed 2006 cease-fire and last-minute attacks from both sides, including an Israeli air strike in Khan Yunis, above, extensive efforts will be required to maintain the peace.

3 | China Airplane Diplomacy In their first formal discussions since 1999, China and Taiwan agreed to allow charter flights across the Taiwan strait, starting July 4. While travelers will still have to pass through Hong Kong, the pact is a sign of how relations have thawed in the month since Taiwan's new President, Ma Ying-jeou, took office.

4 | Texas A Pay-Per-View Internet? Time Warner Cable is testing a program to meter Internet use in the city of Beaumont, in which users subscribe to monthly contracts similar to those for cell phones, but with gigabytes measured instead of minutes. Rivals AT&T and Comcast have similar plans. Critics say the policy will hurt content providers, especially high-bandwidth-video sites.

5 | St. Louis This Bud's For Belgium Anheuser-Busch is exploring a merger with the maker of Corona to thwart a $46 billion takeover bid from Belgian rival InBev, maker of Stella Artois. Should InBev gain control of the iconic brewery, which accounts for nearly half of U.S. beer sales, it will have cornered a quarter of the world's beer market.

6 | Tehran Remaining Defiant Iran has vowed to continue uranium enrichment, dismissing Western entreaties and ignoring both Britain's announcement that it would freeze the overseas assets of Iran's largest bank and its threat of sanctions on oil and gas. Other E.U. nations postponed stronger measures, pending a response from Tehran.

7 | Kosovo New Charter, Old Problems Kosovo's new constitution came into force on June 15, four months after the former Serbian province declared its independence. But Kosovo's path to autonomous statehood remains rocky. While some 40 countries have recognized Kosovo's secession, Serbia and ally Russia oppose its sovereignty, which they view as a violation of international law. Observers warn that the charter could also inflame simmering tensions between Kosovo's ethnic Albanian majority and its resident Serbs.

8 | Iowa CASH CRUNCH The American Red Cross announced on June 16 that it has emptied its disaster-relief fund. Six weeks of flooding and tornadoes, combined with fewer donations during a weak economy, have forced it to take out loans to fund shelters, above, and other aid activities.

9 | Pakistan Black-Market Bombs Abdul Qadeer Khan, the founder of Pakistan's nuclear weapons program, may have sold plans for a nuclear device to Iran and other countries, according to a former U.N. arms inspector--an allegation Khan claims is a "pack of lies."

ON THE TRAIL OF A.Q. KHAN

1976 A.Q. Khan launches Pakistan's nuclear weapons program

1987 Khan allegedly sells nuclear technology to Iran

1998 Pakistan detonates its first nuclear devices

2003 Libya admits it bought nuclear technology from Khan's network

2003 Khan's black-market operation broken up by CIA

2004 Khan confesses to sharing nuclear technology but later backtracks

2008 Khan's computer files reveal nuclear bomb blueprints

10 | Afghanistan Return of the Taliban On June 18, NATO and Afghan forces launched an offensive against Taliban militants gathered outside the southern city of Kandahar. The attacks, which killed at least 20, targeted insurgent-occupied villages in the Argandab district, a strategic way station to Kandahar, where they had massed following a daring June 13 prison break that sprang some 400 members of the militant group. Authorities say a recent spike in violence suggests the insurgency, which at times seemed dormant, now poses a grave threat to Afghan security.

What They're Reading in China Since Chinese Premier Wen Jiabao claimed last November to have read Marcus Aurelius' Meditations nearly 100 times, the Roman Emperor's 1,800-year-old treatise on Stoic philosophy has become a hit in China, reaching No. 5 on China Book International's best-seller list. A tome extolling the importance of virtue may seem an unlikely must-read amid the country's go-go economic boom, but it suggests many are looking for deeper meaning in their lives--and getting frustrated with China's wide wealth gap.