In Attack’s Wake, Political Repercussions James Palka/Associated Press Emergency personnel used a stretcher to carry Representative Gabrielle Giffords outside a shopping center in Tucson, Ariz. on Saturday. More Photos » By MARC LACEY and DAVID M. HERSZENHORN Published: January 8, 2011 TUCSON — Representative Gabrielle Giffords, an Arizona Democrat, and at least 17 others were shot Saturday morning when a gunman opened fire outside a supermarket where Ms. Giffords was meeting with constituents. Six of the victims died, among them John M. Roll, the chief judge for the United States District Court for Arizona, and a 9-year-old girl, the Pima County sheriff, Clarence W. Dupnik, said. Ms. Giffords, 40, whom…

By RANDAL C. ARCHIBOLD Port-au-Prince, Haiti Frankétienne has had prophecies of death (his own) and destruction (Haiti’s). The earthquake that wrecked this country in January 2010? It was foreseen, said Frankétienne, the man known as the father of Haitian letters, in his play “The Trap.” It was written two months before the disaster and depicts two men in a postapocalyptic landscape, now a familiar sight in his Delmas neighborhood here. “The voice of God spoke to me,” said Frankétienne, 75, later noting he had also long dwelt on the ecological ruin he believes the planet is hurtling toward. As for his death, that will come in nine years, in 2020,…

The Federal Industrial Institution for Women, the first women’s federal prison, opens in Alderson, West Virginia. All women serving federal sentences of more than a year were to be brought here. Run by Dr. Mary B. Harris, the prison’s buildings, each named after social reformers, sat atop 500 acres. One judge described the prison as a “fashionable boarding school.” In some respects the judge was correct: The overriding purpose of the prison was to reform the inmates, not punish them. The prisoners farmed the land and performed office work in order to learn how to type and file. They also cooked and canned vegetables and fruits. Other women’s prisons had…

Kate Middleton’s Dress Is a Flawless Success – NYTimes.com April 29, 2011 By CATHERINE SAINT LOUIS AFTER months of feverish speculation about who would design Kate Middleton’s wedding dress, there were few surprises in the end. British designer, check. Smaller train than Princess Diana’s 25-footer in 1981, check. Sarah Burton of Alexander McQueen created a lace gown with a V-neck satin bodice flowing into a skirt with delicate folds on a nearly nine-foot train. Her ivory tulle veil, fixed by a Cartier 1936 “halo” tiara lent to her by the queen, was modest. Simplicity reigned. “It’s the kind of gown that will stand the test of time,” said Mark Badgley, part of the…

After Storms Kill Hundreds, South Tries to Regroup By CAMPBELL ROBERTSON and KIM SEVERSON TUSCALOOSA, Ala. — As President Obama prepared to visit Alabama on Friday, which was at the epicenter of a region that endured storms that killed hundreds across the South, people from Texas to Virginia searched through the rubble of their homes, schools and businesses for survivors. Nearly 300 people across six states died in the storms, with the vast majority — 213 people — in Alabama. This college town, the home of the University of Alabama, has in some places been shorn to the slab, and accounts for at least 36 of those deaths. Thousands have…

Thursday, Apr. 28, 2011 How the Monarchy Allows Britannia to Make Waves By Tristram Hunt At the Portmeirion pottery works at Stoke-on-Trent, in Staffordshire, the kilns are fired up to get out the Kate and William commemorative cups and saucers. And so too at the Tangshan Hengrui Ceramics factory outside Beijing, where tens of thousands of “happy couple” plates are in production. At the TUI travel agency in Hanover, Germany the guided “Will and Kate Royal Wedding Tour” has done good business enticing tourists into London this balmy April. And at Franklin Mint in Philadelphia, the “Kate Middleton Royal Engagement Vinyl Doll” is proving a lucrative product line. This is…