• Insist that people co-existed with dinosaurs – and get an A in science class! That could soon happen for kids in Oklahoma as the state is introducing a House bill that would forbid teachers from penalizing students who turn in papers attempting to debunk universally accepted scientific theories.
• Where will the next pope come from? John Paul Rathbone takes a look at Latin America’s Catholic Church – the region accounts for 40 per cent of the world’s 1.2bn Catholics. (Bonus: this story includes a picture of the Pope in a sombrero.)
• Nearly two years after the start of Syria’s popular uprising, the conflict has evolved into a slow-moving, brutal civil war. Multiple rebel groups across the country are using any weapons they can get their hands on, as this collection of photographs illustrates.
• The Koch brothers spent hundreds of millions to win the White House and the Senate — and failed. So they ordered an audit to find out why. “We’re not going to roll over and play dead,” David Koch said.
• Gavyn Davies looked at the latest minutes from the Fed’s FOMC and the Bank of England’s MPC, pointing out that it has become increasingly difficult for central banks to communicate their policy regime clearly to the markets.
• Time magazine’s cover story this week is the longest single article they’ve ever published, at 36 pages. But it’s well worth the read, offering an in-depth investigation of the US healthcare system, and in particular, “what happens when powerless buyers… meet sellers in what is the ultimate seller’s market”.
• On the healthcare theme, Sarah C R Bee wrote movingly about her father’s death in the intensive care unit of a hospital in south-west London.

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