He indicated that background checks, a renewed ban on assault weapons and keeping high-capacity magazines out of the wrong hands would all be on the list. Not everything, he said, would require legislation. He cited effective tracking of gun data as one example of the sorts of measures the administration could pursue without the help of Congress. But he urged members of Congress to examine their conscience and said the opponents of new controls were very good at whipping up fears that the federal government was simply planning to take people’s guns away.
A convoy consisting of thousands of supporters of an influential Pakistani religious scholar, Tahir-ul-Qadri, has arrived in the capital Islamabad demanding electoral reform. Tahir-ul-Qadri says he wants a bloodless revolution, but the authorities accuse him of trying to postpone the election due in May.
New research suggests that Australia’s population wasn’t completely isolated from the rest of the world for thousands of years as previously thought. A study of Aboriginal DNA suggests that Australia experienced a wave of migration from India 4,000 years ago. Rebecca Morelle reports.
A team of researchers compared the DNA of Aboriginal Australians with genetic material from around the world. By looking at small variations in the genes, they were able to see who was closely related to whom. They found that Australian and Indian DNA have mingled about 4,000 years ago, meaning some intrepid Indian explorers arrived on the continent at around that time and they might not have come empty-handed. The scientists think the migrants brought along advanced stone tools called microliths.