By BEN BOYCHUK and JOEL MATHIS, Scripps Howard News Service

Women should receive equal pay for equal work. A simple concept, but is it enforceable? Maybe not.

American law has for more than 30 years adhered to an eye-for-an-eye legal standard for capital punishment: Only murderers could be executed. But that may be about to change. The U.S. Supreme Court on Wednesday heard the case of a Louisiana man facing the death penalty for brutally raping his 8-year-old stepdaughter.

Gen. David Petraeus and Ambassador Ryan Crocker went to Capitol Hill on Tuesday to update Congress on the war in Iraq. The good news? Violence has been reduced. The bad news? The security gains are fragile. Petraeus recommended leaving at least 140,000 U.S. troops in Iraq after July, with a review of troop levels after that.

Slavery has often been called America's "original sin" and it sometimes seems as if there is no end of penance. Last month, Florida's legislature formally apologized for the state's "shameful" history of slavery, joining five other states that have expressed public regret for the practice.

Bloodshed in Tibet is leading to new calls by human-rights activists and even some politicians to boycott the Olympics in China this summer. But those calls have not come from U.S. leaders. Although Chinese police have killed at least 99 people in Tibet over the past week, President Bush reiterated that he would attend Opening Ceremonies in Beijing in August.

For the first time in 70 years, the U.S. Supreme Court is entering the controversy over whether individuals have the right to keep and bear arms under the Second Amendment.

Five years ago this month, the United States led an invasion of Iraq. Coalition troops toppled the tyrannical regime of Saddam Hussein, who was said by American officials to be developing weapons of mass destruction. No such weapons were found.

A key question confronting voters this election concerns who has the experience to be leader of the free world.

More than 45,000 American families lost their homes to foreclosure in January -- nearly double the number from a year ago. As foreclosures continue to rise and housing prices slump, officials at all levels of government are weighing action to aid homeowners. But some new programs have sparked a backlash from critics who oppose a taxpayer bailout.

Cuban President Fidel Castro has resigned. His departure from power ends a half-century of one-man rule and defiance of U.S. policies aimed at hastening his exit.