The U.S. Supreme Court ruled on the constitutionality of the sweeping health care law championed by President Barack Obama, upholding its central tenets. The law, which mandates that all U.S. citizens have health insurance by 2014 – among other reforms – remains highly controversial. Spiralling health-care costs and cumbersome regulations plague the industry, which accounts for about 20 percent of the U.S. economy, making it a flashpoint issue during budgeting debates.
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The U.S. Supreme Court ruled on the constitutionality of the sweeping health care law championed by President Barack Obama, upholding its central tenets. The law, which mandates that all U.S. citizens have health insurance by 2014 – among other reforms – remains highly controversial. Spiralling health-care costs and cumbersome regulations plague the industry, which accounts for about 20 percent of the U.S. economy, making it a flashpoint issue during budgeting debates.
Above, Tea Party activist William Temple, protests against Obama's health-care reforms in front of the U.S. Supreme Court on June 28 in Washington, D.C.
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Egyptians gather in Cairo's Tahrir Square to celebrate the victory of the Muslim Brotherhood's candidate, Mohamed Morsi, in Egypt's June 24 presidential elections. Tens of thousands packed into Tahrir Square in the largest celebration the protest hub has witnessed since President Hosni Mubarak's ouster last year.
KHALED DESOUKI/AFP/GettyImages
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U.S. Secretary of State Hillary Clinton arrives at Helsinki-Vantaa airport in Finland on June 26, 2012. During the same trip, Clinton hit her 10oth country milestone when she visited Latvia – setting the record for the most-traveled secretary of state. Her iternary also included stops in St. Petersberg, Russia, and Geneva, Switzerland.
Benjamin Suomela/AFP/GettyImages
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Russian President Vladimir Putin lights a candle during his visit to the Church of the Nativity in the Biblical town of Bethlehem on June 26, 2012. Putin's 24-hour whirlwind tour included stops in the West Bank, Israel, and Jordan. According to the BBC, Putin's visit was intended to improve regional relations, which have been complicated by Russia's close ties to Syria and Iran.
ALEXEY DRUZHININ/AFP/GettyImages
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Flames burn in the rubble after the June 27 bombing of the pro-government Al-Ikhbariya satellite television channel's offices outside Damascus, Syria. At least seven people were killed in the blast. The U.K.-based Syrian Observatory for Human Rights has called the June 20-26 period the bloodiest in the country's uprising, with over 900 people killed.
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Above, Bahraini Shiite women hold pictures of the leader of the Al-Wefaq Society opposition group, Sheikh Ali Salman, during a June 27 anti-government rally in Jabalat Habshi village to the west of Manama, the capital.The opposition group claimed that Salman was injured when police opened fire on protesters in the capital earlier in the week.
MOHAMMED AL-SHAIKH/AFP/GettyImages
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Residents of Mathare slum in the Kenyan capital, Nairobi, are engulfed in a cloud of smoke as they attempt to put out a blaze on June 27. The fire is believed to have started as a result of the common practice of illegally tapping electrical lines. Mathare is Nairobi's second largest slum, with a population of approximately 500,000.
TONY KARUMBA/AFP/GettyImages
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Britain's Prince Charles, the heir to the throne, crouches down as he takes a closer look at a colony of penguins on Sea Lion Island off the coast of the Falkland Islands. His mother, Queen Elizabeth II, wrapped up celebrations for her Diamond Jubilee – 60 years on the throne – this week. The festivities included world tours by members of the royal family as well as state dinners and public events. Even the iconic Big Ben clock tower in London is to be renamed in her honor.
DYLAN MARTINEZ/AFP/Getty Images
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A herdsman waits outside a "ger" – a traditional tent dwelling structure, or yert – after voting during the Mongolian parliamentary elections in the village of Jaranneg on June 28, 2012. Mongolia has experienced a mining boom in recent years that has brought rapid growth, but also rising inequality.
MARK RALSTON/AFP/GettyImages
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A man rides an elephant to higher ground as villagers padddle through flood waters in the Pobitora Wildlife Sanctuary, about 30 miles from Guwahati, the capital city of the northeastern state of Assam, India, on June 28. Floodwaters have submerged 90 percent of the sanctuary and more than 850,000 people have been displaced due to flooding caused by seasonal monsoon rains.
STRDEL/AFP/GettyImages
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Presidential candidate for the National Action Party (PAN) Josefina Vazquez Mota waves a Mexican flag during a campaign rally in Mexico City on June 23. Mexico's presidential elections are on July 1, ending the six-year term of Felipe Calderón, who has presided over both a bloody drug war and robust economic growth.
Ronaldo Schemidt/AFP/GettyImages
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Former Paraguayan President Fernando Lugo – who was impeached in a rapid trial that some are calling a "parliamentary coup" – gestures during a meeting with his former ministers in Asunción, the capital, on June 25. The event helped to spark a recent debate on what constitutes a coup astanks in the streets increasingly give way to political maneuvering.
NORBERTO DUARTE/AFP/GettyImages
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A Pakistani official uses a steamroller to crush bottles of liquor during a ceremony to mark International Day Against Drug Abuse and Illicit Trafficking in Karachi on June 26. The United Nations Office on Drugs and Crime (UNODC) annual report estimates that "$27 to $30 billion worth of drugs annually are smuggled out of Afghanistan through Pakistan, while $1.5 billion stays in Pakistan."
ASIF HASSAN/AFP/GettyImages
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A team of U.S. Marines carry the coffin of U.S. Marine Pfc. Steven P. Stevens during a transfer at Dover Air Force Base, on June 25, in Dover, Delaware. Pfc. Stevens, who was from Detroit, Michigan, was killed during combat operations in Afghanistan.