6 What in the world

Supreme Court change
Liberal Supreme Court Justice John Paul Stevens announced last Friday that he will step down after the current session of the court ends this summer. Stevens, who turns 90 this month, is one of the oldest and longest-serving justices in our history. He was appointed to the court in 1975 by Republican President Gerald Ford. The replacement will be the second justice appointed to the high court by President Obama. Last year he named Sonia Sotomayor, the court's first Hispanic.

And more earthquakes
Last week we reported an earthquake in Baja California. Aftershocks, some as strong as 5.5, continued in the regions around San Diego and Los Angeles for days afterward. A 7.8-magnitude earthquake stuck Sumatra in Indonesia last Tuesday. (A 9.2 quake hit this same island in December 2004, causing a tsunami that killed some 226,000 people in Indonesia, Thailand, India, and ten other countries.)  Two days ago, on Sunday, a 6.8-magnitude earthquake struck the Solomon Islands in the Pacific.

And floods
As of Sunday, the death toll from mudslides and flooding in Rio de Janeiro had reached 224, about a week after heavy rains began pounding the coastal region. Rio, where I spent 16 months of my mission, is popularly known as "the city of sun and fun." It used to be the capital of Brazil before the government moved the capital into the interior of the country in 1960 to the then newly built Brasilia. The disaster has raised questions about Rio's readiness to host the summer Olympics in 2016.