Symbols

WASHINGTON - As dean of Yale Law School, Harold Hongju Koh was among the fiercest critics of President George W. Bush's "war on terror," arguing that his administration had trampled the Constitution and tarnished America's international standing by claiming the power to capture "enemy combatants" abroad and hold them without charges at the prison in Guantanamo Bay, Cuba. The next administration must "restore the rule of law in the national security arena," end "excessive government secrecy" and set aside the "claims of unfettered executive power," Koh told a House panel in 2008.

University of California officials said they were trying to project a "forward-looking spirit" when they replaced the university system's ornate, tradition-clad logo with a sleek, modern one. What they got was an online revolt complete with mocking memes, Twitter insults and a petition to restore the old logo. Students and alumni have taken to Facebook and Photoshop to express their displeasure, showing the new symbol ready to be flushed down a toilet and as a permanently stalled computer operating system.

HONOLULU - That Hawaiian shirt you wore on Friday for casual day? You can thank Alfred Shaheen for that. Clothes may make the man, but Shaheen was the man who made the clothes - the fashionable ones created in Honolulu that elevated aloha attire to a new level of sophistication. In the 1950s, '60s and '70s, if you were wearing a Shaheen creation, you had the good goods. Not sure what a Shaheen looks like? Imagine shirts and dresses that suggest various ethnic influences in rich (not loud)

Malala Yousafzai did not trade in her modest head scarf for a pair of skinny jeans. She wanted to go to school. For that, the Taliban tried to kill her. When her attackers learned that the freckled 14-year-old Pakistani might survive, they promised to finish the job. Malala, they explained, had been "promoting Western culture. " The Taliban has committed all manner of atrocities over the years, many of them aimed at women. This time, the militants created an icon for a global movement - for the notion that the most efficient way to propel developing countries is to educate their girls.

SEATTLE -- If a chair hangs in a tree, does it represent murder? The debate on whether lawn chairs with the president's name on them and hanging from trees are innocent references to Clint Eastwood's famous "empty chair" rant at the Republican National Convention -- or symbolic lynchings of America's first African American president -- now spans the country. A white plastic chair suspended above a yard in Camas, Wash., is the latest exhibit. Like the others before it, including in Austin, Texas, and Centreville, Va ., the chair is marked "No-Bama.

To an outsider, an Amish man's chest-length beard or an Amish woman's long locks might not appear all that remarkable. But they hold great religious significance to the Amish: They are symbols of one's devotion to God and to the Amish community. That's why the head of an Amish splinter group and his followers are facing federal hate-crime charges in an unusual case playing out in Cleveland, Ohio. Prosecutors have charged Sam Mullet Sr. with leading a band of 16 followers on a series of violent attacks targeting religious rivals: Defendants allegedly slashed off men's beards and hacked off at least one woman's hair.

JANESVILLE, Wis. - In September 2008, as Wall Street was roiling with calamity, Rep. Paul D. Ryan was facing another looming disaster back home. A General Motors plant, the lifeblood of his hometown, was set to close. The huge Suburbans and Tahoes from the Janesville production line were no longer in vogue. The aging plant was to stop production by Christmas - unless Ryan and other Wisconsin officials could save it. Ryan, then the ranking Republican on the House Budget Committee, flew to Detroit to cajole GM executives.

MOGADISHU, Somalia - They came to the stadium in late afternoon, a sprinkle of rain mixing with their sweat as they pounded around the rough sand track. This is Mogadishu and the stadium bears the scars of war, but the gray sky could have been golden. In every runner's heart, it was as if there were another presence in the stadium, running with them: Mo Farah, the first Mogadishu-born athlete to take Olympic gold, in the 10,000-meter final in London. Although Farah, 29, won for the British team, to everyone in this city, he's a Somali.

Touted as the "largest celebration of the Virgin Mary in a generation," tens of thousands of believers filled the Los Angeles Memorial Coliseum on Sunday afternoon to honor Our Lady of Guadalupe, the long-revered symbol of the Catholic Church. Co-sponsored by the Archdiocese of Los Angeles and the Knights of Columbus, the roughly three-hour long, bilingual "Guadalupe Celebration" featured prayer, music and dance, as well as remarks from Archbishop José Gomez of Los Angeles and other religious leaders.

You can now use the $ on Twitter to turn stock symbols into clickable links. The new feature came Monday afternoon when the company announced it in a tweet. Now you can click on ticker symbols like $ GE on twitter.com to see search results about stocks and companies - Twitter (@twitter) July 31, 2012 The use of $ before stock symbols was already common, especially among those working in Wall Street-related fields, but by giving the symbol clickability, Twitter is making the practice more worthwhile.