Chatter: Republicans finally get their nominee

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Need to know:
It's official. Mitt Romney is the Republicans' one true nominee.

Of course, we all knew he was going to get it. With 1,086 delegates secured ahead of last night's primary in Texas, Romney was 100 meters from the finish line in a 10,000-meter race. The Lone Star State's 152 delegates sent him all the way to the locker-room victory party (in this case, a Las Vegas fundraiser with Donald Trump).

"I am honored that Americans across the country have given their support to my candidacy," says Mitt, "and I am humbled to have won enough delegates to become the Republican Party's 2012 presidential nominee. Our party has come together with the goal of putting the failures of the last three and a half years behind us."

The battle is over; let the war begin.

Want to know:
Syria is at a "tipping point," according to Kofi Annan. The UN-Arab League envoy, fresh from "frank" talks with President Bashar al-Assad, admits that his peace plan has not been implemented. He says he appealed to Assad for "bold steps now - not tomorrow - now" toward putting it in place.

Annan also urged the armed opposition to cease fire, and other countries to impress upon all parties the need for violence to stop. Yesterday, Australia, Canada, France, Germany, Italy, the Netherlands, Spain, Switzerland, the UK and the US announced they would expel Syrian diplomats in protest at last week's massacre in Houla.

Annan insists a political solution is still possible in Syria, and hopes those involved will work hard to get it. "If we do not," he says, "may God help us." 

Dull but important:
Rwanda is once again backing a rebel army in neighboring Democratic Republic of Congo, according to damning testimony contained in a leaked UN report seen by GlobalPost.

Eleven deserters from the rebel ranks, all of whom claimed to be Rwandan citizens, told UN investigators that they were recruited and trained in Rwanda earlier this year before being transported across the border to join a rebellion kick-started by Bosco Ntaganda, aka "The Terminator."

Rumors of Rwandan support for the new rebel movement have swirled for weeks, but the UN's report offers the first evidence and will ratchet up tensions between Kinshasa and Kigali.  

Just because:
They call it a job. But working as a live-in maid in Singapore is really an all-consuming way of life.

As it stands, domestic workers there – inevitably women from poorer Southeast Asian countries – are largely under the dominion of their employers, who tell them how they can call home, when they're allowed outside, and if they get a day off.

That may slowly be changing, however, as Singapore's lawmakers gradually revise the rules governing employers' control over their servants. GlobalPost surveys what improvements maids can hope for – and how their masters and mistresses are reacting.

Strange but true:
Police in Canada are investigating after the Conservative Party headquarters was mailed a human foot.

We'll pause while you read that again.

Yes, a foot. It arrived in a box addressed only to "the Conservative party of Canada" and adorned with a drawing of a heart. A front-desk employee noticed blood and summoned police, who say they believe the foot is real. Hours later, police said they had intercepted a second package that contained another body part, this time a hand, though it was not addressed to the Tory headquarters.

The major crimes unit is investigating the appendage, said one Ottawa officer, because now "there's a body without one." 

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