Sir Paul Stephenson, commissioner of the Metropolitan Police, has announced his resignation. Sir Paul had been implicated in the phone hacking scandal thanks to his ties to News International executives, with whom he socialized while the Met undertook its inquiry

Here's one way to deal with a newspaper scandal: close the whole damn newspaper. James Murdoch—Rupert Murdoch's son and the head of News International, the News Corp division that publishes the British tabloid News of the World—just announced that NotW will publish its final edition this weekend.

The jury in the corruption (re-)trial of Illinois ex-Gov. Rod Blagojevich has reached a verdict on 18 of 20 counts. It will be read around 2pm. Get on a plane to Mexico hella fast, Blags. (Too late now.)

The New York State Senate will vote on same-sex marriage this evening. It's unclear what time the vote will take place, but it could happen any minute now. After they work through several other bills, at least. You can watch a livestream of the proceedings below. [Update: The bill has passed!]

According to the New York Times, Anthony Weiner has told friends that he's resigning amid increasing pressure from Democrats, and "after having long discussions with his wife," who just returned from a trip to Africa with her boss Hillary Clinton.

Here's why Huma Abedin, the digitally cuckolded wife of Anthony Weiner, has kept a low profile in the wake of her husband's humiliation and quietly signaled that their marriage will survive: She's in a family way.

Whoa: at the tender age of 62, Bill Keller is "stepping down" as the editor of the New York Times. He's being replaced by managing editor Jill Abramson, who will become the first female NYT editor in history.

This just in: The Marriagenator has just issued a statement, soberly delivered by Wolf Blitzer. Shh! This is important. It's about his career!

The Duke and Duchess of Cambridge left for their honeymoon today, according to a statement from Clarence House, which added, "The couple have asked that their privacy be respected during their honeymoon."

Remember the hope-filled days of 2008, when the titans of Wall Street came together to pour money into Barack Obama's presidential campaign, because they knew he was going to win? It was truly an inspirational example of the rich setting aside their historic partisan affiliations in order to further their own self-interest.

Another aftershock has hit Japan's northeast coast, and a tsunami warning is in effect. Today's 7.1 magnitude aftershock comes on the one month anniversary of the devastating earthquake along the same coastline.

With just an hour to go before a midnight deadline, Democrats and Republicans reached a last-minute budget compromise tonight, averting a government shutdown that would have brought Washington to a standstill and furloughed hundreds of thousands of federal employees. The deal—which involves $39 billion in cuts but does not include a Republican provision to cut funding for Planned Parenthood—isn't final: congressional leaders now have five days to iron out the formal details. Crisis averted—for now! [NYT, CNN]

A new tsunami warning has been issued after a 7.4 magnitude aftershock hit off the coast of Japan, 73 miles from the nuclear plant at Fukushima. The Japan meteorological agency warned of a wave up to six feet. The tsunami generated by last month's 9.0 earthquake was estimated to be over 120 feet. [Image via AP]

Vice Admiral William Gortney announced today that some 110 Tomahawk cruise missiles were fired from U.S. ships and a British sub at Muammar Qaddafi's air defenses under under a U.N. mandate.

The U.N. Security council just voted 10-0 to impose a no-fly zone over Libya, authorizing "all necessary measures" to protect Libyan citizens. The announcement was met with cheers by rebels. The Qaddafi government's response: "Any foreign military act against Libya will expose all air and maritime traffic in the Mediterranean Sea to danger and civilian and military facilities will become targets of Libya's counter-attack."

The Japanese military dumped seawater from Chinook helicopters onto Japan's Fukushima nuclear power plant earlier tonight in a last-ditch attempt to cool fuel rods that were exposed by the tsunami and prevent a worsening of the crisis. (Temperatures reached 183 degrees Fahrenheit at one reactor today.) The helicopters were lined with lead to protect the crew.

Republicans passed Wisconsin Governor Scott Walker's anti-union bill tonight 18-1. After all the brouhaha, the Senator-fleeing, the Senator-tackling, the Koch-prank-calling, Republicans were able to use some legislative black magick which allowed them to pass the bill even while Democrats were still camped out in Illinois.

Staid NPR is really far too dramatic these days. They just announced the resignation of CEO Vivian Schiller:

A bus carrying U.S. soldiers was attacked by a gunman this morning outside the Frankfurt airport. Two people are dead. The Guardian, citing German news reports, says that the bus driver and one soldier are the victims. German reports also say that "police arrested a 21-year-old male suspect from Kosovo following the attack." There's no official word yet on motives or anything else.

Chicago's grueling race for mayor is over; results have been called, and the winner is... Richard Daley's secret brother Cosmo! Kidding. Kidding! The winner, as has been predicted forever, is foul-mouthed former White House Chief of Staff Rahm Emanuel.