Today's coverage agenda: North Korea, Sonia Sotomayor, gay marriage

Here are the stories we covering and plan to post today:

In US news ...

• Peter Grier in Washington scopes out US options to try to rein in North Korea’s nuclear program.

• Mike Farrell in San Francisco previews the much-anticipated decision of the California Supreme Court on the gay-marriage ban in that state. He will write again later in the day after the court decision is announced.

• Politics writer Linda Feldmann and Supreme Court reporter Warren Richey report on Obama's nomination of Sonia Sotomayor to the US Supreme Court and why Obama picked her. They are likely to follow up with at least one further reporter this evening.

• NASA is embarking on a time of historic change with manned spaceflight in the balance. Pete Spotts looks at the challenges ahead for the new NASA administrator.

• Laurent Belsie will be posting separate news blogs on the fall in S&P/Case-Shiller index of housing prices, which showed a drop last month, and the Consumer Confidence Index, which rose.

• Dante Chinni checks in on a Patchwork Nation community with a tourism-based economy and finds that Memorial Day weekend business wasn't great, but was better than last year.

In world news ...

• Peter Ford In Beijing reports on how North Korea’s neighbors are reacting to Pyongyang’s nuclear test Monday.

• Don Kirk in Seoul reviews the legacy of former South Korea President Roh Moo Hyun, whose suicide Saturday has left the country in shock: He sought to engage Pyongyang, the opposite of the tack taken by the current South Korean government.

• Yigal Schleifer in Diyarbakir, Turkey, reports on the growing number of mostly Kurdish minors sent to jail, accused of being PKK supporters after participating in anti-government demonstrations. Some children under 18 have already been sentenced to several years in jail, and human rights advocates say the government should take steps to change laws that give judges too much power.

• Rob Crilly is with rebel troops in northern Darfur. He reports that fighting has surged in recent weeks, dimming hopes for peace talks between the government and rebels due to resume Wednesday.

• After many false starts, the Kremlin appears determined to create a modern army from the tangled wreckage of the Soviet-era armed forces. In recent weeks, several top generals have been sacked, leading analysts to say the reforms have actually begun. “By the end of this year, Russia will have a new army,” a former deputy defense minister told Fred Weir in Moscow.

• Huma Yusuf in Karachi is watching the Taliban’s hard-line views continue to spread through Pakistan.

• Prominent Egyptian dissident Ayman Nour gave his first interview after he claimed Friday that he was attacked by a fire bomb to the Monitor's Liam Stack. This comes just months after he emerged from a 4-year jail sentence and the day after he announced he would run in 2011 presidential elections if nominated by his party.