As al-Jazeera and other news outlets report being told by activists that Syrian government forces are shelling the city of Homs and attacking and arresting opponents of President Bashar Assad in other places, former U.N. Secretary General Kofi Annan continues to press for a true ceasefire to take effect on Thursday.
Former Arapahoe County Sheriff Patrick Sullivan before a court hearing last month.
Patrick Sullivan, the former sheriff in Arapahoe County, Colo., who's serving a 38-day sentence for trying to trade methamphetamine for sex with a man, isn't being held any longer in a jail that bears his name.
Secretary of State Hillary Clinton is embracing the Internet parody that shows her supposedly texting politicians and celebrities. The site has become an Internet sensation since it was launched last week.
Surrounded by members of his family, Republican presidential candidate Rick Santorum announces he will suspend his campaign at the Gettysburg Hotel on Tuesday in Gettysburg, Pa.
Credit Brendan Smialowski / Getty
HALEY BARBOUR Announcement: April 25, 2011
The two-term Mississippi governor and former chairman of the Republican National Committee cited a lack of passion for the presidential slugfest. "A candidate for president today is embracing a 10-year commitment to an all-consuming effort, to the virtual exclusion of all else," Barbour said in a statement. "His (or her) supporters expect and deserve no less than absolute fire in the belly from their candidate. I cannot offer that with certainty, and total certainty is required."
Credit Chip Somodevilla / Getty
MIKE HUCKABEE Announcement: May 14, 2011
The former Arkansas governor, ordained Southern Baptist minister, winner of the 2008 Iowa caucuses and runner-up to John McCain in the ultimate delegate count that year announced on his Fox News Channel program that he wasn't running again. "All the factors say go, but my heart says no," Huckabee said. "And that's the decision that I have made."
Credit Andrew Burton / Getty
DONALD TRUMP Announcement: May 16, 2011
The businessman/reality TV star declared that if he ran he'd win, but that he wouldn't run. "I have spent the past several months unofficially campaigning and recognize that running for public office cannot be done half heartedly," Trump said in a statement. "Ultimately, however, business is my greatest passion and I am not ready to leave the private sector."
Credit Michael Conroy / AP
MITCH DANIELS Announcement: May 23, 2011
The second-term Indiana governor, former political director for President Ronald Reagan and former budget director for President George W. Bush broke the news to supporters via email. "If you feel that this was a non-courageous or unpatriotic decision, I understand and will not attempt to persuade you otherwise. I only hope that you will accept my sincerity in the judgment I reached." Daniels told The Indianapolis Star that his wife and daughters had the final say. "Simply put, I find myself caught between two duties. I love my country; I love my family more."
Credit Chip Somodevilla / Getty
TIM PAWLENTY Announcement: Aug. 14, 2011
The former two-term Minnesota governor became the first official candidate to leave the race, announcing his decision hours after a third-place finish in the Iowa straw poll. "There are a lot of other choices in the race," Pawlenty explained. "The audience, so to speak, was looking for something different."
Credit Jeff Zelevansky / Getty
CHRIS CHRISTIE Announcement: Oct. 4, 2011
The first-term New Jersey governor went so far as to make a late-September speech on "Real American Exceptionalism" at the Ronald Reagan Presidential Foundation & Library in Simi Valley, Calif. But a week later (and despite being implored by some Republican leaders to enter the race) Christie called a news conference at the New Jersey statehouse to decline. "Now is not my time. ... I have a commitment to New Jersey that I simply will not abandon."
Credit Charlie Neibergall / AP
SARAH PALIN Announcement: Oct. 5, 2011
The former Alaska governor and John McCain's running mate on the 2008 Republican ticket used conservative talk radio to make official what most observers already had figured out. "Not being a candidate, really you are unshackled and you're able to be even more active," Palin said on Mark Levin's radio show. "I need to be able to say what I want to say."
Credit Joe Raedle / Getty
HERMAN CAIN Announcement: Dec. 3, 2011
While denying allegations of sexual harassment and claims of an extramarital affair, the former Godfather's Pizza executive, former chairman of the Federal Reserve Bank of Kansas City, Mo., and conservative radio talk show host said "continued distractions" were forcing him from the race. Cain had been the surprise winner of September's Florida straw poll and gained attention for his simplified "9-9-9" tax plan.
Credit Jim Cole / AP
GARY JOHNSON Announcement: Dec. 28, 2011
The former two-term governor of New Mexico, who had been excluded from most of the Republican debates, announced he was leaving the GOP race to seek the Libertarian Party's nomination. At a debate where he was included, on Sept. 22 in Orlando, Fla., Johnson voiced one of the most memorable TV moments of the campaign season: "My, uh, next-door neighbor's two dogs have created more shovel-ready jobs than this current administration."
Credit Eric Gay / AP
MICHELE BACHMANN Announcement: Jan. 4, 2012
The day after a sixth-place finish in the Iowa caucuses, the Minnesota congresswoman left the race. "Last night, the people in Iowa spoke with a very clear voice, and so I have decided to step aside," Bachmann announced. Her candidacy reached a high point in August, when she won the Iowa Republican Party's straw poll. But that victory was blunted, and much of her Tea Party support diverted, that same weekend when Texas Gov. Rick Perry joined the race.
Credit Charles Dharapak / AP
JON HUNTSMAN Announcement: Jan. 16, 2012
Six days after calling a third-place finish in the New Hampshire primary his "ticket to ride," the former Utah governor left the race and endorsed his fellow Mormon and longtime rival. "Today I am suspending my campaign for the presidency. I believe it is now time for our party to unite around the candidate best equipped to defeat Barack Obama. Despite our differences and space between us on some of the issues, I believe that candidate is Mitt Romney."
Credit David Goldman / AP
RICK PERRY Announcement: Jan. 19, 2012
Under pressure from some conservatives to throw his dwindling support to Newt Gingrich in an effort to halt the Mitt Romney train, the Texas governor did just that two days before the South Carolina primary. Declaring "no viable path forward" for his own campaign, Perry said: "I know when it's time to make a strategic retreat."
Credit Matt Rourke / AP
BUDDY ROEMER Announcement: Feb. 23, 2012
After struggling to be taken seriously by the Republican establishment or get access to the all-important televised debates, the former Louisiana governor and member of Congress — and former Democrat — left the GOP race to seek the nomination of both the Americans Elect movement and the Reform Party.
Credit Jeff Swensen / Getty
RICK SANTORUM Announcement: April 10, 2012
With the delegate math stacked against him and his 3-year-old daughter in the hospital over Easter weekend, the former Pennsylvania senator huddled with his family at the kitchen table where his candidacy began and decided to end his White House bid. The campaign has been "miracle after miracle," he said in a speech in Gettysburg, Pa. "This race was as improbable as any race you'll ever see for president."
Credit Chip Somodevilla / Getty
JOHN THUNE Announcement: Feb. 22, 2011
The junior senator from South Dakota became the first major figure to remove himself from contention after openly exploring a run for the presidency. "I feel that I am best positioned to fight for America's future here in the trenches of the United States Senate," Thune said in announcing his decision.
It may be hard to remember, but more than a dozen high-profile Republicans seriously explored 2012 presidential bids or actively entered the race. With Mitt Romney now the presumptive nominee, here's a look at how the field got winnowed to two.
Acehnese women hug each other shortly after the powerful earthquake hit the western coast of Sumatra in Banda Aceh.
A powerful, 8.6-magnitude earthquake and an 8.2-magnitude aftershock off the west coast of Northern Sumatra today led authorities to warn that potentially devastating tsunamis might roar across the Indian Ocean.
But to the relief of millions who were immediately reminded of the devastating tsunami that rolled across that ocean in 2004, the waves generated by today's temblors were minor and the tsunami "watch" was canceled just before 9 a.m. ET.
The other welcome news: Initial reports indicated that damage from the quakes themselves may not have been extensive.
A huge earthquake shook the ocean floor off the coast of Indonesia Wednesday. Early measurements by the U.S. Geological Survey give it a strength of 8.7. Surrounding nations have issued tsunami warnings.
In Tulsa, Okla., the families of the three victims killed during a shooting rampage Friday are planning funerals. Police say William Allen, 31, Bobby Clark, 54, and Donna Fields, 49, were shot in a predominantly black neighborhood on the north side of Tulsa by two white men.
Fields was walking home after playing a game of dominoes with friends. She was called Donna, but her given name was Dannaer. Her brother Kenneth says she was named after an aunt.
After years of flagging sales, the embattled consumer electronics chain finds itself leaderless. Best Buy CEO Brian Dunn abruptly resigned Tuesday after the company launched an investigation into his "personal conduct." No word from the chain on the specifics of their probe.
The wireless phone industry has a plan to take the profit out of the market for stolen smartphones. At the urging of police chiefs across the country and federal regulators, the industry is developing a database of stolen devices.
Officials in San Gabriel Valley set up a quarantine zone after a lemon tree was found infected with citrus disease. That disease almost wiped out Florida's citrus crop a few years back.
A tax-the-rich proposal named after Warren Buffett has little chance of passing this year, but that hasn't stopped the debate over what impact it would have.
Some economists are skeptical that a 30 percent minimum tax on people with million-dollar incomes — known as the "Buffett rule" — would do much to reduce the deficit or boost the economy. But the Obama administration says the proposal is necessary to make the tax code more equitable.
Former Pennsylvania Senator Rick Santorum suspended his presidential campaign Tuesday. It had lasted longer than anyone expected, but Santorum was well behind front-runner Mitt Romney in the race for delegates.
The L.A. Dodgers stand on the third baseline during the national anthem on opening day at Dodger Stadium. They beat the Pittsburgh Pirates, 2-1, on Tuesday in Los Angeles.
It was a sold out game on a pure Southern California day.
"Isn't this beautiful? Blue sky, not a cloud in the air, nice little breeze," said Maury Wills, who was the Dodgers shortstop in 1962. "It's warm Southern California."
Wills joined a bunch of his old teammates Tuesday to celebrate Dodger Stadium's 50th anniversary. It's also the 50th anniversary of the Beach Boys. So they sang the national anthem after "Surfer Girl."
Bernice Acosta and other yoga enthusiasts practice in New York's Times Square at an event marking the 2011 summer solstice. Some Hindus say such events have little to do with yoga's spiritual roots.
About 20 million people in the United States practice some form of yoga, from the formal Iyengar and Ashtanga schools to the more irreverent "Yoga Butt."
But some Hindus say yoga is about far more than exercise and breathing techniques. They want recognition that it comes from a deeper philosophy — one, in their view, with Hindu roots.
Many forms of yoga go back centuries. Even in the U.S., the transcendentalists were doing yoga in the 1800s.
Students prepare mealworm quiches at the Rijn IJssel school for chefs in Wageningen, Netherlands.
Credit Teri Schultz for NPR
An African blesbok samosa with insect crumble — complete with mealworms and buffalo worms — at the Specktakel restaurant in the Netherlands.
Credit Teri Schultz for NPR
Candied buffalo worms were on the menu at the Dutch restaurant. Specktakel owner Mark Cashoek says it's "the fear factor" and "the gimmick" that get restaurant patrons to eat some of his insect dishes.
Diners who merely flit over the menu at the Specktakel restaurant in the Netherlands are sometimes shocked when their plate arrives.
"They just read the first two things in the sentence, and then they think they've got the bobotie pie with pumpkin mash, raisins and watercress," says owner Mark Cashoek. "And the last word is actually the insect crumble."
Insect crumble? Who would want to see crumbled insects on their plate next to the antelope quiche?
A pre-foreclosure sign is seen in front of a home in Miami. Supporters of a plan to reduce the principals owed by many homeowners facing foreclosure say it would prevent larger losses and keep people in their homes.
Credit Chris Arnold / NPR
Edward DeMarco, the acting director of the Federal Housing Finance Agency, says principal reductions would save Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac an estimated $1.7 billion.
Hundreds of thousands of homeowners facing foreclosure might get help by having the amount they owe reduced by Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac.
This is a hot topic in Washington, D.C., with many Democrats pushing for these so-called "principal reductions" to try to help the housing market. On Tuesday, a top federal regulator came a step closer to allowing the move.
A Civil War soldier poses for a photograph, in this image contributed to the Library of Congress by Tom Liljenquist and his family.
Credit Ramona Martinez, NPR
To determine the height of the unidentified Civil War soldier, an employee of The Horse Soldier store in Gettysburg, Pa., recreated the pose in the photo. He stood on a book to bring his height to an even 5 feet 8 inches.
Credit National Archives
The cover of the compiled military service record of Thomas A. Ardies, of the 14th Brooklyn regiment. The unit retained its name despite attempts to change it to the 84th New York.
A Washington, D.C.-area collector and his family have donated more than 1,000 Civil War photographs to the Library of Congress. But you won't find the men in these photos in history books — they're enlisted soldiers, and most of them are unidentified.
In one striking photo, the man depicted has crazy sideburns, a steady expression, and very clear eyes — maybe gray, or perhaps blue. He holds a rifled musket at his side. He is a Union soldier in the Civil War. And the only things we know about him are what we can learn from a single photo.