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ALEXANDRIA, Virginia (Reuters) - A U.S. judge on Wednesday ordered a Moroccan man to be held on charges that he planned a suicide bombing attack against Congress, believing he was working with al Qaeda militants when in fact his contacts were undercover agents. Amine El Khalifi, 29 and an illegal immigrant, was arrested last week and charged with attempting to use a weapon of mass Continue Reading …

PORTSMOUTH, Virginia (Reuters) - Virginia lawmakers on Wednesday passed a revised ultrasound requirement for women seeking abortions that dropped a mandatory internal scan, after Republican Governor Bob McDonnell shifted his stance on the hotly contested measure. The vote by the House of Delegates approved legislation that would require women to undergo a non-invasive ultrasound with Continue Reading …

Colvin in 2007. (Getty) An American-born reporter for the London Sunday Times, Marie Colvin, along with a young French photographer, Remi Ochlik, were killed in Syria on Wednesday morning, according to several news reports. Colvin, one of the most celebrated war correspondents in the U.K., happened to be a guest on Anderson Cooper's CNN show last night. On the program, Colvin reported that a Continue Reading …

WASHINGTON (Reuters) - President Barack Obama launched a dialogue with corporate America on Wednesday over business tax reform, offering his first clear plan to cut the corporate tax rate, with little prospect of it becoming law in an election year. The president proposed cutting the top corporate tax rate to 28 percent from 35 percent. This would address U.S. corporations' Continue Reading …

SPRINGFIELD, Illinois (Reuters) - Illinois Governor Pat Quinn will call for cuts to escalating pension and Medicaid costs in his budget address on Wednesday to stop the two programs From devouring more of the cash-strapped state's general funds budget, top officials in his office said on Tuesday. The state's fiscal 2013 pension payment will hit nearly $5.25 billion or 15 percent of Continue Reading …

WASHINGTON (Reuters) - The new U.S. Consumer Financial Protection Bureau is weighing a crackdown on checking account overdraft fees charged by banks, saying the charges can "inflict serious economic harm" on consumers. The agency said on Wednesday that it will begin collecting information to determine if banks are manipulating the system to goose fees and whether they are making it Continue Reading …

SHEBOYGAN, Wis (Reuters) - The mayor of a Wisconsin town whose heavy drinking last summer sparked pressure to step down lost a special election on Tuesday to a former Democratic state representative. First-term Sheboygan Mayor Bob Ryan, 48, lost the first mayoral recall election in the city's history to Terry Van Akkeren, 57. Van Akkeren received about 53 percent of the Continue Reading …

SHEBOYGAN, Wis (Reuters) - The mayor of a Wisconsin town whose heavy drinking last summer sparked pressure to step down lost a special election on Tuesday to a former Democratic state representative. First-term Sheboygan Mayor Bob Ryan, 48, lost the first mayoral recall election in the city's history to Terry Van Akkeren, … Continue Reading …

WASHINGTON (Reuters) - The U.S. Supreme Court said on Tuesday it would decide whether a state university may consider an applicant's race to achieve a more diverse student body, revisiting in an election year a divisive social issue it last addressed nine years ago. Adding to blockbuster cases on President Barack Obama's healthcare law and on Arizona's immigration crackdown, the high Continue Reading …

ANNAPOLIS, Maryland (Reuters) - A Maryland Senate committee approved a gay marriage bill on Tuesday, sending the issue to the full Senate and moving Maryland closer to becoming the eighth state to legalize same-sex nuptials. The Senate Judicial Proceedings Committee voted 7 to 4 in favor of the bill - supported by Gov. Martin O'Malley - and the full Senate was expected to vote later Continue Reading …

WASHINGTON (Reuters) - The Supreme Court said on Tuesday it would decide whether a state university may consider an applicant's race to achieve a more diverse student body, revisiting a divisive social issue it last addressed nine years ago. The high court agreed to hear an appeal by a white female applicant, Abigail Fisher, who was denied undergraduate admission in 2008 to the Continue Reading …

SEATTLE (Reuters) - Four people were killed in two separate avalanches near Washington state ski resorts on Sunday, but eight others initially said to be missing were found alive, authorities said. Three skiers died when an avalanche struck near the Stevens Pass ski area in the Cascade Mountains of north-central Washington, … Continue Reading …

NEW YORK (AP) — With U.S. Rep. Anthony Weiner's humiliating exit from office, New York is likely to hold a special election sometime in the next few months to pick his successor, but voters probably shouldn't expect a bruising public contest over the right to go to Washington. The job might not even exist in 19 months.Because of population shifts, New York state is slated to lose two House seats Continue Reading …

COLUMBUS, Ohio (Reuters) - Astronaut John Glenn, marking the 50th anniversary on Monday of his historic flight as the first American to orbit the Earth, remembered it as the best day of his life. Glenn, 90, told an audience in Columbus, Ohio that the flight was the result of "more than two years of training and working with a marvelous team." "That is why the craft was Continue Reading …

SAN QUENTIN, California (Reuters) - Hundreds of anti-Wall Street demonstrators and prison reform activists joined forces outside the gates of a prison in San Quentin, California on Monday to protest high incarceration rates and harsh living conditions. Speakers rallying at the San Quentin State Prison said the state's sentencing laws are too strict. They called for an end to solitary Continue Reading …