Postal Service to halt Saturday mail delivery  —  The U.S. Postal Service announced on Wednesday that it would discontinue mail delivery on Saturday but still continue to deliver packages six days per week, according to the Associated Press.  —  Sen. Tom Coburn (R-Okla), hailed the decision …

With Brennan Pick, a Light on Drone Strikes' Hazards  —  SANA, Yemen — Late last August, a 40-year-old cleric named Salem Ahmed bin Ali Jaber stood up to deliver a speech denouncing Al Qaeda in a village mosque in far eastern Yemen.  —  It was a brave gesture by a father of seven …

Obama to nominate REI chief Sally Jewell for Interior Secretary  —  President Barack Obama on Wednesday will nominate Sally Jewell, president and CEO of the outdoor and recreational retailer REI, to replace outgoing Interior Secretary Ken Salazar, a White House official confirmed to POLITICO.

Poll Finds a Boost for Obama on Handling Immigration  —  Public approval of Barack Obama's handling of immigration has jumped to a career high in the latest ABC News/Washington Post poll, buttressed by majority support for a path to citizenship for illegal immigrants and, much more broadly, endorsement of stricter border control.

Women's Unclean Breasts Cause Diarrhoea, Says Egypt Prime Minister Hisham Qandil  —  By VASUDEVAN SRIDHARAN: Subscribe to Vasudevan's RSS feed  —  Egypt's prime minister, Hisham Qandil - Reuters  —  The inability of women in rural Egypt to clean their breasts is causing a diarrhoea epidemic …

Karl Rove Is Not a Conservative  —  Karl Rove — “The Architect,” as President George W. Bush called him — crafted Bush's two presidential campaigns and served as a key player in Bush's White House.  —  Now, with an assist from The New York Times, Rove is presenting himself as a conservative leader.

Embattled Scott plans $100M campaign vs. Crist  —  Rick Scott is preparing to defend the Florida governorship with the most expensive reelection campaign in state history, drawing up plans for a battleship-sized political operation aimed at overcoming the Republican's deep personal unpopularity.

Ex-House members spend campaign money after they depart  —  WASHINGTON — Former House members are spending their leftover money to pay for everything from luxury cars to foundations that bear their names, a USA TODAY review of new campaign-finance reports shows.

Bob Menendez Spent Up to 87 Percent of Wealth Paying Back Donor  —  When Robert Menendez arrived in the U.S. Senate in 2006, he was a relative pauper in a chamber often called a millionaires' club.  The New Jersey Democrat ranked 97th out of 100 senators in terms of his personal wealth …

Eric Cantor's empty happy talk  —  Republicans have happened upon a felicitous new strategy for reviving their party from its depressed state: They need only think happy thoughts.  —  At a retreat for Republican leaders last month, former House speaker Newt Gingrich told them to …

CNN Host Destroys Supporter Of Boy Scouts Discrimination For Equating Pedophilia With Being Gay  —  CNN's Soledad O'Brien challenged the conservative opposition to keeping gays scouts and leaders out of the Boy Scouts on Wednesday morning, comparing the organization's ban to past restrictions on African Americans and women.

Dick Morris out at Fox News  —  Fox News has decided not to renew its contract with political commentator and pollster Dick Morris, an industry official tells POLITICO's Mike Allen.  —  Morris, who was on contract with Fox News throughout the 2012 presidential campaign …

Deficit Obsession Has Hurt The Recovery: CBO  —  Here's the buried lede from the Congressional Budget Office, which on Tuesday released its Budget and Economic Outlook for the coming decade: D.C.'s deficit obsession has been quite effective at cutting deficits at the expense of the still-struggling economy.

The Budget War Is Back  —  A familiar script: The GOP rejects Obama's demand for new tax revenue in a short-term deal to avoid automatic spending cuts  —  The nation's brief respite from the serial budget battles that have consumed Washington, D.C., is officially over …

ABC, CBS, NBC Slant 8 to 1 for Obama's Gun Control Crusade  —  At next week's State of the Union Address, President Barack Obama is likely to continue his ongoing push for more gun control.  It's a push first spurred on by Obama's gun control allies in the liberal media.

Yale Suing Former Students Shows Crisis in Loans to Poor  —  Needy U.S. borrowers are defaulting on almost $1 billion in federal student loans earmarked for the poor, leaving schools such as Yale University and the University of Pennsylvania with little choice except to sue their graduates.

4 arrested in Egypt after shoe thrown at Iran's President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad  —  Iran's President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad meets people as he visits the Al-Hussein mosque, named after Prophet Mohammed's grandson Hussein ibn Ali, in old Cairo on Feb. 5, 2013.  Ahmadinejad was both kissed and scolded …