The Senate's Syria hearing: Live updates  —  The Senate Foreign Relations Committee is hearing testimony Tuesday about the potential use of military force in Syria.  Testifying are Secretary of State John Kerry, Defense Secretary Chuck Hagel and Joint Chiefs of Staff Chairman Gen. Martin Dempsey.

Hillary Clinton backs Obama on Syria  —  Former Secretary of State Hillary Clinton backs President Barack Obama's move to urge Congress to back a targeted effort in Syria, in the first comments from her camp since the president unveiled his plan, POLITICO has learned.

Public Opinion Runs Against Syrian Airstrikes  —  Few See U.S. Military Action Discouraging Chemical Weapons Use  —  President Obama faces an uphill battle in making the case for U.S. military action in Syria.  By a 48% to 29% margin, more Americans oppose than support conducting military airstrikes …

Cleveland kidnapper Ariel Castro found hanging in his cell  —  Kidnapped teens found decade later  —  (CNN) — Ariel Castro who was sentenced to life plus 1,000 years for kidnapping, raping and holding captive three women was found hanging in his prison cell, authorities said told CNN affiliate WOIO.

The ‘Mysterious’ Disappearance of a Quotation Has a Mundane Explanation  —  Was a quote about a pro-Israel group mysteriously scrubbed from a New York Times story?  A number of online commenters, in blog posts and on Twitter, wrote Tuesday that a quote calling the American Israel Public Affairs Committee …

'They must be really bad if even Hitler wouldn't use them'  —  Richard Price is a political scientist at the University of British Columbia and author of “The Chemical Weapons Taboo.”  We spoke this afternoon about the history of the prohibition on chemical weapons, past efforts to punish violations …

FULL TRANSCRIPT: Kerry, Hagel and Dempsey testify at Senate Foreign Relations Committee hearing on Syria  —  So I know today's focus is going to be largely on the issue of chemical warfare.  And I know that the case has to be made.  And I know that each of us have had the opportunity to hear that case …

65 Years Later, a Memorial Gives Names to Crash Victims  —  FRESNO, Calif. — A fiery plane crash here decades ago that killed 32 people, most of them unidentified Mexican farmworkers, inspired a protest song by Woody Guthrie that has been performed by Bruce Springsteen, Joan Baez and Bob Dylan, among others.

Introducing “Kindle MatchBook”: Soon Customers Will Be Able to Purchase Kindle Editions of Print Books Purchased from Amazon—Past, Present and Future—for $2.99 or Less  —  Over 10,000 books already enrolled from authors such as Ray Bradbury, Michael Crichton, Blake Crouch, James Rollins …

Release Detail  —  September 3, 2013 - De Blasio Surges Past 40% In New York City Mayoral Race, Quinnipiac University Poll Finds; Quinn, Thompson Battle For Runoff Spot - If There Is One  —  With 47 percent of black voters and 44 percent of women voters, New York City Public Advocate Bill de Blasio surges …

Miley Cyrus, Steubenville and teen culture run amok  —  Miley Cyrus twerked.  I had to look up the word since my indefatigable spell checker had no idea what I meant.  I discovered from Wikipedia that twerking “involves a person, usually a woman, shaking her hips in an up-and-down bouncing motion …

Book: Clinton's State told Benghazi was a ‘terrorist attack’ minutes after it began  —  WASHINGTON SECRETS HILLARY CLINTON SEPTEMBER 11 TERRORIST ATTACKS BENGHAZI TERRORISM  —  Just minutes after 35 jihadists crashed through the U.S. diplomatic compound in Benghazi, Libya, nearly one year ago …

Smackdown: Governors Take The Battle Over Business Public  —  Texas Gov. Rick Perry (R) and Missouri Gov. Jay Nixon (D) are in what may be the most heated spat between one governor trying to poach companies from the other governor's state.  —  In the last week of August …

Ronald H. Coase, a Law Professor and Leading Economist, Dies at 102  —  Ronald H. Coase, whose insights about why companies work and when government regulation is unnecessary earned him a Nobel Memorial Prize in Economic Science in 1991, died on Monday in Chicago.  He was 102.

Android KitKat unveiled in Google surprise move  —  Nestle plans to sell more than 50 million chocolate bars featuring the Android mascot  —  Google is calling the next version of its mobile operating system Android KitKat.  —  The news comes as a surprise as the firm had previously indicated version 4.4 …

China's Constitutional Crisis  —  Though the document enshrines liberal values, it places no restrictions on Communist Party power.  Reformists are now calling for a change.  —  In 2008, a group of Chinese intellectuals drafted a manifesto demanding deep reforms and calling for the implementation …