CHICAGO (AP) — President Obama on Sunday said the NATO alliance agrees on a vision for post-2014 Afghanistan and is pressing world leaders to implement that strategy following a decade of war.

Afghan President Hamid Karzai said the transition in his country will mean that Afghanistan is "no longer a ...

CHICAGO (AP) — A diverse crowd of protesters began streaming into a downtown Chicago park Sunday for one of the city's largest demonstrations in years — a march to the lakeside convention center hosting a historic NATO summit.

Peace activists joined with war veterans and people more focused on the ...

CHICAGO (AP) — The United States and NATO leaders insist the Afghanistan fighting coalition will remain whole despite France's plans to yank combat troops out early, but leaders wary of plummeting public support for the war are using an alliance summit Sunday to show they want to move quickly away ...

CHICAGO (AP) — Two men will make initial appearances in court in Chicago on Sunday, prosecutors said, as part of what they describe as an ongoing investigation of activists who planned to take part in demonstrations at the two-day NATO summit.

The Cook County state attorney's office said in a ...

Special operations war fighters will be in the spotlight during the GI Film Festival on Sunday evening, when a documentary on their initial push into Afghanistan in 2001 debuts.

The 17-minute film "Horse Soldiers of 9/11" features interviews with U.S. commandos who rode into Afghanistan on horseback and fought side ...

DAMASCUS, Syria (AP) — A roadside bomb exploded in a restive suburb of the Syrian capital as senior U.N. officials toured the area on Sunday. The blast blew off the front of a parked vehicle but caused no casualties.

Visiting U.N. peacekeeping chief Herve Ladsous and Maj. Gen. Robert Mood, ...

President Obama's senior adviser on Sunday pledged that the Democratic campaign won't target Republican presidential hopeful Mitt Romney's Mormon faith.

"We've said that's not fair game," said David Axelrod, speaking on CNN's "State of the Union."

The declaration came three days after Mr. Romney repudiated plans by Republican donors and ...

KABUL, Afghanistan (AP) — An insurgent attack in Afghanistan killed two NATO service members on Sunday, the alliance said, while Afghan officials reported that a suicide bomber struck a police checkpoint in the country's south.

NATO did not provide any further details on the attack that killed the service members, its ...

RALEIGH, N.C. (AP) — Tropical Storm Alberto emerged off South Carolina's coastline Sunday, the first storm of its kind to form in a hurricane season that doesn't officially begin until June 1.

The storm was not expected to approach landfall on the Carolinas' coast, but it prompted a tropical storm ...

NEW YORK (AP) — A blind Chinese legal activist who escaped house arrest and endured a nearly monthlong diplomatic tussle and a hurried daylong flight paused ever so briefly upon his arrival in New York before taking up a familiar fight.

Taken from a hospital in his homeland and put on a ...

BENGHAZI, Libya (AP) — Abdel Baset al-Megrahi, a Libyan intelligence officer who was the only person ever convicted in the 1988 Lockerbie bombing, died Sunday, nearly three years after he was released from a Scottish prison to the outrage of the relatives of the attack's 270 victims. He was 60.

SAN FRANCISCO (AP) — For Facebook founder and CEO Mark Zuckerberg, it was quite a week — from birthday to IPO to "I do."

A day after the historic Facebook stock offering, Mr. Zuckerberg on Saturday wed 27-year-old Priscilla Chan, his girlfriend of nearly a decade, according to a guest ...

SANT'AGOSTINO DI FERRARA, Italy (AP) — One of the strongest earthquakes to shake northern Italy rattled the region around Bologna early Sunday, a magnitude-6.0 temblor that killed at least four people, toppled buildings and sent residents running into the streets, emergency services and news reports said.

The quake struck at ...

CHICAGO — A group of Occupy protesters barely had enough members to occupy a small corner of Daley Plaza on Saturday as they shouted anti-NATO slogans under the watchful eyes of dozens of police.

About 150 demonstrators marched into the plaza adjacent to City Hall in midafternoon to denounce the ...

Ratcheting up the pressure on Iran Saturday, leaders of the Group of Eight major economies expressed solidarity in their approach to cracking down on Tehran's nuclear development program, agreeing to act together to lower oil prices in the coming months if necessary.

During a Saturday energy session of the summit ...

TAMPA, Fla. (AP) — Marissa Alexander had never been arrested before she fired a bullet at a wall one day in 2010 to scare off her husband when she felt he was threatening her. Nobody got hurt, but this month a northeast Florida judge was bound by state law to ...

BEDFORD, N.Y. (AP) — Family and friends gathered Saturday at a modest stone church in a hamlet north of New York City for the funeral of Mary Richardson Kennedy, the latest member of that charmed and cursed family to fall victim to tragedy and inner demons.

The service, held on ...

DENVER (AP) — Minutes after President Barack Obama announced he supported gay marriage, the Democratic governor of Colorado choked back tears in Denver as he ordered state lawmakers to reconsider a civil-unions measure that Republicans had defeated the day before.

In the week that followed, the debate over equal rights ...

ROSH HAAYIN, Israel (AP) — Israeli entrepreneur Shai Agassi has begun rolling out the world's first nationwide electric car network. Now, will the drivers come?

After more than $400 million in outlays and months behind schedule, dozens of electric cars have hit the road in Israel, the test site Agassi ...

ROME (AP) — A bomb exploded Saturday outside an Italian high school named after a slain anti-Mafia prosecutor, killing a teenage girl and wounding several other classmates, officials said.

The device went off a few minutes before 8 a.m. in the Adriatic port town of Brindisi in the country's south ...

CHICAGO (AP) — Three men accused of making Molotov cocktails had been planning to attack President Obama's campaign headquarters, Mayor Rahm Emanuel's home and other targets during this weekend's NATO summit, prosecutors said Saturday.

The three were arrested Wednesday in a nighttime raid of an apartment in the city's South ...

CAMP DAVID, Md. (AP) — President Obama and other leaders of the Group of Eight industrial nations expressed hope Saturday that Greece will remain in the Eurozone, anxious to keep its economic troubles from spreading around the world. The leaders said all of the nations have an interest in the ...

CAPE CANAVERAL, Fla. (AP) — A new private supply ship for the International Space Station remained stuck on the ground Saturday after rocket engine trouble led to a last-second abort of the historic flight.

All nine engines for the SpaceX Falcon 9 rocket roared to life Saturday morning. But with ...

BEIJING (AP) — A blind Chinese legal activist who was suddenly allowed to leave the country arrived in the U.S. on Saturday, ending a nearly month-long diplomatic tussle that had tested U.S.-China relations.

Chen Guangcheng had been hurriedly taken from a hospital hours earlier and put on a plane for ...

House Republican leaders on Friday sent a letter to Attorney General Eric H. Holder Jr. demanding he comply with the GOP's official investigation into Obama administration gun-running operation Fast & Furious, which allowed hundreds of guns to be sneaked across the border to Mexican cartels.

In the letter, Speaker John ...

CHICAGO — President Obama met here Sunday morning with Afghan President Hamid Karzai, just hours before opening a NATO summit where the alliance plans to formalize plans to turn over primarily responsibility for the war to Afghanistan’s security forces next year.

Abdel Basset Ali al-Megrahi, a shadowy Libyan intelligence officer who was convicted in the 1988 bombing of Pan Am flight 103 over Lockerbie, Scotland, that killed 270 people and whose release from prison in 2009 sparked international uproar, died Sunday in Tripoli, the Associated Press reported. He was 60.

Kathryn wanted pants. And short hair. Then trucks and swords.

Her parents, Jean and Stephen, were fine with their toddler’s embrace of all things boy. They’ve both been school teachers and coaches in Maryland and are pretty immune to the quirky stuff that kids do.

In the last 45 seconds, there is a faint voice, a distant yell, and the urgent dialogue between a woman and a 911 operator.

“There’s just someone screaming outside,” the caller begins on the recorded line.

The decision that would launch one of the most intense and improbable negotiations in the history of U.S.-China relations was made in the space of hours — and it was sparked by a series of phone calls to the American Embassy.

Republican leaders doubled down Sunday on a renewed push to secure spending cuts as part of any deal to increase the national debt limit, drawing a sharper line in an emerging fight over the issue.

Using sharp rhetoric reminiscent of last summer’s fight over the issue, Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell (R-Ky.) said President Obama “needs to become the adult” in discussions with congressional leaders on spending and debt.

These days, it’s easier to name the companies that don’t have a travel app than the ones that do. But press us, and we can’t really think of any.

Industry players large (United Airlines, Starwood Hotels and Resorts, England) and small (beach locator, taxi finder, Slovakian ski resorts) are flooding our smartphones and tablets with vacation-related apps. The fingernail-size accessory touches on every component of travel: planning, booking, exploring, idling, photographing, filming, socializing and sharing. An app can map a route, track a flight, convert foreign currencies, edit holiday videos and even tell a German bartender, “Bitte, noch ein Bier.”

I am on the phone with Melanie, a customer affairs specialist for Levi Strauss & Co.

Me: I would like to discuss your product and its magical, mystical slimming powers for the restorative rejuvenation of the male physique.

Political dysfunction. Partisanship at record levels. Attack politics run amok. And public approval of Congress scraping the single digits (Sen. John McCain is fond of saying it’s down to blood relatives and paid staff).

In a blow to Democrats hoping to unseat Wisconsin Gov. Scott Walker in a June 5 recall election, the Milwaukee Journal Sentinel has endorsed the Republican governor over Milwaukee Mayor Tom Barrett (D).

CAMP DAVID, Md. — Leaders of the world’s wealthiest nations opened the door Saturday to more government spending in Europe as way to revive the continent’s struggling economy, shifting away from the idea that the surest way to recovery was through strict fiscal austerity.

ISLAMABAD — Pakistan’s telecommunications regulators shut down Twitter for about eight hours Sunday because the social networking site would not remove content the government found objectionable to Muslims, but the nation’s prime minister stepped in to reverse the ban, officials said.

The NAACP’s board of directors voted Saturday to endorse same-sex marriage rights – adding the influential voice of the country’s leading black civil rights organization to a debate that has divided the African-American community.

Editor’s note: Carolyn Hax has been doling out advice to readers for 15 years. To mark the anniversary of her “Tell Me About It” column, we’re republishing the very first installment, which ran in The Washington Post’s Style section on Monday, May 19, 1997. Tell us how you’ve used Hax’s advice in real life here.

In the past six months, many readers have written to me to say that The Post is anti-Catholic. What led them to that conclusion?

It started with the annual March for Life anti-abortion rally in January, which readers said was inadequately covered. It accelerated with a front-page story in March about Barbara Johnson, a Catholic lesbian who was refused Communion at her mother’s funeral by the Rev. Marcel Guarnizo, a conservative priest in a Gaithersburg parish.

It’s not a bug, it’s a feature.”

That’s an oft-heard refrain in the computer world, where programmers routinely trot out “improvements” that users experience as irritations and glitches.

The phrase came to mind a few weeks ago during CinemaCon, a confab of movie exhibitors in Las Vegas where Warner Bros. showed them 10 minutes of Peter Jackson’s hotly anticipated adaptation of “The Hobbit: An Unexpected Journey.” As reports filtered out of Caesars Palace, no one was talking about Elijah Wood’s Frodo or Martin Freeman’s Bilbo or how the action and meaning of J.R.R. Tolkien’s epic fantasy had translated to the screen. Rather, the blogs were agog with news about a new 3-D digital format Jackson used to photograph “The Hobbit,” at a souped-up 48 frames per second — twice as fast as the usual 24 frames per second of conventional film.

The year 2008 was a big one — both for the United States and for Katie Ermilio.

The then-22-year-old had just graduated from college, and had decided to leave her position as an assistant at Teen Vogue and strike out on her own as a couturier. The country had just elected Barack Obama president — which meant Michelle Obama would need something to wear to the 2009 inaugural ball. So when The Washington Post announced a contest for people to design a gown for her, Ermilio submitted sketches.

The yin and yang of young Matthew Gardiner:

●He’s precociously unrushed and composed, a slender dude in boots and jeans. Signature Theatre’s 28-year-old associate artistic director sits in a company conference room with the upright, unfidgety poise of the dancer he was trained to be but never became, coolly talking about his rapid rise with one of Washington’s top troupes.

Since the founding of Washington, it has been tres facile to sense the French influence in the circles, grids and diagonals bequeathed by Pierre L’Enfant, and in recent years, it seems no office is more than steps away from a French (or French-named) place to buy a croissant.

Or maybe they just never gave up on it.

Arizona — where a top election official has said President Obama might not make the ballot because of questions about his birth certificate — is one place where it is enjoying a resurgence.

On a gorgeous spring Thursday, kids on class trips were all over the Capitol grounds, many in matching T-shirts, posing for pictures on the granite steps.

They were having a great time learning history and about how government works. If they had crossed Independence Avenue and squeezed into a Cannon House Office Building hearing room, they also would have witnessed how government is not supposed to work.

The House has set aside a proposal to allow federal employees to phase into retirement, a plan some see as an innovative cost-saving measure that could also allow older staff members the opportunity to help train younger ones.

We asked:

What’s your relationship like with contractors in your agency? Is it cordial, collaborative? Are they handling work that they should, or do you believe the work would be better handled by permanent staff?

Neither Drew Franklin nor Arturo Viscarra has ever eaten at one of the Fojol Bros.’ three colorful, cross-cultural food trucks. Despite this fact, the two roommates have, in the course of a week, transformed one of the District’s most popular mobile vendors into one of the most despised.

If it seems like Betty White is everywhere these days, that’s because she is.

She started tweeting last month. She was roasted last week at the Friar’s Club in New York, where she was treated to a life-size cake in her image. And Thursday night, the 64-year showbiz veteran, former star of “The Mary Tyler Moore Show” and “The Golden Girls,” was at Lisner Auditoruim to discuss her career and share recollections from her book, “Betty & Friends: My Life at the Zoo,” which came out this fall. (White is at the National Zoo for a book signing Friday.)

Aiming squarely at Republican critics of Wall Street reform, President Barack Obama said Saturday that investment bank JPMorgan's stunning $2-billion loss serves as a reminder of the importance of Washington's…

Click to Continue »

Click to Continue »

A day after taking his company public and raising his wealth to more than $19 billion, Facebook Chief Executive Mark Zuckerberg married his longtime girlfriend.

Click to Continue »

Blind Chinese activist Chen Guangcheng, whose daring escape to the American embassy in Beijing last month sparked a diplomatic crisis, flew out of China Saturday, arriving 13 hours later in…

Click to Continue »

ATHENS (dpa) - Greece's parliament was formally dissolved and fresh elections called on Saturday - a day after politicians in Athens reacted angrily to an alleged suggestion by the German…

Click to Continue »

Sens. Jeanne Shaheen, D-N.H., from left, Dianne Feinstein, D-Calif., and Patty Murray, D-Wash., take questions in April from media about the reauthorization of the Violence Against Women Act, originally passed in 1994, on Capitol Hill in Washington.

Stop by Valley Beth Shalom in Encino for services and you might spot Congressman Howard Berman sitting in one aisle and Congressman Brad Sherman a few seats away.

Single-tracking on the Red Line will mean more Metro delays this weekend. From 10 p.m. on Friday, May 18, through closing on Sunday, May 20, Red Line trains will single-track between the Van Ness and Friendship Heights Metro stations "to allow for rail and fastener renewal and joint elimination for a smoother ride," according to Metro's website .

Editor's note: During the course of a week, issues are covered that might not lend themselves to full editorial comment, but they are worthy of The Journal weighing in - pro, con or neutral.

Toronto FC in heavenly conditions at RFK Stadium . Unlike the proceedings in Munich, no penalty drama in Washington.

Early one Sunday morning Joe Horton and his brother Andy woke up, got dressed and went outside for a nine-mile run.

Subscribe to our FREE daily news alerts and get the latest updates on the most happening events in the legal, business, and celebrity world.

WASHINGTON -- D.C. police want your help identifying two men related to the homicide of Rajeshkumar Patel.

Dressed very formally in an elegant gray suit. Ordered the grilled vegetables, branzino and an espresso.

Sen. Lindsey Graham, R-S.C., right, accompanied by Sen. Joseph I. Lieberman, I-Conn., lead a bi-partisan group of senators in supporting President Obama's sanctions against Iran for pursuing nuclear weapons, Thursday, Feb.

WASHINGTON -- D.C. police have arrested a man in the strangulation and stabbing homicide of Leroy Studevant.

The April 21 fatal stabbing of a Marine across the street from the Marine Barracks on Capitol Hill took place minutes after another Marine accused of the stabbing saw the victim hugging a gay male friend outside a straight bar, according to the prosecutor in the case.

The District's Urban Forestry Administration has put nine beehives near several community gardens and at other places around the city As part of Mayor Vince Gray's sustainability plan, the District's Urban Forestry Administration has put nine beehives near several community gardens and at other places around the city.

Family Equality Council Executive Director Jennifer Chrisler , her partner Cheryl Jacques and their sons Tom and Tim Jacques visited Washington on Thursday to ask Congress for equal rights for same-sex families.

WASHINGTON -- Victims of sexual assault in the military from 27 states gathered last week in Washington, D.C. for a groundbreaking conference.

David Martosko is The Daily Caller's executive editor. He is the father of two, a frequent public speaker, and a graduate of Dartmouth College and the Johns Hopkins University.

But that's part of Artomatic's charm. "After our last event" - an eight-story affair above the Navy Yard Metro station in 2009 that drew a crowd of 70,000 - "we said we weren't going to do anything bigger," says Barry Schmetter, Artomatic's event director.

WASHINGTON D.C., May 17 .- The Archdiocese of Washington, D.C. has By condemned Georgetown University's invitation to U.S. Secretary of Health and Human Services Kathleen Sebelius to speak during commencement weekend.

When I worked on Capitol Hill, reading Politico was a daily requirement. As with the other Hill newspapers, it has a combination of liberal bias, Beltway-centric sensationalism and important news.

A girl visiting The Bridge Teen Center said fellow middle school students once asked her if she had a gun.