Rep. Norm Dicks (D-Wash.) will retire at the end of the year; his seat likely to stay in Dem hands.

“I think that the Israeli government recognizes that, as president of the United States, I don't bluff," Obama said. 

President Obama was heckled over a possible war with Iran at a New York City fundraiser on Thursday. 

Obama said he intends to "draw sharp lines" in order to maintain Israel's long-term security.

Allowing the Bush-era tax rates to expire would provide more than enough revenue to do away with the automatic spending cuts set to begin in 2013, a high-ranking Democrat said Thursday. 

Shedding light on Democrats’ potential end game for what’s sure to be a jam-packed lame-duck session, House Armed Services Committee ranking member Adam Smith (D-Wash.) floated the notion of letting taxes rise to cancel out the sequestered spending cuts.

Smith suggested the revenue from letting the tax rates expire would be more than sufficient to cover the $1.2 trillion in deficit reduction that’s needed to reverse the automatic cuts to both defense and non-defense spending scheduled to begin in January 2013.

The group, including the Transportation secretary's son, had been barred from leaving Egypt since January and threatened with prosecution.

Sen. John Kerry said the U.S. must "proceed with extreme caution" in Syria, where violence intensified on Thursday.

The killings will fuel further questions about the NATO mission to train the Afghan National Security Force. 

"We're not out of the woods yet," President Obama said in an interview with ABC News.