IRAN Rouhani at Davos: Iran seeks nuclear deal to restore its economy Paul Taylor, Reuters – January 23, 2014 Iranian President Rouhani spoke at the World Economic Forum in Davos and expressed his desire to negotiate a comprehensive nuclear deal while …

SYRIA Syria’s most dangerous chemical weapons to be destroyed by June Steve Scherer, Reuters – January 16, 2014 Syria’s stockpiles of sarin and VX, priority A chemicals, were originally scheduled to be removed and destroyed by the end of March. Due to …

President Obama continued to push against S. 1881, a bill initially put forward by Sen. Menendez (D-NJ) and Sen. Kirk (R-IL), telling Democratic senators last night that any new sanctions on Iran could derail the ongoing diplomatic process.

Congress today completed action in an unusually bipartisan fashion on a bill to continue government spending at the rate of almost $1 trillion dollars in Fiscal year 2014.

DEFENSE SPENDING Spending bill totals $1.1 trillion, includes $85.2 billion in OCO funding The Pentagon requested only $79 billion in Overseas Contingency Operations (OCO) funding, but Congress appropriated an additional $6.2 billion. This spending b…