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President Obama's slate of nominees will have to be confirmed by the Senate, but those nominations could be held up by a filibuster threat. Democrats are trying to crack down on what they see as misuse of the filibuster, and it looks like Republicans may be willing to come to a deal.

Vice President Joe Biden says his task force on reducing gun violence is facing an unexpected obstacle: slim or outdated research on weapons. Public health research dried up more than a decade ago after Congress restricted the use of some federal money to pay for those studies.

President Obama and his Republican rival, Mitt Romney, face off in their third and final debate on Monday, this one focusing on foreign policy. They've sparred over Libya, China and Russia in the past and those are among the many themes they will likely debate as they try to put forward different visions on America's role in the world.

The BBC's director general has defended the news organization's handling of a sex abuse scandal involving a former entertainer now accused of having abused women and girls over several decades. A parliamentary committee was particularly interested in why the BBC dropped an investigative report into the allegations in December. Police say the late Jimmy Savile was a predatory sex offender.

Intelligent, gregarious and at times disarmingly personal, Justice Sonia Sotomayor's memoir, My Beloved World, recounts her trailblazing journey from a Bronx housing project to a bench on the Supreme Court.

New York is the first state to pass new gun control laws since the tragic shootings in Newtown, Conn., just over a month ago. Supporters hailed the regulations as the toughest in the nation. But the speed with which the law came together left gun rights advocates livid.

When Mitt Romney said he would cut PBS funding in the first presidential debate — and singled out Big Bird, whom he said he liked a lot — he perhaps inadvertently introduced the befeathered yellow children's icon smack into the center of political debate. President Obama approved a cable-only commercial dinging Romney for going after Sesame Street rather than Wall Street, but Romney appears to think he has a winning hand — castigating the president for focusing on a profitable educational puppet empire rather than big issues, like terrorism in the Arab world.

At the beginning of January, the cover story of The New York Times Magazine declared: "George Saunders Has Written The Best Book You'll Read This Year." The stories in the author's latest collection, The Tenth of December, prove that The Times may well be right.

While underground dinners may seem like old hat to some, a handful of startups are betting the concept is just beginning to take off. But many supper clubs are still more expensive than the average restaurant meal, which may limit the market.

The Emir of Qatar is scheduled to become the first foreign leader to visit the Gaza Strip since Hamas seized control of the territory in 2007. The Qatari leader is offering Gaza around $400 million in development aid to help Gazans rebuild after the destruction of the 2009 war with Israel.