Throwing a challenge to President Obama, Republican Senators John McCain and Lindsey Graham have laid out a series of diplomatic, humanitarian, and military aid proposals in support of an effort to topple President Bashar al-Assad. One of their options calls for arming the Syrian rebel forces. Some say this is unlikely for an administration that wants to avoid another war during an election season. 

Despite growing up in Detroit — and Rick Santorum's anti-bailout speech to the Detroit Economic club — the most recent polls from Michigan have Mitt Romney trailing Santorum by an average of six points. Romney has tried to curb Santorum's upswell by outspending him three to one in advertising. Given the indecisiveness of the race thus far, whether or not Romney takes Michigan could be a turning point in the nomination.

While e-books are extremely convenient for readers, their proliferation is causing more financial problems for the already beleaguered publishing industry. A growing number of people with e-readers want to borrow e-books from their local libraries. But publishers, selling the electronic manuscripts at record highs, are wary of letting libraries loan them out. 

Gas prices are going up and it's turning into a campaign issue. Gas prices have already risen 25 cents since the start of the year, putting them at $3.25 a gallon, a record high for this time of year. Occupy organizers turn their attention towards the more than 2 million people in prisons with what they're calling National Occupy Day in Support of Prisoners. Arizona Republican Senator John McCain is in Egypt trying to resolve a diplomatic dispute over American NGO workers in Egypt charged with using illegal funding to incite revolution. 

Iran has been causing trouble in the region as Tehran cut off crude exports to Europe. United Nations nuclear inspectors are back in the country this morning for the second time in a month. This time they are seeking more talks about the country's nuclear program. Yesterday, Iran signaled that it was ready to hit back hard at sanctions threatening its economy by announcing it was halting its limited oil sales to France and Britain. James Reynolds is correspondent for our partner the BBC.

On Monday, ground will be broken on the new Smithsonian National Museum of African American History and Culture. This $500 million project is just one of the many being erected in major cities dedicated to African American history and the civil rights movement: Atlanta, Jackson and Charleston all have projects in the works. These projects mark an emerging era of scholarship and interest in the history of the civil rights movement, providing the public with new insights.

Euro zone finance ministers meeting in Brussels appear ready to approve a second bailout package for Greece. Nearly $172 billion will be funneled to the country in exchange for more austerity measures, like a 22 percent cut in the minimum wage. Greek leaders approved the deal last week in a last-ditch effort to avoid bankruptcy.

Mitt Romney has had a hard time garnering support among social conservatives. But since he's a minister in The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter Day Saints, you'd think that unanimous support among Mormons would be a given. That's not the case in Arizona, where strict adherence to Mormon teachings have led some to adopt libertarian views — and support Ron Paul.

The National Kidney Registry called it "Chain 124." It began last August and lasted through December, linking 60 lives forever in the longest-ever chain of kidney transplants.  Through the cooperation of seventeen hospitals in eleven states, it connected 30 people who needed a kidney with 30 people willing to give up an organ to a complete stranger. Transplant chains like this are rare, but computer models suggest thousands more transplants could be made each year if there were a national databank of willing donors and recipients — and if more Americans knew about such programs.

The NBA season is on full throttle as the New York Knicks played the champion Dallas Mavericks Sunday afternoon and Jeremy Lin was able to hold off the team and the Knicks cruised to yet another win. There were also exciting games around the league as Kevin Durant scored a stunning 51 points for Oklahoma City. The question for Linsanity remains: how long can it last?

In 2009, filmmaker Danfung Dennis was embedded with U.S. Marines "Echo Company" as the marines launched a major offensive on the Taliban stronghold of Helmand province in Afghanistan. Danfung worked closely with Sergeant Nathan Harris, one of the Marines leading the charge. When Danfung returned to U.S. a few months later, he discovered that Sergeant. Harris had been gravely injured, just two weeks before his battalion was scheduled to return home. The story of Sergeant Harris’s recovery is now the focus of Danfung Dennis’s newest documentary, "Hell and Back Again."

People go to great lengths to fabricate military service. For every real Navy SEAL the FBI estimates there are hundreds of impostors. Xavier Alvarez, for example is an impostor. Alvarez, once a member of a California water-district board, lied at a public meeting about being a war hero specifically that he was awarded the Medal of Honor. But his lies did more than make him an outcast. They made him a criminal.