The Federal Reserve says it doesn't expect to raise interest rates in the U.S. until late 2014. The surprise move sent the dollar sharply lower in markets, and caused U.S. government borrowing costs to fall. In its regular policy statement, the central bank says that it sees "significant downside risks" to the economy, and said inflation had fallen back to a level in line with its mandate.

On Tuesday night, the Navy's SEAL Team Six rescued a Dutch and an American aid worker who had been held by Somali pirates since October. The pirates had held the aid workers hostage in a desert hide-out since October. SEAL Team Six first came into the general public's awareness last May after leading the mission to kill Osama Bin Laden. Along with an increasing reliance on unmanned drone strikes in combat zones, the future of the U.S. military might be a smaller, more covert venture.

Google recently announced a new privacy policy that has users and privacy advocates up in arms. Effective March 1, this new policy will consolidate information from users' various products — from Gmail to YouTube to the Android mobile phone operating system — in order to "better tailor its services" for customers. But the move could potentially violate a users' privacy simply to better target advertising. Estimates say between 50-75 percent of the world's internet users utilize at least one of Google's products.

The main focus of Tuesday’s State of the Union address was the economy and income inequality. Along with his ideas about taxation and protecting homeowners, president Obama also expressed a desire to bring manufacturing jobs back to the U.S. Since the 1980s, the U.S. economy has shifted away from manufacturing and towards intellectual property and services. This has been due in part to the perceived expenses involved in production based in the U.S., as well as labor laws. 

The Federal Reserve announced its plan on Wednesday to keep short-term interest rates near zero through late 2014. The move signals that the Fed does not expect the economy to fully recover over the next three years. With unemployment still running high, the Fed expects the economy to expand between 2.2 and 2.7 percent over this year, instead of at 2.9 percent as originally projected.

Although his father was the first candidate to release their tax returns, the impetus for Massachussetts governor Mitt Romney making his financial life public — and the rallying cry of Gingrich-boosting Super PACs — is the assertion that Romney is too rich and therefore too out of touch to be president. Throughout the decades, Americans have elected very wealthy men to the White House without any fanfare. Yet with record rates of unemployment that many are experiencing over a period of years, the issue of class in the U.S. has gained a new significance.

On the campaign trail it's a two man fight for Florida. Tonight is the state's final Republican presidential debate with Mitt Romney and Newt Gingrich attacking each other in recent days over personal and professional vulnerabilities. At a forum on the Spanish-language Univision broadcast yesterday Speaker Gingrich brought up the Former governor's Swiss bank account in an attempt to paint his rival as out-of-touch.

The remaining Republican presidential candidates — Newt Gingrich, Ron Paul, Mitt Romney, and Rick Santorum — will debate in Florida on Thursday evening. A new CNN poll shows the two frontrunners, Mitt Romney and Newt Gingrich, are in a dead heat, with Romney leading Gingrich 36 percent to 34 percent. The primary is less than a week away, and the stakes are high.  The winner-takes-all state has 50 delegates — more than Iowa, New Hampshire and South Carolina combined.  

This week President Obama begins his first campaign tour of the 2012 election, touring five key swing states this week: Iowa, Arizona, Nevada, Colorado, and Michigan. The independent or undecided voters in these crucial states are what will decide the 2012 election. The Takeaway turns to two such voters to see which issues are most important to them.

The escalating tension between Israel and Iran over the latter's nuclear program has been at the center of many foreign policy debates and diplomatic talks over the past decade. Proponents of an Israeli strike say it's needed for to preserve Israel's national security while detractors say such an attack would precipitate World War III. 

More than 200 people are now feared to have been killed in a series of bomb attacks and shooting sprees in northern Nigeria. The attacks are believed to be the work of the Islamist group Boko Haram. According to Human Rights Watch, the group has killed nearly 1,000 people over the past three years. Andrew Harding is a reporter with our partner the BBC. He visited the northern cities of Jos and Kano, which have both suffered heavy losses, and sent this report.

With 23 debates held thus far, the GOP candidates have conjured a great deal of applause, cheers, boos and laughter. But whether or not audience reactions are allowed is largely dependent on the commentator and arena: Brian Williams instructed the audience of this Monday's debate broadcast on NBC to refrain from clapping or any verbal reactions. On Tuesday, Newt Gingrich told "Fox & Friends" host Gretchen Carlson that he disagrees with silencing debate audiences, and threatened not to participate in future debates that prohibit reactions.

In late December armed police in Egypt stormed the offices of several human rights and pro-democracy NGOs across the country. One of those offices included an organization called the International Republican Institute. Egypt's military-led government has been investigating foreign-funded groups like the IRI. These non-profit groups promote democracy worldwide.

Millions of Americans love their Apple products: from iPods to MacBooks to iPads. But there's a story behind the beloved devices. How do they get made and what price is paid? Our partner The New York Times has been investigating and this morning's story is a riveting read, in particular the safely problems at a Chinese factory that makes iPads.