Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid's comment likening a Republican lawmaker to a schoolyard bully is drawing a rebuttal from his target _ and a suggestion from another senator that he apologize.

Republican senators criticized border security provisions in a new immigration bill Tuesday, arguing that the landmark legislation can't pass Congress unless the measures are strengthened.

The U.S. and Russia agreed Tuesday to try to convene an international conference this month to come to a political solution to end the two-year Syrian civil war but gave no indication how they would convince President Bashar Assad into talks with the rebels seeking to overthrow him.

The sexual battery arrest of the Air Force officer who led the service's Sexual Assault Prevention and Response unit underscores how far the Defense Department has to go in addressing the plague of sexual crimes in the military, the chairman of the Senate Armed Services Committee said Tuesday.

A top Labor Department official who took the blame for budgeting mistakes and cost overruns at the federal Job Corps program has resigned.

In another blow to the nation's dwindling labor unions, an appeals court on Tuesday struck down a federal rule that would have required millions of businesses to put up posters informing workers of their right to form a union.

President Barack Obama says he doesn't know Kim Jong Un (kim jawng oon) personally and has never spoken to him, but says the North Korean leader can still take a different path.

The United States and Russia pledged Tuesday to set aside more than two years of differences over Syria's civil war, saying they'd convene an international conference later this month to try to corral President Bashar Assad's regime and the rebels into talks on a political transition.

As of Tuesday, May 7, 2013, at least 2,083 members of the U.S. military had died in Afghanistan as a result of the U.S.-led invasion of Afghanistan in late 2001, according to an Associated Press count.

Illinois GOP Chairman Pat Brady has resigned, citing his wife's battle with cancer and his desire to focus on family.

Seventeen-year-old Kelsey Raffaele's last words were over a cellphone to a friend: "I'm going to crash!" The car she was driving had clipped a snow bank and spun into oncoming traffic, where it was T-boned by an SUV. She died at a hospital without regaining consciousness.

The Obama administration has levied financial sanctions against eight drug gang bosses accused of working for Mexico's powerful and violent Sinaloa Cartel.

President Barack Obama's nominee for ambassador to Libya said Tuesday that she will work to ensure sufficient security at U.S. facilities nearly eight months after poor protection in Benghazi was blamed for the deaths of Ambassador Chris Stevens and three other Americans.

President Barack Obama says military personnel who engage in sexual assault are betraying the uniform they are wearing. He says he has directed Defense Secretary Chuck Hagel to "step up our game exponentially" to halt such assaults.

President Barack Obama says he doesn't know Kim Jung Un personally and has never spoken to him, but says the North Korean leader can still take a different path.

President Barack Obama says there are no easy answers to resolving the civil war in Syria and says he doesn't make decisions based on perceptions.

Secretary of State John Kerry on Tuesday argued the U.S. case to Russian President Vladimir Putin for Moscow to take a tougher stance on Syria at a time when Israel's weekend air strikes against the beleaguered Mideast nation have added an unpredictable factor to the talks.

Sexual assaults in the military are a growing epidemic across the services and thousands of victims are still unwilling to come forward despite a slew of new oversight and assistance programs, according to Pentagon documents.

President Barack Obama said Tuesday that North Korea can no longer create an international crisis with nuclear provocations, asserting the United States and South Korea are fully capable of defending themselves.

A top Labor Department official who took the blame for budgeting mistakes and cost overruns at the federal Job Corps program has resigned.