President Obama spends Friday meeting with Afghan President Hamid Karzai. After a bilateral meeting in the morning, the two leaders will have a working lunch followed by a joint press conference

US-Agents-Prostitution

A Drug Enforcement Administration agent stationed in Cartagena, Colombia, arranged for a prostitute to have an encounter with a U.S. Secret Service Agent only days before a visit there by President Barack Obama, the Justice Department's inspector general has found.

POLITICS

POL-Gun-Control-Battle (also see POL-US-gun-laws)

A federal task force looking for ways to curb gun violence will have a set of recommendations by Tuesday, Vice President Joe Biden announced Thursday. Speaking during a week of meetings with disparate groups on various sides of the issue -- including some for and others against stricter gun controls -- Biden, who oversees the task force, said the recommendations to be given to President Barack Obama will serve as a beginning.

POL-Gun-Meeting-NRA

The nation's largest gun lobby left a Thursday meeting with Vice President Joe Biden and his gun control panel "disappointed" and perceiving little ground for compromise and said it would move forward on the issue independently.

POL-NRA-Ad-Campaign

The National Rifle Association is gearing up to face one of the strongest challenges to its cause in many years: recommendations from an Obama administration working group on gun violence that are expected to address assault weapons and high-capacity magazine clips.

POL-Wal-Mart-Holder

Wal-Mart, which had initially turned down a meeting with Vice President Joe Biden's gun violence panel, did meet with administration officials on Thursday -- but instead of sitting down with Biden, the company's representative met with Attorney General Eric Holder.

POL-Colorado-Governor-Guns

Gov. John Hickenlooper, a Democrat, became the latest governor to call for more gun regulations as he reflected on last year's deadly movie theater shooting in his state and said Coloradans "have an obligation to prevent similar tragedies."

POL-NBC-Gun-Magazine

A decision is expected Friday on whether there will be any criminal charges brought over the display of what appeared to be a high capacity gun magazine during a Meet the Press broadcast.

POL-WV-Rockefeller-Retirement

Sen. John D. Rockefeller IV, the five-term Democrat from West Virginia, will not run for re-election in 2014, according to two Democratic sources.

MONEY

MONEY-stocks-markets

U.S. stocks opened little changed Friday, a day after the S&P 500 closed at a 5-year high, as investors digested earnings from Wells Fargo and a fresh batch of economic data.

MONEY-boeing-dreamliner-faa

U.S. and company officials have announced a probe of the design, manufacture and assembly of the Boeing 787 Dreamliner in the wake of a series of problems that have dogged the jet in recent days.

MONEY-ford-jobs

Ford Motor will add 2,200 salaried jobs this year, the biggest addition of white-collar workers at the automaker in more than a decade, the company said Friday.