News from NPR

After focus groups and polls indicated that replacing the vice president with Hillary Clinton wouldn't boost the president's re-election effort, the idea was dropped. Former White House Chief of Staff William Daley says the campaign was simply doing "due diligence."

The secretary of state's comments are the sharpest to date from a top Obama aide. He also said, though, that "innocent people are not being abused" and that the intelligence gathered by the National Security Agency has prevented terrorist attacks.

There's reason to get excited if you're a fan: The guitar that some experts say Bob Dylan played when he went electric at the 1965 Newport Folk Festival is to be sold in December. It's one of the most famous instruments in rock 'n' roll history.

Virginia Tech officials could not have foreseen that 32 people would die in a 2007 attack on campus, the Virginia Supreme Court said. The ruling overturns an award to two victims' families. Officials believed the gunman had fled and posed no further danger in the area, the justices said.

Officials in Tel Aviv have refused to comment on the reported attack at a Syrian airbase near the port city of Latakia.

An important step has been taken in the quest to rid Syrian President Bashar Assad's regime of its lethal weapons. Next, an agreement must be finalized on a plan to destroy tons of toxic agents and munitions.

The "NSA leaker" is set to start working Friday, his attorney claims. It isn't known yet just what website he'll be working for. He's been given asylum in Russia.

Though claims dropped by 10,000, they're still running at a pace that signals a sluggish labor market.

Police in the city where the shooting death of Trayvon Martin ignited a national debate want to reinforce a rule that neighborhood watch volunteers like George Zimmerman should not be armed.

The decision means that soon fliers won't have to turn off their e-books, tablets and other devices during some parts of their flights. Still not OK: using cellphones to make calls.