Lebanon prepares to welcome French arms shipment

French Defense Minister Jean-Yves Le Drian will visit Lebanon in two weeks to oversee his country’s first shipment of weapons to Lebanon’s Army, a source close to the French presidency told The Daily Star.

Set for April 21, the minister’s visit will see the start of the implementation of a Saudi-funded deal to arm the Lebanese military with French weaponry worth $ 3 billion.

The visit also represents a political message from France, demonstrating its support for Lebanon’s Army and its commitment to delivering the materiel within the previously agreed timeframe.

The first shipment is set to arrive to Beirut 11 months after an initial agreement was made between French President François Hollande and the late Saudi King, Abdullah bin Abdul-Aziz. The final version of the contract was signed by Le Drian, Prime Minister Tammam Salam, and Defense Minister Samir Moqbel when the ministers visited France last November.

During his meetings with Lebanese officials, Le Drian will emphasize France’s dedication to fulfilling the contract with Lebanon and Saudi Arabia, according to the French source.

The contract is an important part of France’s efforts to support Lebanon as the country struggles to resolve its presidential crisis, the source said. France hopes Lebanon will preserve its constitutional political structure, and believes the Lebanese Army can help provide the necessary stability to keep it intact.

The source added that the first shipment of arms would include light equipment and military accessories such as goggles, which will be brought to Beirut from French arms warehouses. The arming process will take three years, with lighter equipment being shipped first. Heavy weapons such as warplanes and cruisers are currently unavailable and will take time to be manufactured and transported to Lebanon.

Some of the equipment will require a rehabilitation of Lebanon’s military infrastructure. For instance, one of the prerequisites for the shipment of helicopters is that Lebanon construct special warehouses to house them. The country will not receive such weapons if the requirements for their shipment stipulated in the agreement are not met.

Regarding aid for the security forces, a Lebanese military source pointed to the continuous flow of American weapons arriving in Lebanon, revealing that the country is currently ranked fifth among nations receiving military support from the United States.

“The U.S. is striving to meet the needs of the Lebanese Army, whatever they are and with urgency,” the source recalled a high-ranking American official as saying during a weapons delivery operation. The military support is intended to prepare the security forces to confront terrorist groups.

Israel is the top recipient of the American military aid, followed by Egypt, Pakistan and Jordan.

The military source revealed that the Lebanese Army recently also received more than 10,000 Kalashnikov rifles and large quantities of supplies from the government of Cyprus. The aid comes following a visit to the island nation by Army Commander Gen. Jean Kahwagi.

The military source added that the Army would soon be provided with bulletproof hot air balloons for long range reconnaissance.

Meanwhile, as analysts study the repercussions of Iran’s rapprochement with the West, the fate of the Islamic Republic’s military grant to the Lebanese Army remains unknown. The head of Iran’s Supreme National Security Council, Ali Shamkhani, announced the grant during a visit to Beirut in September 2014, but the Lebanese government has yet to decide on whether to accept it.

“Lebanon is not restrained by the sanctions of the U.S. on Iran, but by those of the United Nations’ Security Council,” a legal source told The Daily Star. “If the Security Council issues a decree to lift the sanctions partially or fully following the nuclear deal between Iran and the West, things will become normal, and we can trade economically and militarily with Tehran.”

Only then could Lebanon accept the grant from Iran, as it has those from Saudi Arabia and U.S., according to the source.

Ain al-Rummaneh reflects 40 years on

Ain Al-Rummaneh, Lebanon: “Remember but do no repeat.” This is a mantra echoed by many of the residents of the Beirut eastern suburb of Ain al-Rummaneh. Its locals remember Lebanon’s 15-year Civil War all too well. Forty years after the Civil War was sparked in their neighborhood, most residents of Ain Al-Rummaneh say the tensions of the war have long since passed. However, some say that old feuds are buried shallowly beneath the surface.

It was in Ain al-Rummaneh that Kataeb Party gunmen attacked a bus full of Palestinians, killing 27 and leaving 19 wounded. The Kataeb accused Palestinian gunmen in the bus of opening fire on party supporters, killing Joseph Abu Assi, a bodyguard of Kataeb leader Pierre Gemayel. The claims were refuted by the Palestinians. A statue of the Virgin Mary erected months later is the only lasting memory of that attack.

Sitting in a falafel restaurant behind a memorial for Abu Assi, an off-duty police officer recounted that day.

“I was 11 years old when it happened. I used to work at this garage that was right there,” he recalled as he pointed across the street. “All I heard was gunshots going off everywhere. I was a little kid. I was petrified. I hid behind one of the cars and covered my ears.”

For the next 15 years, Ain Al-Rummaneh became one of the deadliest front lines of the war. It was the demarcation between the Christian Ain al-Rummaneh and the Palestinian/Muslim Chiyah.

“You could not stand right here,” Mary explained as she gesturedtoward the road outside of her sandwich restaurant. “The snipers would be watching you.”

She said those tensions have subsided and Ain al-Rummaneh now enjoys a healthy mix of people from different confessional backgrounds.

Many residents told The Daily Star that it’s common for people from Chiyah to rent and own property in Ain al-Rummaneh today. Inhabitants from either side come and go to each neighborhood with ease.

Mary, however, avoids it if she can. “I still get scared!” she said with a nervous laugh.

Today, most residents are more concerned with Lebanon’s poor economy than tensions between neighboring communities.

George and Joseph, both in their late 70s, grew up a block apart in Ain al-Rummaneh and spent the entire war there. They have surprisingly fond memories of that time.

“There was money and work during the war. You’d get aid ... Now we have nothing,” Joseph said.

He explains that the collapse of the Lebanese pound during the war destroyed Lebanon’s economy.

While most residents – Joseph and George included – say that tensions are not what they once were, not everyone agrees.

“This is the picture that you see on the surface,” said Wadih Abi Rached, the owner of a gym and community leader in Ain al-Rummaneh. “Now there is more tension than there was in 1975.”

Abi Rached is six and half feet tall, with a box-like frame. He cuts an imposing figure but has a friendly and welcoming demeanor.

Wearing a full tracksuit, sitting in a pizza shop – which he also owns – at the very spot where the bus was attacked, he puffed on a cigarette.

“[The Civil War] started with a big incident and the ground was ready,” he explained. “Now the ground is ready, it’s just missing the big incident.”

There have been some minor incidents between Ain al-Rummaneh and neighboring Chiyah in the years since the war, such as a stabbing in 2009. However, that dispute was resolved by the Army, which has a large presence in Ain al-Rummaneh.

Abi Rached expressed his support for the Army but warned that it might not be able to handle an intense amount of pressure. Today, he said, the people of Ain al-Rummaneh are known for being battle-hardened and ready for war.

“We’re not like those guys in Ashrafieh,” he chuckled.

Abi Rached – who claimed to have fought during the Civil War – said that he was not scared of the prospect of another conflagration.

“If it’s war, it’s war; if it’s peace, it’s peace. I can handle it either way,” he said. “If you believe in yourself and in the cause, you’ll never be scared.”

Lebanon vows to uproot terrorists after Tripoli raid

TRIPOLI, Lebanon: The Lebanese Army, backed by armored vehicles, deployed heavily in Tripoli Friday to maintain calm in the northern city, a day after police dealt a major blow to Islamist militants, killing two and arresting an extremist preacher.

Police shot dead notorious Islamist militant Osama Mansour and one of his partners in Tripoli Thursday night during an operation to arrest Sheikh Khaled Hoblos, a radical preacher accused of heading an anti-Army militia based in the town of Bhannin, a few kilometers north of Tripoli, the Internal Security Forces said in a statement Friday.

However, a security source told The Daily Star that the police had been monitoring the militants’ communications, including cell phones, WhatsApp and social media, over the last 10 days, and sent a strike force to arrest them Thursday once they discovered their location.

“As an ISF Information Branch patrol was trying to arrest Sheikh Khaled Hoblos, who was inside a Kia Picanto vehicle driven by Amir al-Kirdi, an Opel vehicle with two men inside approached the site, and the person sitting beside the driver opened fire on the patrol, slightly wounding two policemen,” the ISF statement said.

During the 10:25 p.m. shooting in Tripoli’s Bab al-Raml neighborhood, the patrol members returned fire, killing the two men, while Hoblos and Kirdi were arrested, it said.

“The dead men turned out to be Osama Mansour and Ahmad Nazer,” it said, indicating that the operation did not target the militants.

According to the statement, Mansour, who opened fire on the patrol, had in his possession an explosive belt that a military expert dismantled.

Both Mansour and Nazer had been wanted for taking part in clashes with the Army in Tripoli in October 2014 and were suspected of links to jihadi groups in Syria.

Interior Minister Nouhad Machnouk said the Information Branch members had to fire back after they were shot at by the militants. He vowed authorities would hunt down wanted criminals and terror suspects throughout Lebanon.

“The shooting or killing had not been decided. What happened is that the wanted man opened fire on the Information Branch [patrol], which had to return fire, resulting in the killing of the two men and wounding of two Information Branch heroes,” he said.

“We will not leave any accused or any person wanted by the judiciary on any Lebanese territories, namely in the south, the southern suburbs or the northern Bekaa,” Machnouk told reporters after visiting the two wounded policemen in a hospital in Ashrafieh. “Terrorism has no sect, religion or state.”

Lebanese troops and police increased patrols in Tripoli and its suburbs, setting up arbitrary checkpoints, especially in streets leading to the Bab al-Tabbaneh neighborhood, where Mansour and Nazer were buried later Friday following a funeral attended by dozens of mourners.

Security forces had also blocked the road around the government-run hospital in Tripoli’s Qibbeh, where the bodies of Mansour and Nazer were held. Security forces went on high alert in Bab al-Tabbaneh before the funeral procession. Before Thursday’s operation, rumors swirled in Tripoli about a new round of fighting in the city and that Mansour and Hoblos were preparing for suicide attacks against Lebanese Army outposts and some civilian targets in the mainly-Alawite Jabal Mohsen neighborhood.

The Army implemented a government security plan in April 2014 in an effort to stabilize Tripoli, which has been rocked by deadly rounds of fighting between supporters and opponents of Syrian President Bashar Assad. The Army also fought deadly battles with Islamist militants in and around Tripoli for several days last October.

A security source in Tripoli contradicted the ISF statement, telling The Daily Star the Opel had sped away after the shooting.

The source said Mansour, who was sentenced to death last year in absentia over an August 2014 attack in Tripoli, and Nazer, himself wanted over terrorism charges, were killed after a police chase that ended near a Lebanese Army position in Tripoli’s Mitain Street.

The two men were killed after coming under heavy fire by police and soldiers from each side, the source said. The source told The Daily Star Mansour was carrying a fake identity card in the name of Khaled al-Junaidi.

Mansour, who was close to Lebanon’s top Islamist fugitive Shadi Mawlawi, was wanted over plotting several attacks against the Army in Tripoli. He also took part in clashes between the neighborhoods of Bab al-Tabbaneh and Jabal Mohsen.

Mansour and Mawlawi are believed to have links with the Nusra Front, Syria’s Al-Qaeda affiliate.

Hoblos has been pursued by security forces for allegedly orchestrating attacks against the Army. The Army has labeled the preacher a “terrorist.”

A security source in Beirut said that preliminary investigations suggested that the militants were attempting to regroup their forces following the Army’s October crackdown on Islamist militants in Tripoli.

However, the militants lacked the logistical capabilities that would allow for a large-scale operation, the source said.

Meanwhile, a group of Tripoli’s Salafist sheikhs questioned the morality of a police operation that led to the death of Mansour and Nazer.

The Muslim Scholars Committee said in a statement that it rejected the beliefs and methods of the militants, but also rejected the principle of targeted killings before trial.

The committee called on the justice and interior ministries to allow human rights organizations to carry out investigations that would determine whether the militants were killed as a result of a premeditated operation by security forces, or due to an unexpected shootout as police said.

It warned that the “double standard” that has allowed for criminals in the Bekaa region and Brital to escape while others were denied trial would not help preserve civil peace in the country. – With additional reporting by Youssef Diab

Removing Cuba From U.S. Terrorism List Would Be Mostly 'Symbolic'

Audio for this story from All Things Considered will be available at approximately 7:00 p.m. ET.

NPR's Audie Cornish talks about the history of how Cuba ended up on the state-sponsored terrorism list with William LeoGrande, professor of government at American University and co-author of the book Back Channel to Cuba: The Hidden History of Negotiations between Washington and Havana.

President Obama, Raul Castro To Share Face Time At Americas Summit

Audio for this story from All Things Considered will be available at approximately 7:00 p.m. ET.

The leaders of all 35 nations in the Western Hemisphere gather for the first time ever this week at the Summit of the Americas. It will be the first to include Cuba, and the first meeting of President Obama and Cuban President Raul Castro, since the U.S. and Cuba decided to normalize relations.

'Great Wall Of Sand': China Builds Islands In Contested Waters

Audio for this story from All Things Considered will be available at approximately 7:00 p.m. ET.

NPR's Melissa Block interviews Mira Rapp-Hooper, director of the Asia Maritime Transparency Initiative and a fellow with the Asia Program at the Center for Strategic and International Studies. AMTI posted photos showing rapid building of artificial islands by China in disputed waters, triggering responses and concerns by other countries.

Week In Politics: Hillary Clinton's Upcoming Announcement, Rand Paul's Remarks

Audio for this story from All Things Considered will be available at approximately 7:00 p.m. ET.

NPR's Melissa Block speaks with political commentators, E.J. Dionne of the Washington Post and Brookings Institution and David Brooks of The New York Times about Hillary Clinton and Marco Rubio's upcoming announcements for a presidential run and Rand Paul's controversial remarks this week.

Hillary Clinton To Announce Candidacy For 2016 Presidential Election

Audio for this story from All Things Considered will be available at approximately 7:00 p.m. ET.

Hillary Clinton plans to announce her intention to run for president Sunday. It will be her second run, and a very different campaign is in store.

President Obama and Vice President Biden’s 2014 Tax Returns

Today, the President released his 2014 federal income tax returns. He and the First Lady filed their income tax returns jointly and reported adjusted gross income of $477,383. The Obamas paid $93,362 in total tax.

The President and First Lady also reported donating $70,712 – or about 14.8 percent of their adjusted gross income – to 33 different charities. The largest reported gift to charity was $22,012 to the Fisher House Foundation. The President’s effective federal income tax rate is 19.6 percent.

In January 2013, the President signed into law legislation that extended tax cuts to middle-class and working families and helped improve the country’s fiscal health by asking the wealthiest Americans to pay their fair share. In 2014, as a result of his policies, the President was subject to limitations in tax preferences for high-income earners, as well as additional Medicare and investment income taxes.

While we’ve made progress in ensuring that the wealthiest Americans pay their fair share by raising their tax rate to the level it was under President Clinton, there is more work to do. We need to close special tax loopholes for millionaires and billionaires, and invest in the middle class. The tax policies proposed in the President’s Budget would make paychecks go further in covering the cost of child care, college, and a secure retirement, and would create and expand tax credits that support and reward work.

The President and First Lady also released their Illinois income tax return and reported paying $22,640 in state income tax.

Download the Obamas' tax returns here.

The Vice President and Dr. Jill Biden also released their 2014 federal income tax returns, as well as state income tax returns for both Delaware and Virginia. The Bidens filed joint federal and combined Delaware income tax returns. Dr. Biden filed a separate non-resident Virginia tax return. Together, they reported adjusted gross income of $388,844. The Bidens paid $90,506 in total federal tax for 2014, amounting to an effective tax rate of 23.3%. They also paid $13,661 in Delaware income tax and Dr. Biden paid $3,777 in Virginia income tax. The Bidens contributed $7,380 to charity in 2014, including contributing the royalties received from Dr. Biden’s children’s book, net of taxes, to the United Service Organizations, Inc. (USO).

Download the Bidens' tax returns here.

Barack in Jamrock: The Young Leaders of the Americas Meet with the President in Jamaica

"Wah Gwan, Jamaica?"

President Obama headed to Kingston, Jamaica yesterday, meeting with Prime Minister Portia Simpson-Miller, as well as other Caribbean leaders on the importance of improving energy security and fighting climate change. He later held a town hall with the Young Leaders of the Americas.

“It is your generation who will shape the future of our countries and our region and this planet that we share long after those of us who are currently in public service are gone from the stage.” – President Obama, April 9

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Hillary Clinton Expected To Go Small With Big Announcement

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Don't expect a big rally with thousands of cheering supporters to launch Hillary Clinton's campaign. For her second run at the presidency, she's out to prove she's taking nothing for granted. Yana Paskova/Getty Images hide caption

itoggle caption Yana Paskova/Getty Images

Don't expect a big rally with thousands of cheering supporters to launch Hillary Clinton's campaign. For her second run at the presidency, she's out to prove she's taking nothing for granted.

Yana Paskova/Getty Images

The long will-she-or-won't-she charade is nearly over. A source with knowledge of Hillary Clinton's campaign plans tells NPR's Mara Liasson she will announce on Sunday that she's running for president.

But don't expect a big rally with thousands of cheering supporters. For her second run at the presidency, the former secretary of state and first lady is going small. Think Starbucks doing small batch coffee roasts.

One of the biggest names in American politics is out to prove she's taking nothing for granted.

"I think it's important," Bill Clinton told Town & Country magazine in a recent cover story about his foundation work, "and Hillary does too, that she go out there as if she's never run for anything before and establish her connection with the voters."

Much like her last campaign launch, Clinton is expected to start online, most likely with a tweet and a video. And then she is expected to head to Iowa. But that's where the similarities end. Her first campaign event in 2007 was a huge town hall meeting in a Des Moines, Iowa high school community center. There were at least a thousand people there.

It's All Politics

4 Things We Learned About What Bill Clinton Is Up To

This time, her campaign team is aiming much smaller. By a factor of 100. In the coming days and weeks, expect to see Hillary Clinton in some living rooms.

This stands in stark contrast not only to what Clinton has done in the past, but also to her potential Republican rivals like Ted Cruz and Rand Paul who held big raucous rallies in recent days. They were using those big events to show their political muscle.

The Challenge: Run As If She's Unknown

Clinton, who faces a handful of virtual unknowns in the primary, is hoping to run a campaign as if she were an unknown insurgent candidate, which could be challenging. She has a protective Secret Service detail and a massive press corps who will attempt to follow her everywhere she goes. This will inevitably lead to the strange optics of her entourage, at times, outnumbering the the people she's meeting with.

At the same time, small is the way Iowans, for example, like it. They complained that she was not as accessible the last time she ran, that 1,000 people would show up at events. That's not the Iowa or New Hampshire way. These early caucus and primary states are also battlegrounds in the general election, and impressions matter.

In 2007 and 2008, Hillary Clinton mostly did larger events, and local activists griped that she didn't do enough small events in people's living rooms. They said she treated it like a primary. And although Clinton got a record number of votes on caucus night, she was topped by both Barack Obama and John Edwards whose supporters shattered all turnout records.

"You underestimate Iowa at your peril. I think that's a huge lesson to learn, that if you come in, you really need to immerse yourself in what that caucus process is," said J. Ann Selzer a prominent Iowa pollster. "It's sitting down at kitchen counters and looking people in the eye and answering that question again and again and getting better as a candidate."

Last week Clinton's (presumed) campaign manager Robby Mook sat down with a small group of Iowa Democratic activists and heard this very message. A source with knowledge of the conversation says he sought to reassure them that Clinton would spend a lot of time in Iowa in the coming months.

"The Real Hillary"

These small events are also how candidates prove they have that quality American voters seem to want. Call it the beer test. Who would you rather drink a beer with?

"I've never wanted to admit this, but she probably did come across as scripted," says Bonnie Campbell who worked with Clinton's campaign in Iowa in a volunteer capacity in 2008. "We saw the real Hillary in New Hampshire and look how people reacted to it."

It's All Politics

Hillary Clinton Is Ready To 'Stand Out' As A Female Candidate

With this going small strategy, Clinton's team is trying to reveal the "real Hillary," the one her friends know but that doesn't really come through in big events.

Another challenge for Clinton's campaign will be convincing voters that this person they think they know — this person who has been in the public eye since Hypercolor t-shirts were cool — somehow has a vision for the future of the county and doesn't just represent the past. A recent NBC News-Wall Street Journal poll found that even more people today want change, than did leading into the 2008 campaign.

In 2008, Clinton wasn't seen as the candidate of change. Her vote to authorize the Iraq war proved hugely problematic and turned off many progressive primary voters. So how will she make the case in 2016 that she wasn't able to make in 2008? It's likely she will emphasize her chance to make history as the first female president of the United States.

Hard To Win A Third Term

And finally, Clinton faces the challenge of history. Only once since World War II as a two term president been followed in office by someone of his own party. That was Ronald Reagan, followed by George H.W. Bush. Clinton will be fighting against this precedent, forced to convince voters that she wouldn't simply be a third Obama term — or, for that matter, a third Clinton term.

Or as Bill Clinton put it in his Town & Country interview: "It's hard for any party to hang on to the White House for 12 years, and it's a long road. A thousand things could happen."

Hillary Clinton To Announce Presidential Bid On Sunday

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Former Secretary of State Hillary Clinton is expected to announce her bid for the White House on Sunday. Pablo Martinez Monsivais/AP hide caption

itoggle caption Pablo Martinez Monsivais/AP

Former Secretary of State Hillary Clinton is expected to announce her bid for the White House on Sunday.

Pablo Martinez Monsivais/AP

Former Secretary of State Hillary Clinton will officially announce her intention to seek the 2016 Democratic nomination for president on Sunday afternoon, ending years of speculation over her plans to pursue the Oval Office, NPR has learned.

People familiar with the campaign plan say that Clinton, long presumed to be the Democratic front-runner even without a formal announcement, will make the announcement possibly via a video and social media, some sources suggest.

As The Wall Street Journal notes:

"So far, Mrs. Clinton faces scant competition for the Democratic nomination. Polls barely register former Maryland Gov. Martin O'Malley or former Virginia Sen. Jim Webb. One potential heavyweight—Vice President Joe Biden — has said he is considering a campaign but has taken few apparent steps to prepare for one.

"On Thursday, former Rhode Island Gov. Lincoln Chafee surprisingly joined the field, and offered a biting critique from the left of Mrs. Clinton's record on foreign policy. 'The biggest question will be: What exactly did you accomplish in your four years as secretary of state?' he said in an interview. 'There was a lot of dust in the air. Not many concrete accomplishments.' "

Announcing now gives an edge to Clinton, who lost a bitter contest to then-Sen. Barack Obama for her party's nomination in 2008. The head start would give her fundraising team more time to generate the hundreds of millions of dollars typically necessary to mount a successful presidential bid.

Salafist sheikhs question killing of Tripoli militants

BEIRUT: A group of Salafist sheikhs questioned Friday the morality of a police operation that led to the death of a notorious Islamist militant and one of his associates in Tripoli a day earlier.

The Muslim Scholars Committee said in a statement that it rejected the beliefs and methods of the militants, but rejected the principle of targeted killings before trial.

Police shot dead fugitive Osama Mansour and one of his partners in the northern city of Tripoli Thursday night during an operation to arrest a radical cleric.

Mansour had been sentenced to death in absentia over an August 2014 attack in Tripoli.

The Salafist committee called on the justice and interior ministries to allow human rights organizations to carry out investigations that would determine whether the militants were killed as a result of a premeditated operation by security forces, or due to an unexpected shootout as police said.

A statement released by Internal Security Forces Friday indicated that the death of the two militants resulted from an arrest attempt and not a premeditated operation.

An ISF patrol was trying to arrest fugitive sheikh Khaled Hoblos, who was inside a Kia Picanto driven by a man identified as Amir al-Kirdi Thursday night.

A separate Opel car carrying Mansour and his partner opened fire at the patrol and wounded two policemen in an attempt to obstruct the arrest. Police returned fire killing the two militants, and Hoblos and Kirdi were arrested.

The ISF statement said Mansour was wearing an explosive belt.

The Muslim Scholars Committee Friday said that the state and its institutions should function in accordance with human rights as to prevent any violations in the processes of arresting, investigating, detaining or trying suspects.

The committee also warned against relying on sectarian and partisan discrimination when it comes to the arrest of wanted perpetrators.

This “double standard” has allowed for criminals in the Bekaa Valley and Brital to escape while others were denied trial and were subject to human rights abuses, the statement added.

PHOTO: Vice President Biden Steals A Baby's Pacifier

Vice President Joe Biden has a long history of public gaffes. So much so that the Onion has published a series based on a parody of Biden as an administration screw-up and boozy womanizer.

Last night, we got another Biden surprise when Georgina Bloomberg, a professional equestrian and the younger daughter of former New York City Mayor Michael Bloomberg, posted a picture of Biden on her Facebook page.

Bloomberg wrote: "What's a boy to do when the Vice President steals your pacifier?"

What's a boy to do when the Vice President steals your pacifier?

Posted by Georgina Bloomberg on Wednesday, April 8, 2015

We'll let you come to your own conclusions and leave you with two other posts we've written about vice presidential antics:

— Joe Biden Gets A Bit Too Close To New Secretary Of Defense's Wife

— On The Campaign Trail: The Picture Of Joe Biden You Have To See

GOP Presidential Hopeful Rand Paul Clashes With Media

Audio for this story from Morning Edition will be available at approximately 9:00 a.m. ET.

Rand Paul kicked off his campaign with media interviews and stops in states with early nominating contests. Reporters wanted to know if he'd shifted his views to better appeal to GOP voters.

Ethiopian maid survives apparent 4-story suicide leap in Lebanon

Human Rights Watch sues US over surveillance

Human Rights Watch says it filed a suit alleging the US Drug Enforcement Administration illegally collected records of...