AP - Piece by piece, in backpacks and carry-on bags, American aid contractor Alan Gross made sure laptops, smartphones, hard drives and networking equipment were secreted into Cuba. The most sensitive item, according to official trip reports, was the last one: a specialized mobile phone chip that experts say is often used by the Pentagon and the CIA to make satellite signals virtually impossible to track.
AP - Mitt Romney takes a hard line against congressional earmarks, but the GOP presidential front-runner had a more favorable view of federal pork-barrel spending when he was governor of Massachusetts.
AP - A day after Mitt Romney regained some momentum in the Republican presidential contest, his rival Rick Santorum went on the attack, calling the front-runner "desperate" while promising to compete aggressively to win the state where Romney grew up.
AP - Conservatives said Sunday the flap surrounding President Barack Obama's birth control mandate was far from over, with Senate Republican Leader Mitch McConnell saying he'll push to overturn the requirement because it was another example of government meddling.
Politico - The Providence mayor singled out Brown University for what he called a failure to sacrifice.
12 Feb 2012 , 2:02 pm ESTDaily Caller - On Sunday’s “This Week” on ABC, George Will noted that the tough week former Massachusetts Gov. Mitt Romney had, with losses in Missouri, Colorado and Minnesota, continues the same narrative that has been played out throughout this Republican nomination process.
12 Feb 2012 , 1:31 pm ESTReuters - President Barack Obama will not make any more changes to the rule announced last week requiring health insurance plans to provide women with coverage for contraception, although U.S. Catholic bishops have said it violates the Church's religious principles.
12 Feb 2012 , 12:17 pm ESTDaily Caller - On Sunday’s “State of the Union” on CNN, former Pennsylvania Sen. Rick Santorum suggested that it was possibile that former Massachusetts Gov. Mitt Romney “rigged” the outcome of Saturday’s Conservative Political Action Conference (CPAC) straw poll, in which Romney won 38 percent to 31 percent.
12 Feb 2012 , 12:09 pm EST
AP - From the start, it's been a roller-coaster race for the Republican presidential nomination.
Daily Caller - Former Delaware Republican Senate candidate Christine O’Donnell told The Daily Caller that former Sen. Rick Santorum’s “fiscal record is more liberal” than Gov. Mitt Romney’s “social record.”
12 Feb 2012 , 11:13 am ESTDaily Caller - On this weekend’s broadcast of “Fox News Sunday,” Sarah Palin addressed Julianne Moore’s less-than-flattering representation of her in HBO’s “Game Change,” saying the movie is “based on a false narrative” but also proof her public persona had a positive effect on the economy.
12 Feb 2012 , 10:28 am EST
AP - The dustup over contraception underscored President Barack Obama's political edge in working to attract independent voters without alienating his Democratic base. His Republican rivals are forced to keep emphasizing their conservative credentials to attract the right-leaning activists who dominate the nominating contests.
AP - Rick Santorum says he expects to do well in the next GOP presidential contests and will be in a two-man race with Mitt Romney.
Politico - Mitt Romney won the straw poll, but didn’t necessarily emerge stronger than when he went in.
12 Feb 2012 , 7:03 am EST
AP - Marine Le Pen has purged the old guard from her father's extreme-right National Front party and is reaching out to Jews, maligned under his leadership, in her bid to be the next president of France.
AP - Mitt Romney added to his lead in the race for delegates Saturday with a narrow victory in the Maine Republican presidential caucuses.
AP - Mitt Romney is thanking Maine voters after the state party chairman declared him the winner of that state.
11 Feb 2012 , 7:01 pm EST
AP - President Barack Obama's political shifting over contraception coverage has united conservative Republicans in protest even as they split over which GOP presidential hopeful should face him in the general election.
AP - President Barack Obama's opposition is now the divided one.
AP - The United States and its allies believe the window to stop Iran from building a bomb is quickly closing, pushing conflict with the Islamic republic to the top of the Obama administration's national security worries in the midst of an election year.