BERLIN - Speaking at Berlin's historic Brandenburg Gate, President Obama today challenged Western democracies not to become complacent in the post-Cold War era, saying "our work is not yet done." "Complacency is not the character of great nations. Today's threats are not as stark as...

  The Taliban said today that they are prepared to sit down for direct peace talks with Afghan and U.S. officials over the future of Afghanistan. The news comes as Afghan President Hamid Karzai announced today that Afghan security forces have taken over the country's...

The civil war in Syria is expected to dominate much of the discussion as President Obama sits down tomorrow with the Group of Eight leaders in Northern Ireland, just days after the White House confirmed the use of chemical weapons by Syrian President Bashar al-Assad's...

WASHINGTON - Former Alaska Gov. Sarah Palin criticized the Obama administration's decision to supply weapons to the rebels in the civil war in Syria today, arguing that the U.S. should "Let Allah sort it out" until there is a stronger leader in the White House....

WASHINGTON (AP) - After secretive talks, key senators expressed optimism Wednesday night that they were closing in on a bipartisan agreement to toughen the border security requirements in immigration legislation that also offers a path to citizenship to millions living in the country illegally.

Anthony Weiner is holding a fundraiser called "Women for Weiner" next week, Politico's Maggie Haberman reports. The politicians who really need "Women for." groups are the ones who have women problems. Weiner is one of those guys, having apologized for tweeting a photo of his crotch, and explained in an excruitiating interview with The New York Times Magazine that he did it because he just wanted people to like him. The New York City mayoral candidate is now going where Herman Cain and Todd Akin have boldly gone before.

Mayor Michael Bloomberg's organization Mayors Against Illegal Guns organized an event in Concord, New Hampshire, yesterday, during which the names of victims of gun violence since Newtown were read for several hours. Included among those names: Tamerlan Tsarnaev, the Boston bombing suspect killed during a shoot-out with police. But the group suggests it's not their fault. Tsarnaev's name came from a list posted at Slate.com, as Bloomberg's group told The Atlantic Wire on Wednesday afternoon.

One of the FBI's methods of fighting terrorism in America is to have undercover agents or informants recruit Muslims for fake terror groups, give them ideas for fake terror plots, and in some cases, arm them with fake terrorist weapons. For those troubled by these methods, perhaps it will be some comfort to know the FBI also recruits white guys as terrorists. Glendon Scott Crawford has been charged with trying to create a mobile radiation death ray to sell to Jewish groups and the Ku Klux Klan, according to a federal complaint unsealed on Wednesday. ...

Sen. Lisa Murkowski of Alaska has announced her support for same-sex marriage. This used to be a more common thing, back when there were more moderate and Democratic senators who hadn't yet made the announcement. Or who hadn't yet "evolved," as politicians say these days. Thanks to Murkowski, we now have a better sense for how long that evolution takes. And she was right on schedule.

Sean Hannity, still, incredibly, is officially confused about where President Obama grew up. In a new interview with Playboy, Hannity was asked whether he regrets saying Obama grew up in Kenya. Hannity responded, "But he did grow up in Kenya, and he told The New York Times that he went to a school there and one of the most beautiful things on the planet is Islamic prayer at sunset." Is he trying to hint that Obama's an African Muslim? "I never fueled the myth," Hannity said. ...

Sami Yousafzai and Ron Moreau on the Taliban's peace initiative.

FBI director Robert Mueller said the government has used surveillance drones in the U.S. - though "in a very, very minimal way, very seldom" - at a Senate hearing on Wednesday. "It's very seldom used and generally used in a particular incident when you need the capability," Mueller said before the judiciary committee. "It is very narrowly focused on particularized cases and particularized needs." He said he did not know what happens to the images the drones capture.

"It's easier to frame opposition using the bloodless language of the budget than the combustible language of national character and composition," The Washington Post's Ezra Klein wrote this mornin, but the Congressional Budget Office has refuted argument by finding that immigration reform would cut almost $1 trillion from the federal deficit over the next 20 years. 

For those waiting for the president to do something on climate change, Obama has offered two signs that action is imminent. The public sign came during his speech today in Berlin. The more subtle signal came in conversation with groups about to sue him for his inaction.

Poll after poll suggests that Americans support the NSA's surveillance tools. But, as demonstrated in a new poll from the Washington Post and ABC News this morning, we are also aware that there are significant details about the programs which remain unclear - 65 percent of Americans want public hearings on their use. Which raises two questions: Could we actually learn more? And: Who do we trust to give us new information?

Editor's note: Marc Young is a Berlin-based freelance journalist covering President Barack Obama's visit for Yahoo News. Ever since John F. Kennedy made his legendary "Ich bin ein Berliner" address almost 50 years ago to the day, Berlin has been a place to which  U.S. presidents come when they have something important to say. In [...]