His poll numbers have been sagging. The Republicans have thwarted many of his policy goals. But President Obama is still optimistic. He told supporters on Wednesday that more change will come if they keep working hard to help him get reelected. "If you're willing to work even harder in this election than you did in the last election, I promise you, change will come," Obama said. The president added that he’s not a “flawless” or perfect candidate, but he’s had success because of those who support him. The president attended three fundraisers in Chicago and made a surprise visit to his campaign headquarters to thank his staff for their hard work.

Chalk this one up as positive PR. Syria’s President Bashar al-Assad made his first public appearance in 10 months Wednesday, addressing a crowd of tens of thousands in Damascus. The audience cheered for al-Assad, as he said that the government would defeat the foreign conspirators it claims are behind the violence in the nation. Next to him were his wife and two children. In the 10-minute speech, al-Assad said he “belong[s] to this street.” The speech comes a day after his two-hour televised address to the nation. Meanwhile, in Homs, a French journalist was killed when violence struck a pro-government rally. As for the Arab League, one of the 165 monitors resigned, saying the entire operation was a “farce.” The U.N. estimates that more than 5,000 have been killed in al-Assad’s crackdown.

Look out, here comes Newt! A fourth-place finish in New Hampshire hasn’t deterred Republican candidate Newt Gingrich from going after Mitt Romney. Gingrich told South Carolina conservatives that a “moderate” like Romney (though he didn’t mention Mitt’s name) won’t be able to win the election. Instead, he suggests a true conservative—like himself. Gingrich also said that candidates should be ready for attacks on things that are public record (cough, cough, Romney’s private-equity firm Bain Capital). While Romney, who won Iowa and New Hampshire, is polling first in South Carolina, Gingrich is hot on his tail in second place.

An Iranian nuclear scientist was killed by a magnetic bomb placed on his car, an attack Tehran's deputy governor blamed on Zionists back by the U.S. and Israel. The state news agency said the scientist “supervised a department at Natanz Uranium Enrichment Facility.”While the U.S. has denied the allegations, Israel's chief miltary spokesman said that though he doesn't know who did it, he's "not shedding a tear."Tensions between Iran, the U.S., and Israel have been high for months, but they were ratcheted up yet again last week when the country announced its plan to carry out enrichment work in a fortified underground facility near Qom.

Paging Hamid Karzai. The Obama administration announced that it will resume talks with the Taliban—provided the Afghan president does not have a problem, a senior official told The Washington Post. In December, a U.S.-Taliban deal that would have transferred five Afghan detainees from Guantánamo Bay to Qatar fell apart after Karzai said he wouldn’t support it. While the U.S., Afghanistan, and the Taliban have said they are all for opening a Taliban office in Qatar, talks have not taken place since the falling out. The U.S. has maintained that talks with the Taliban must be Afghan-led, though some officials say the Taliban is not willing to sit down and talk to Afghanistan.

Religious groups let out a collective “Hallelujah!” In a unanimous decision, the Supreme Court said there is a “ministerial exception” to federal laws prohibiting employment discrimination. The court ruled that religious groups should have the ability to hire and fire certain employees without government interference. Those who perform religious work—including theology teachers—do not fall under employment-discrimination laws, the court ruled. Religious groups heralded the decision, saying the case Hosanna-Tabor Church v. Equal Employment Opportunity Commission was a threat to their First Amendment rights. Critics charged that the decision could make it harder to combat discrimination.

Rejected! A Mississippi judge temporarily blocked the release of 21 inmates who were pardoned by former governor Haley Barbour. The judge contends that the pardons were a “slap in the face” to law enforcement and a violation of the state’s Constitution. Pardon requests have to be filed at least 30 days before being granted. Included in the pardons are four convicted murderers. The court will rule on the matter on Jan. 23.

The Pentagon said Wednesday it will investigate a video posted on YouTube and TMZ that seems to show a group of men in U.S. combat fatigues urinating on the corpses of Taliban fighters. The video shows the four soldiers, ostensibly American Marines, unbuttoning their uniforms and urinating on the bloody bodies, and one of them telling the dead men, “Have a great day, buddy.” The caption on the video indicated that the troops were from the Third Battalion of the Second Marine Regiment, which is based at Camp Lejeune, N.C. Commenters on YouTube speculated that the video might have been posted by a Marine whistle-blower. "This matter will be fully investigated and those responsible will be held accountable for their actions,” a Pentagon spokesman said.

Fingers crossed it doesn’t sink this time. The MS Balmoral’s Titanic Memorial Cruise—on the 100th anniversary of the disastrous trip—is 100 percent booked. The ship, carrying 1,350 passengers and 500 crew, will set sail from Southampton, England, on April 10. When it reaches where the Titanic met that wicked iceberg (on April 15), a memorial service will be held for the passengers and crew that were on board. The passengers include relatives of those who were on the original ship.

Hasta la vista, baby. After 10 years of hosting the Oscars, the Kodak Theatre may soon be out of the picture. The Academy of Motion Pictures Arts & Sciences is considering moving the Oscars to the Nokia Theatre, a bigger venue in downtown Los Angeles. The Kodak, which seats 3,500, was built to the academy’s specifications before the 2002 telecast. The Nokia, which also holds the annual Emmy Awards and American Music Awards, would allow twice the number of people to attend the event.

Just dropping in to say a quick hello! Angelina Jolie and Brad Pitt, who were in D.C. for the premiere of Jolie’s directorial debut, In the Land of Blood and Honey, swung by the White House on Wednesday. A White House aide confirmed to The Hill that the president spoke with Jolie about “her work to raise the profile of preventing mass atrocities and combating sexual violence against women.” No news on whether Brad got in his two cents with the commander in chief—he may very well have been too starstruck to speak. According to Jodi Kantor’s new book, The Obamas, Pitt “barely said a thing” when he visited the Oval Office in 2009, apparently tongue-tied in “respectful awe” of the president.

Third time's a charm? Halle Berry is reportedly engaged to French actor Olivier Martinez, with whom she costarred in the 2010 film Dark Time. A rep for jewelry designer Gurhan confirmed that Martinez bought an emerald-and-diamond engagement ring—a "one-of-a-kind" piece—for Berry, whom he has been dating for more than a year. The actress has been married twice before and has a daughter with her ex-boyfriend, model Gabriel Aubry. Berry's rep did not immediately comment on the news.

Fannie Mae Chief Executive Officer Michael Williams announced his resignation Tuesday, saying he will officially step down as soon as the mortgage-finance giant names a successor. Williams didn't specify a reason for his departure except to say that "the time is right to turn over the reins to a new leader." He may be smart to get out now as the firm continues to struggle with its finances. In November, Fannie Mae reported a net third-quarter loss of $5.1 billion, forcing them to ask for another $7.8 billion in federal funding. After the financial crisis in 2008, regulators forced Fannie Mae and its sibling, Freddie Mac, to depend on government help to cover losses on owned or guaranteed mortgages. Both Williams and Freddie Mac CEO Ed Haldeman have been scrutinized for their large paychecks ($6 million each, with bonuses), and Haldeman announced in October that he plans to resign at some point in 2012 as well.

The United Kingdom may not be united for long, if Scotland's First Minister Alex Salmond has his way. Salmond says his people ought to be able to vote on whether to have greater independence from Britain, but British Prime Minister David Cameron says the vote should be all or nothing: total separation or the status quo. Salmond struck back, saying Cameron has “no mandate” to set rules and that the vote would be held in Scotland in 2014. He called Cameron's intervention “almost Thatcher-esque.” Salmond's party has long pushed for Scottish independence. It currently has a legislature that controls internal policies but defers to London on foreign policy.

The U.S. and France decried Syrian President Bashar al-Assad’s speech on Tuesday—his first since June—in which he blamed the country’s unrest on “foreign planning” and vowed to fight “terrorists with an iron fist.” A spokeswoman for the U.S. State Department said Assad had thrown “responsibility on everybody but back on himself,” adding that the nearly two-hour-long speech “confirmed our view that it is time for him to step aside.” France's foreign minister concurred that Assad’s rare statement was a “denial of reality.” An Arab League monitoring team has done little to stem violence, which the United Nations estimates has killed more than 5,000 people since security forces began cracking down on demonstrations 10 months ago.

The first lady will not be choosing Jodi Kantor’s new tell-all for her book club. On CBS This Morning, the first lady rejected dishy accounts of her clashes with White House aides in The Obamas, chalking up the controversy to a stereotype of the “angry black woman” that has been following her “since the day Barack announced.” Mrs. Obama said she won't read the book. "Who can write about how I feel? Who?" she asked. Though the book alleges that Michelle’s strong policy views caused friction with former chief of staff Rahm Emanuel, Mrs. Obama says she keeps out of the West Wing’s way. “I don’t have conversations with my husband’s staff,” she said.

Nearly two months after the LAPD reopened the case of Natalie Wood, the actress who drowned in 1981, detectives have found no new evidence suggesting her death was a homicide. While detectives are still looking into some aspects of the case, authorities have ruled that her death was an accident. Ever since reopening the 30-year-old case when sources came forward with new information, detectives have reviewed the entire original case file and even inspected the boat where Wood was last seen alive, according to a top sheriff. The lifeguard who first learned Woods was missing told the Los Angeles Times the actress could have been saved if officials had been notified sooner.

On Wednesday, President Obama gave a timely rebuttal to Mitt Romney's remark during his victory speech after the New Hampshire primary that "the president has run out of ideas." Facing pressure to reduce high unemployment rates in the U.S. as election year approaches, Obama announced plans to unveil new tax proposals that will reward U.S. companies that keep jobs at home instead of outsourcing them overseas. The White House did not go into specifics about the proposals but said they will be officially unveiled in the next few weeks. "I'm calling on those businesses that haven't brought jobs back to take this opportunity to get the American people back to work," Obama said. "That's how we'll rebuild an economy where hard work pays off and responsibility is rewarded—and a nation where those values live on."

Pat Buchanan escalated his war with MSNBC on Wednesday, blaming “militant gay rights activists” and Van Jones for Buchanan's months-long absence from the network. Buchanan hasn’t been on MSNBC since late October, and network president Phil Griffin stirred up conflict by telling reporters on Saturday that it was over Buchanan’s latest book, Suicide of a Superpower, which has implicitly racist passages. Buchanan told radio host Hugh Hewitt that his TV blackout actually began with medical problems and that he has not been formally suspended from MSNBC.

Looks like somebody has developed a thick skin. Mitt Romney said Wednesday morning that he expects “all guns blazing in my direction” from his fellow Republican candidates after his wins in Iowa and New Hampshire. Romney said he has “broad shoulders” and can handle the attacks. Romney defended his record at Bain Capital, the corporate downsizing firm that he headed, and tried to focus instead on President Obama’s bailout of General Motors in 2009. Romney boasted of his success among Tea Party members and evangelicals in New Hampshire, but he also acknowledged he faces an “uphill climb” in South Carolina. Romney won the New Hampshire primary on Tuesday night with 40 percent of the vote, with Ron Paul finishing a strong second at 23 percent and Jon Huntsman in third with 17 percent.

More space debris will likely crash to Earth Saturday, but this time it isn't an ancient satellite: it's a Russian spacecraft that the head of the Russian space agency now claims might have been hit by a space weapon. The spacecraft, designed to explore a moon of Mars, failed to escape orbit and has been hurtling out of control around the Earth since November. Soon—likely Saturday—the 13-ton probe will reenter the atmosphere, but the odds of debris hitting anyone are small. Initially Russia blamed the spacecraft's problems on a malfunctioning navigation computer, and NASA helped the agency try to regain control. But in an interview yesterday, the head of the agency hinted at more nefarious causes: “We don’t want to accuse anybody, but there are very powerful devices that can influence spacecraft now,” he said. “The possibility they were used cannot be ruled out.”

Mitt Romney’s campaign revealed Wednesday that it brought in $24 million in the fourth quarter of 2011, bringing the frontrunner’s total for the year to $56 million. That exceeds the campaign’s goal of $50 million and sets up Romney to enter the South Carolina primary with $19 million in the bank. More than 150 Romney financiers celebrated his win Tuesday night in New Hampshire, and another 300 members of his finance committee met Wednesday in Boston for meetings.

Facing a scandal about pardoning five people? How about pardoning 193 more. Gov. Haley Barbour of Mississippi pardoned 193 criminals on his last day in office. It's an unusually high number for the state—Barbour's predecessor pardoned only one person, and the governor before him pardoned 13. Furthermore, Barbour is already under fire for pardoning five convicted murderers last week who had worked in the governor's mansion, performing odd jobs like waiting tables, something allowed under Mississippi law. One of them had been turned down for parole the day before. Barbour pardoned 17 convicted murderers over the course of his career.

Before Jon Huntsman entered the presidential race, his family members were big Mitt Romney supporters. Campaign-finance records reveal that Huntsman's father has donated more than $135,300 to the Romney cause, the most of any family member. Jon's brother David has donated $17,700, while his mother, Karen, gave $1,000 to Romney's Senate campaign and $2,300 to Romney for President. Other siblings Mark, Michelle, and Paul have also written significantly large checks hoping to help elect Jon's current rival.

Tensions between Pakistan’s civilian government and its military escalated today when Prime Minister Yousuf Raza Gilani sacked the country's defense secretary. Gilani said in a statement that Lt. Gen. Naeem Khalid Lodhi was fired for “gross misconduct and illegal action which created misunderstanding” between state institutions. The current fight between the civilian government and the military was sparked by the release of an unsigned memo seeking help from the U.S. in stopping a military coup. When President Asif Ali Zardari flew to Dubai for medical treatment last month, there were rumors he had fled out of fear of a coup. When Gilani criticized the Army chief and head of intelligence earlier this week, the Army warned of “potentially grievous consequences for the country.”

If you were surprised to see some rocks on Google doodle on Wednesday, you might be more surprised to learn the origin: the doodle is honoring the “father of geology” Nicolas Steno, whose 347th birthday is Jan. 11. The Danish anatomist and geologist was behind the “principle of original horizontality,” the theory that rocks are formed horizontally, and the “law of superposition,” the theory that the oldest layers of the earth are at the bottom. He was beatified by Pope John Paul II in the late 1980s. The Google doodle pays tribute to him by presenting each letter of the logo with colorful pictures of fossils and the ecosystem.

French TV journalist Gilles Jacquier was killed Wednesday in Homs, Syria, while visiting the country on a government-sponsored trip, French media reported. His death was first announced by human-rights activists in the city, who said he was hit by a grenade or rocket blast. The 43-year-old Jacquier was part of a group of 15 foreign journalists being shown around Homs when a grenade landed near them. They fled to a nearby building, but more grenades hit, killing Jacquier and injuring at least one more European journalist. Two others died in Homs on Wednesday.

The U.S. has launched its first drone strike in Pakistan in two months, killing four Islamist militants, according to Pakistani intelligence. The U.S. halted drone attacks after an erroneous airstrike killed two dozen Pakistani troops almost two months ago, the longest lull in strikes since they accelerated in 2009. That attack nearly destroyed relations between the two countries, with Pakistan closing vital supply routes into Afghanistan in retaliation. It's unclear whether the U.S. received permission from Pakistan for this strike.

The conservative evangelicals in South Carolina are sure to be leery of Mitt Romney’s Mormon faith, but after this, they may not be the only ones. The Real Romney, a new biography written by a pair of Boston Globe reporters, reveals that as a Mormon bishop in the 1980s, the GOP frontrunner demanded a single mom give up her baby for adoption or face excommunication from the church. “This is not playing around,” the woman said. “This is not like, ‘You don’t get to take Communion.’ This is like ‘You will not be saved. You will never see the face of God.’” The authors say that people are not often excommunicated from the LDS Church over such matters, and the woman had positive things to say about Romney outside his role in church leadership. But the woman left the church, and Romney denies the threats took place.

In an attempt to prove how not requiring identification at the polls in New Hampshire can lead to voter fraud, notorious conservative activist James O'Keefe may have committed a fraud himself. O'Keefe, known for carrying out harmful "stings" on organizations such as NPR, Acorn, and CNN, produced a video showing his investigators successfully obtaining ballots under the names of dead people at several New Hampshire polling locations. Unfortunately for O'Keefe, the only one who actually may have committed voter fraud during Tuesday's election was him. Just obtaining ballots "that are known by the person to be materially false, fictitious, or fraudulent under the laws of the State in which the election is held" is illegal.

Joran van der Sloot pled guilty Wednesday to the 2010 murder of Stephany Flores, a 21-year-old Peruvian woman he met at a Lima casino. Flores was killed on the fifth anniversary of the day that 19-year-old Natalee Holloway went missing in Aruba—a disappearance in which van der Sloot had long been suspected of playing a role. Van der Sloot, 24, said last week he would “sincerely confess” to Flores’s murder in a plea strategy aimed at reducing his prison term—a “sincere confession” is thought to generate less prison time in Peru that a straight guilty plea. Van der Sloot told police he strangled Flores in a Lima hotel room in an attempt to rob her. A judge adjourned the trial until Friday, saying van der Sloot would be sentenced then.

South Carolina, which has picked every Republican candidate since 1980, is already seeing ads from Mitt Romney, Ron Paul, Rick Santorum, Rick Perry, and Newt Gingrich—not to mention the ads by super PACs supporting each candidate. Some candidates are using their personal history: Rick Perry tells his life story in one ad, and Rick Santorum stands on the steps of his house with all seven of his children in another. Perry and Ron Paul are both running ads featuring veterans, and a separate ad touts Paul’s military service. Dominating the blitz is Romney and the super PACs that support him, including Restore Our Future, which reportedly spent $2.3 million in ads in South Carolina and another $3.6 million in Florida. Restore Our Future has been matched by a pro-Gingrich super PAC, Winning the Future, which has spent $1.6 million in ad buys—less than the projected $3.4 million.

You may cough when you smoke pot, but you’re not killing your lungs, according to a new study published Wednesday. The long-term study examined 5,000 people from three American cities and found no consequences to lung health from smoking pot. Previous studies had mixed results, leaving researchers with major questions about marijuana’s impact on health. Scientists behind the study said pot smokers smoke less than cigarette smokers, and their method of inhalation may help protect their lungs. They also stressed that their work was not a blanket statement about marijuana’s overall long-term healthiness.

Was The Bachelor on? According to the Nielsen Co., only 4.4 million people tuned into either Fox News, CNN, or MSNBC to watch the election returns from New Hampshire on Tuesday. Compared with the night before, when 3.4 million Americans tuned into those three stations, the number was lower than expected, considering that a few of the Republican debates have set record audiences. CNN’s ratings usually lag behind both Fox and MSNBC, but the channel doubled its audience for the evening. Both Fox and MSNBC added just a couple of hundred thousand viewers.