Pakistan police report that rocket-propelled grenades were fired at the military academy down the street from Osama bin Laden’s Abbottabad compound. The attack is the first since the U.S. Navy SEAL raid in May. There are no reported injuries. The grenades damaged one of the walls of the compound.

The Pentagon on Thursday announced a proposal to shrink its budget next year, for the first time since 1998. The plan will include cutting the size of the Army and the Marine Corps, closing bases in the U.S., and limiting pay raises in 2015. The 2013 budget is set to be $525 billion, down from $531 billion this fiscal year. The cuts are part of President Obama's deficit-reduction deal reached with Congress that will see defense spending reduced by $487 billion in 10 years, though the pay raise cuts will likely be fought by Congress.

Mitt Romney and Newt Gingrich exchanged blows on immigration after a week in which the Gingrich campaign released a controversial ad that called Romney “anti-immigrant.” Romney halted the former speaker, challenging the language Gingrich has used to attack Romney’s stance on immigration. Gingrich said Romney’s views encouraged the searching out and deportation of grandmothers, but Romney fought back and said he was for defending the law. “I am pro-immigrant,” Romney said. “I want people to come to America … legally.” Later, CNN returned to the question, and the candidates argued again. It’s heating up. The two continue bickering, moving on to who had invested in Freddie Mac. The charge of funding the mortgage company is particularly damning in this setting, as Florida has been hit particularly hard by the housing crisis. Too bad both of them have invested in Freddie, so their attacks against each other are pretty much moot. Wolf is curious what Ron Paul thinks about this argument. He's not interested.

Syrian troops stormed Douma, a suburb of Damascus, on Thursday, fighting with Army defectors and going from house to house to arrest people. The troops detained more than 200 people from the town, which is only 10 miles from the capital. Human-rights groups claim that 34 civilians were killed. One eyewitness said: “They are entering homes, searching cars and stopping people in the streets to check identity cards. There is very little movement in the streets, and nobody is allowed to leave or enter Douma.” The Telegraph reports that women and children are being pushed into the streets, while sniper posts are being set on roofs. Meanwhile, electricity has been cut in many homes, and machine guns were set up in the streets. Two days ago, Syrian Foreign Minister Walid al-Moallem said that the government would keep relying on a “security solution” to resolve the current crisis.

President Obama said Thursday that he "cannot imagine" what the father of U.S. hostage Jessica Buchanan went through, and the Somalia pirate kidnapping ordeal made him think about his own daughters. "For him to be able to stay strong, and then for our incredible men and women in uniform to do what they do, it makes you proud about this country," Obama told ABC's Diane Sawyer. Obama also said Tuesday's Navy SEAL rescue operation was still ongoing when he was in the middle of the State of the Union address.

The four Republican candidates were all in agreement on the need to repeal Obama’s health-care plan at Thursday night’s Republican debate. Coming to an accord on how to do it, and which of the four of them was best equipped to do so, was another matter. Romney attacked Obama for making cuts to Medicare, and Santorum attacked Romney for the health- care plan he passed as governor of Massachusetts, saying, “We cannot give away this issue in this campaign.” Ron Paul’s take? This isn’t an argument for politicians, and people should be left to make their own decisions on medical care.

Greg Kelly, Fox’s Good Day New York co-host and the son of police commissioner Ray Kelly, has been accused of rape. Kelly was not on the air Thursday morning at Good Day New York. The woman said she had drinks with Kelly at South Street Seaport on Oct. 8 and she alleges that he raped her in her law office in downtown Manhattan while she was incapacitated. She did not report the alleged assault until Tuesday night. DNA Info reported that the woman is now pregnant and that she called up Kelly and said "what did you do to me?" The accuser reportedly told police that her boyfriend was so angry about the alleged assault that he approached the police commissioner at a public event. Kelly denied the accusation through his lawyer, and Good Day New York gave a brief report on the incident but did not note Kelly’s status with the program.

Okay now, who ordered the 35 pounds of cocaine? The UN received two fake diplomatic pouches filled with the drug last week. The packages, not intended for anyone at the United Nations, were delivered on January 16. While there was no recipient address, the packages originated in Mexico City. The UN logos were probably forged to help get the shipment over the border.

Henry Louis Gates Jr. argues that Red Tails, the new George Lucas film about the Tuskegee Airmen, leaves out the vital roles of three influential women who made the integration of the Air Force possible. Mary McLeod Bethune, a member of Franklin Delano Roosevelt’s “black cabinet,” saw the pilot program as a way to integrate the Army and used her influence to get the government to open pilot-training programs at historically black colleges and universities. While Willa Beatrice Brown, a famed pilot and the first black woman to receive a commission in the nation's Civil Air Patrol, used her high profile to help promote aviation and maintain African-American interest in the field. Finally, Eleanor Roosevelt visited the Tuskegee Institute, at Bethune’s urging, and even rode in a plane with black flight instructor Charles A. “Chief” Anderson. Upon her return to Washington, she helped persuade her husband to integrate the armed forces. But none of the three women are given any screen time in the film.

Pat Sajak admitted to having been drunk behind the wheel—the Wheel of Fortune, that is. The longtime host told Dan Le Batard of ESPN that he and Vanna White used to have two or three—or six—drinks during dinner break and would "have trouble recognizing the alphabet." But, he says, that was a long time ago, when he was "much younger and could tolerate those things." Should be fun to watch those old shows.

Real Housewives of Beverly Hills star Kim Richards admitted that she is an alcoholic, a preview of the show released Thursday revealed. Richards entered rehab in December, but this is the first time she has admitted publicly to the disease. She didn’t participate in the initial filming because she was seeking treatment for alcohol abuse. Her sister, Kyle Richards, was confronted about alcoholism in the first season of the show. The special, titled Watch What Happens, also features other heavy issues, such as Taylor Armstrong discussing her husband Russell’s suicide.

They’ll have to agree to disagree. When President Obama arrived in Phoenix on Wednesday, he and Arizona Gov. Jan Brewer immediately got into it at the airport. Brewer told reporters that Obama was upset that her book Scorpions for Breakfast wasn’t “cordial” to him. She also said Obama didn’t read the entire book and walked away from her before she finished speaking. At one point, Brewer pointed her finger at the president as they heatedly exchanged words. But all was not lost for Brewer, who said she wasn’t too miffed by the interaction. “I’ll regroup,” she said.

As speculation about the iPhone 5 kicks into gear, The New York Times looks into the often brutal factory conditions that make such rapid improvement possible. Apple's own audits found that hundreds of its supply factories in China require employees—some as young as 15—to work more than 60 hours a week, or more than 6 days a week, sometimes in deadly conditions. Yet fewer than 15 suppliers have been terminated for transgressions since 2007, according to former Apple executives. “You can either manufacture in comfortable, worker-friendly factories, or you can reinvent the product every year, and make it better and faster and cheaper, which requires factories that seem harsh by American standards,” a current Apple executive told the Times. “And right now, customers care more about a new iPhone than working conditions in China.”

Jean-Claude Mas, the head of the defunct Poly Implant Prothese, has a lot to answer for. He was arrested before dawn in France Thursday in connection with his company's use of industrial-grade silicone in tens of thousands of breast implants. The implants have become an international health scandal, with authorities struggling to settle on the proper response. German, Czech and French authorities say the implants should be removed, but Britain says there's not enough evidence that they're dangerous. Brazil says its government will fine insurance companies that refuse to pay for their removal.

Transportation Secretary Ray LaHood’s son, Sam LaHood, and at least four other U.S. citizens have been barred from leaving Egypt as part of a crackdown that followed security forces raiding the offices of Washington-backed groups who are monitoring the elections. Sam LaHood is the director of the Egyptian program of the International Republican Institute, which has close ties to the Republican Congressional leadership. Sam LaHood and the other IRI employees were not given a reason why they couldn’t leave, and they have been allowed to keep their passports. The IRI is one of 17 foreign nongovernmental organizations raided by Egyptian security forces on Dec. 29, in an effort by the Egyptian government to find what they call the “foreign influences” behind the recent protests.

Talk about strange bedfellows. WikiLeaks founder Julian Assange's new talk show will air on a network backed by the Kremlin. The Russian state-sponsored RT news network said Assange's show will focus on “his favorite topic: controversy.” It is scheduled to begin in March, but it may run into the problem of Assange's arrest on charges of sexual assault. He is currently under house arrest in Britain and fighting extradition to Sweden.

Add this to the list of laws for problems that don't (hopefully) exist. An Oklahoma Republican has proposed a bill to outlaw the use of human fetuses in food. Although he admits he isn't aware of any examples of this phenomenon, he says “there is a potential that there are companies that are using aborted human babies in their research and development of basically enhancing flavor for artificial flavors.” He cited internet research that claimed some companies use embryonic stem cells to develop artificial flavoring. A U.S. Food and Drug Administration spokeswoman said the “FDA is not aware of this particular concern.”

This could be a problem. One of the four convicted murderers pardoned by Mississippi Gov. Haley Barbour before he left office has gone missing. Mississippi Attorney General Jim Hood has offered a reward—though he hasn't specified the amount. "I think he's a danger to the community out there," said Hood. Hood says state prosecutors will argue that the pardons are invalid, but until they do so the murderers can remain free. They are, however, required to check in with authorities daily.

Newt Gingrich's surge following his South Carolina victory doesn’t seem to have lasted long. According to a new CNN poll, Mitt Romney and Gingrich are essentially tied. Other polls have shifted as well. The New York Times' Nate Silver projects that Romney has a 52 percent chance of winning, compared with Gingrich’s 48 percent. The biggest shift comes form Insider Advantage, which had Gingrich leading by 8 points on Sunday—and now has Romney leading by 8. Meanwhile, Gingrich pitched another “grandiose” idea by saying that by the end of his second term, the U.S. would have a permanent base on the moon, an idea that seemed to go over well with space coast voters.

Despite saying the Fukushima Daiichi nuclear plant was under control, the Japanese government developed a worst-case scenario plan for the evacuation of Tokyo. They kept the 15-page report secret out of fear of causing panic. The report, submitted to Prime Minister Naoto Kan and his top advisers, examined several ways the meltdowns could escalate and cause radiation levels to soar. Those scenarios would require the evacuation of residents within a 105-mile radius and “voluntary” evacuations within a 155-mile radius, which includes Tokyo.

When asked by CNN's John King at the South Carolina debate about his ex-wife, Marianne's, recent interview with ABC, Newt Gingrich insisted that her story, about him wanting an open marriage, was false and that his campaign had offered several witnesses to ABC to counter the story. The campaign has now admitted that this is actually not true. Although earlier in the week, Gingrich had called ABC's claim that they'd been given no real witnesses "just plain baloney," it was actually the candidate who was mistaken. Campaign secretary R.C. Hammond confirmed Wednesday that the only people to offer ABC a disagreement with Marianne's story were Newt's two daughters, both regular campaign fixtures, and that Gingrich's assertions were inaccurate.

Rowdy protests marked Australia’s national holiday today, as Prime Minister Julia Gillard had to be pulled away by security officers when she got held up in a crowd of demonstrators. The group, with some 200 people, was advocating for Aboriginal rights outside of a Canberra restaurant where the prime minister was officiating a ceremony. Gillard lost a shoe in the scuffle, and looked visibly frightened, according to an Australian report, but said afterward that she was made of “pretty tough stuff” and thanked the police for their service. A senior Aboriginal leader condemned the protesters for their “aggression.”

A new study has identified a rare skin condition as Morgellons disease, where sufferers have the sensation that something is crawling under the skin. The U.S. Centers for Disease Control said in the report that the disease is not contagious, but they could not find any evidence linking it to an infection or environmental cause. The CDC analyzed blood and skin samples from 115 patients in Northern California. “They’re not alive,” said CDC spokesman David Rutz. Rutz said Morgellons is not an official diagnosis, but Rutz said one symptom was tiny fibers such as cotton or common debris under the skin. Roughly 40 percent of the skin samples showed signs of chronic irritation, and some of the other symptoms included the feeling that something is crawling under the skin and fatigue.

Three buildings collapsed in Rio, including one that was 20 stories high. Officials said three bodies have been recovered, but up to 16 people still remain missing. The cause of the collapse is unclear, but witnesses report an explosion and a strong smell of gas. One witness told Reuters, "It was like an earthquake. First some pieces of the buildings started to fall down. People started to run. And then it all fell down at once." Three months ago, a suspected gas explosion at a restaurant left three people dead.

Either Texans love Obama, or Rick Perry's campaign really killed his cool, because the former presidential candidate's home state has more love for the president than its own governor. According to a new Dallas Morning News poll, 37 percent of Texans have a less-favorable view of Perry since he dropped out of the GOP race, and 45 percent think his campaign has been bad for the state's image. While 40 percent of Perry's constituents approve of how he's doing his job, 43 percent approve of President Obama's performance. 

Thousands of mourners attended a public memorial service Thursday to say a final farewell to legendary Penn State football coach Joe Paterno, who died from lung cancer at the age of 85 on Sunday. The service was held at the school’s basketball arena, and 10,000 free tickets were snapped up within seven minutes of being released. Speeches and videos honored the winningest coach in Division I college football, though his career came to a sudden end in November when he was fired for not turning in assistant coach Jerry Sandusky to the police for alleged child-sex-abuse charges. Paterno was laid to rest Wednesday in a private ceremony.

Barney Frank made waves in 1987 when he came out, becoming the first openly gay member of Congress. Now, nearing retirement after 16 terms, the Massachusetts representative will reportedly wed his longtime partner, Jim Ready, in his home state—which permits gay marriage. Frank announced last November that he would not seek reelection at the end of this congressional term. He and Ready have known each other since 2005 and have been in a relationship since 2007. Several states are considering legalizing same-sex marriage this legislative season, including New Jersey, Washington, and Maryland.

According to a controversial study published earlier this year in the journal Psychological Science, British children with lower general intelligence factor (similar to IQ) are more likely to be racially prejudiced as adults. The LiveScience article on this study, posted Thursday, has the headline: “Low IQ & Conservative Beliefs Linked to Prejudice,” and quotes the lead researcher of the study, psychologist Gordon Hodson of Brock University in Ontario. “Socially conservative ideologies tend to offer structure and order,” Hodson said. “Unfortunately, many of these features can also contribute to prejudice.” Yet it ought to be noted that the study refers only to “social” conservatives rather than “political” conservatives. And attitudes toward race were measured by whether people agreed with statements like “I wouldn’t mind working with people from other races,” which can be defined simply as “prejudice” rather than “socially conservative.” The scientific correlation between prejudice and “right-wing ideologies” is questionable, and many studies have pointed to the fact that general intelligence factor and IQ only measure a very specific type of intelligence—that they “may simply be dumb,” as the article says, is not accurate.

Let’s share medical records! Wolf Blitzer asks the candidates—beginning with Ron Paul—if they’re willing to release their records. Paul may be the oldest of the group, but he’s also the funniest. He says that he would have only a one-page report, that he could beat anyone in a bike ride, and that CNN needs to be careful about age discrimination. Newt Gingrich vouches that Paul is in fact healthy. Gingrich may be trying to win back the crowd. Good luck with that.

Human-rights group Amnesty International said Thursday that several people have died from being tortured by both "officially recognized military and security entities" of the interim government as well as by militias in cities like Tripoli, Misrata, and Gheryan. The group Doctors Without Borders has suspended operations in Misrata after treating 115 patients with torture wounds. Military groups and militias connected to the new government are holding more than 8,500 detainees accused of being loyal to former dictator Muammar Gaddafi, and according to the United Nations the lack of oversight has created an environment conducive to torture.

CNN spices up the debate by asking why the candidates’ wives would make good first ladies. Paul’s looking forward to an anniversary, and Mitt’s answer is genuine, but pretty boring. Gingrich says that all three wives will be great first ladies. He then lists several things about Callista: she’s had a best-selling book, she loves music, she produces movies, she’s artistic. Newt’s looking forward to “hanging out with her” at the White House. Santorum’s wife, or “his hero,” was not in attendance.