Secretary of State Hillary Clinton stepped up the pressure on Syria and President Bashar al-Assad on Tuesday, saying that the nation can demonstrate its acceptance of a U.N. peace plan by withdrawing troops from civilian areas. “Given Assad’s history of over-promising and under-delivering, that commitment must now be matched by immediate actions,” Clinton said in a press conference. Assad himself made a public appearance in the former rebel stronghold of Homs on Tuesday, shaking hands with supporters. “We will judge Assad’s sincerity and seriousness by what he does, not what he says,” Clinton said.

ABC News reports that the lead homicide investigator on the Trayvon Martin case initially called for George Zimmerman, who fatally shot the 17-year-old, to be charged with manslaughter. The state’s attorney’s office, however, reportedly ruled that there was not enough evidence for a conviction, sources told ABC News. On the night of the shooting, investigator Chris Serino filed an affidavit saying he had doubts about what Zimmerman said happened, though Zimmerman’s claims of self defense were accepted and he was freed. To complicate matters further, the first person to talk to Zimmerman was a narcotics officer, not a homicide detective.

Here’s some change we can believe in: Newt Gingrich is scaling back his campaign stops, letting go of a third of his full-time staff, and has booted his manager, Politico reports. Gingrich aides say the moves are a “big-choice convention” strategy. The changes are what communications director Joe DeSantis says that the former speaker needs to do to win the convention. Gingrich is struggling in third place in the delegate count, and his campaign has more debt than cash. Here’s another change: instead of attacking the other candidates, Gingrich will employ a more “positive and ideas-focused” strategy.

Another day, another allegation that the Murdoch empire illegally hacked information. This time, the finger-pointing is coming from a BBC documentary, which claims NDS, a News Corp. subsidiary that makes pay-TV smartcards, hired an outside "consultant" to help destroy ITV Digital, a competitor. ITV collapsed after its encryption codes were made public. NDS denies the claim, but the news hasn't helped the Rupert Murdoch’s family, which is still fending off an investigation into phone hacking allegations at the now-defunct News of The World tabloid.

Just when Mitt Romney thought he’d finally laugh last, he goes overboard. Mitt was so excited when President Obama was caught making pre-second term deals with Russian President Dmitry Medvedev, that he declared Russia the U.S.’s “No. 1 geopolitical foe.” White House press secretary Jay Carney noted the ridiculousness of this statement “in a world where al Qaeda is so clearly the preeminent threat to the United States,” and Medvedev called it an “ideological cliché,” saying it reminded him of Hollywood and the past. The Russian president suggested Mitt “look at his watch: we are in 2012, not the mid-1970s.”

At least two people are dead and 900 homes have been evacuated in a wildfire that is currently raging in the mountainous area southwest of Denver. The blaze already destroyed five homes as it spread four and a half miles in just a few hours. A sheriff’s office spokeswoman said that the fire may have been previously contained, but that roared back to life on a windy day.

If this whole Republican nomination thing doesn’t work out for Rick Santorum, Mitt Romney has a job suggestion: press secretary. In an interview with Jay Leno that touched on porn, Chris Christie’s girth, and vice-presidential candidates, Romney referred to Santorum’s battle with the press with his own two-word description. On a serious note, Romney said that Santorum has run a good campaign, adding that if Santorum is willing to be his vice presidential running mate, it’s better for him—since that would mean that his opponent isn't at the top of the ticket.

A JetBlue flight from New York to Las Vegas made an emergency landing Tuesday morning after the flight’s captain ran into the cabin screaming "Iraq, al Qaida, terrorism, we’re all going down." The captain reportedly became incoherent during the flight, causing him to be ejected from the cockpit. A passenger said that the pilot then appeared to have a panic attack, and then started pounding on the door—with one passenger tweeting that the pilot “went nuts.” About 10 passengers, including a retired NYPD sergeant, tackled the pilot and the plane made an emergency landing in Amarillo, Texas, where the pilot was taken to a hospital.

After years of living with his dad at Clarence House, Prince Harry is moving on—and up—in the world. Harry has moved into an apartment at Kensington Palace and will now be living in the same residence as his big brother, Prince William, and sister-in-law, Kate Middleton. Harry's new digs have been described as "small," though he only had a bedroom and library at his old place. Royal watchers have interpreted the move as a sign that the younger prince is maturing, especially after his successful tour of the Caribbean on behalf of the queen, a first for Harry.

Here’s an exciting announcement from the LA Dodgers: Magic Johnson will now own a small stake in the team. A group led by the NBA legend has won an auction to own the struggling baseball franchise—for a staggering $2 billion. Frank McCourt has spent the past three years—and more than $25 million—trying to keep ownership. When the deal goes through, the team will be owned by the Guggenheim Baseball Partners. This deal is twice the amount ever paid for a team.

Newt Gingrich will make it to the Republican convention, even if he has to charge supporters $50 for a photo and cut some of his staff's pay to get there. "Look, clearly we're gonna have to go on a fairly tight budget to get from here to Tampa, but I think we can do it, and I think we will do it," the candidate told reporters in Maryland on Tuesday. Newt spent $200,000 more than he raised last month and has just as much debt as he does money in the bank.

Precious director Lee Daniels has tapped Jane Fonda to play Nancy Reagan in the upcoming film The Butler. Based on the story of a long-serving White House employee whose career stretched from Truman through the Reagan years, The Butler will be directed by Daniels from a script by Game Change screenwriter Danny Strong. Forest Whitaker is reportedly on board to play the leading role, and Liam Neeson and John Cusack are rumored to be under consideration for the parts of LBJ and Richard Nixon.

North Korea plans to roll the dice with its missile launch next month, despite stern warnings from President Obama and the international community to abandon the idea. The Hermit Kingdom has claimed that the launch is for a peaceful space program, but South Korea and Japan aren’t buying it and have readied missile defenses. At a summit in Seoul, Obama and leaders from 40 nations pledged to secure the world’s nuclear material by 2014 to keep it out of the hands of rogue states and terrorists.

Maybe next he’ll roll out a dunk tank and balloon animals. Newt Gingrich’s campaign announced on Monday that they’ll be charging $50 apiece for photos with the candidate. Gingrich is currently campaigning in Delaware, which will hold its primary April 24. But the former speaker of the House’s campaign is so much more than a traveling photo booth: spokesman R.C. Hammond said they “also have an online store where supporters can buy hats, shirts, and even a bandana for your dog.” A week ago, the campaign announced it had spent $200,000 more in February than it took in.

The Environmental Protection Agency struck a blow against climate change Tuesday, setting the first limits on greenhouse gasses emitted by U.S. power plants. “We’re taking a common-sense step to reduce pollution in our air, protect the planet for our children, and move us into a new era of American energy,” the EPA said in a statement. Power plants are the largest source of carbon dioxide, a greenhouse gas. The new restrictions would apply only to newly constructed plants and would exempt plants built in the next year.

Mitt Romney may be winning big in the delegate race, but that doesn’t mean Republicans think it’s over yet. A CNN/ORC International poll shows that about 6 in 10 who identify with the GOP want Rick Santorum to stay in the race. Santorum currently has only 262 delegates while Romney has 569, with 1,144 needed for the GOP nomination. A similar number of Republicans polled said that they want Newt Gingrich and Ron Paul to drop out of the race. That being said, none of the candidates looks to be bowing out anytime soon. Gingrich said he’d exit the race if Romney clinches the nomination, though he doesn’t think that’s going to happen anytime soon. Paul, too, wonders why he’s being asked to “throw in the towel.”

If you thought the formalities involved in standardized testing were annoying before, wait until this goes into effect. After a massive cheating scandal that involved 20 teenagers on Long Island using fake IDs to take others’ tests, the SAT and ACT will require test takers to upload photos that will be checked against the student’s photo ID at the testing site. Students will also have to list their high school so that schools can keep better tabs on test takers. The new rules apply nationwide and will go into effect this fall.

There will be hoodies around the House of Representatives Tuesday as Congress prepares to hold a hearing on racial profiling in light of the shooting of African-American teen Trayvon Martin last month. Martin’s parents are expected to be in attendance. Protesters have planned a march to the White House to coincide with the hearing as the cause continues to gain support among Americans. A new poll shows that 67 percent of white Americans and 86 percent of nonwhites believe Martin’s shooter, 28-year-old George Zimmerman, should be arrested.

For someone whose family was made by media exposure, Rob Kardashian may have overreacted a tad Sunday when he chased after a paparazzo who took aim at him from across a Miami street. When the photographer ran off screaming, nearby police cuffed Kardashian and questioned him in a police car before ultimately letting him off. Rob, take a lesson from your sister: if you didn’t have any food product thrown at you, there’s no reason to get upset.

What’s in a name? “Obamacare” was introduced as a pejorative term for the president’s health-care reform initiative, but now that the word has become a slur and byword for Republicans on the stump, President Obama’s reelection campaign has welcomed the label with open arms. With the law under scrutiny by the Supreme Court, Jim Messina, Obama’s campaign manager, wrote “Happy birthday, Obamacare” in an email to voters last week. Perhaps the White House’s next line of attack will be to say that the “Affordable Care Act” sounds so boring, it must have been invented by Mitt Romney.

Women roar, candidates listen. The fairer sex is sure to constitute a crucial voting block in the upcoming presidential election, and with health care and the economy on the table, Mitt Romney and Barack Obama in particular are making efforts to reach out to women voters. Romney’s camp has trotted out the candidate’s wife, Ann, to talk about women’s issues. “Women are angry … and I’m going to tell them something,” the usually reserved wife of the former Massachusetts governor said at a recent campaign event. “I’ve got somebody here who can fix it.”

Al Jazeera said on Monday that it had received video footage that appears to be of last week’s deadly attacks on a military base and a Jewish school in Toulouse. The footage—which includes the gunman speaking and the cries of the victims—was sent to the Paris bureau of the television station—along with a letter saying the killings had been carried out in the name of al Qaeda. But a French official said on Tuesday that the video had not been sent by Mohamed Merah. Al Jazeera tweeted on Tuesday that it will not air the video.

Plans for two new pipelines from Canada could make debate about the Keystone XL pipeline a thing of the past. The projects drawn up by two energy companies could move 850,000 barrels of unrefined oil from Canada to Texas each day, and won’t have to face the challenges lodged against the Keystone pipeline, which ran aground against protests from environmental groups last year. The portions of the planned line that run across borders have already been built, and so will not be subject to State Department review.

Rick Santorum has made very clear that he doesn’t think Mitt Romney is qualified to be president. But the Christian Broadcasting Network’s David Brody asked him today if it comes down to Mitt as the nominee and “for some reason” he’s asked to be his running mate, would he consider it? “Of course,” Rick said. “As I always say, this is the most important race in our country’s history. And so I’m going to do everything I can ... I don’t want to be the guy who has to sit with my granddaughter 20 years from now, and tell stories about an America where people were once free."

DSK is back on the town. The former head of the International Monetary Fund is out on bail after being charged with “aggravated pimping” in a French prostitution ring. Dominique Strauss-Kahn was one of eight people charged in the case. DSK’s lawyer says his client didn’t know the women in question were prostitutes, and he didn’t pay them for their services. It’s a busy week for his lawyers—they’ll also be in New York courts Wednesday battling a civil suit filed by the housekeeper who alleged that Strauss-Kahn sexually assaulted her in a hotel room.

Popular support for the Afghan War has sharply eroded in recent months, according to a New York Times/CBS News poll. Sixyt-nine percent of those surveyed now think that the U.S. should not be involved in the war in Afghanistan. That is a significant change from four months ago, when only 53 percent said that the U.S. should no longer be fighting in that country. The poll also found that perceptions of the war effort have changed dramatically. Sixyt-eight percent now feel the war is going “somewhat badly,” while only 42 percent of those surveyed felt that way back in November.

Finally Mitt has locked down the votes of those Americans whose will take their car elevators down to their vehicles before being driven to the polls on election day. Plans revealed Tuesday for renovations to the former Massachusetts governor’s La Jolla, Calif., beach retreat depict a split-level garage complete with car lift. And while Newt Gingrich has been accused of being a lobbyist, Mitt’s house has its own greaser contracted to smooth out any impediments to the remodeling, which is to include an outdoor shower and a 3,600 square-foot basement.

Newt Gingrich might consider calling it quits, but not any time soon. The former House speaker and relentless GOP presidential candidate admitted, according to an Atlantic reporter on the road with him, that if frontrunner Mitt Romney has a majority after the Utah primary on June 26, he’ll drop out.

International envoy Kofi Annan said Tuesday that Syria has accepted a U.N. ceasefire proposal, but that much remains to be done to implement the plan. “I indicated that I had received a response from the Syrian government and will be making it public today, which is positive, and we hope to work with them to translate it into action,” Annan told reporters in Beijing, where he was meeting with Chinese Premier Wen Jiabao. Chinese cooperation has been considered critical to negotiating peace in Syria. Meanwhile, Syrian forces pushed into Lebanon and clashed with rebels there.

This weekend, Rick Santorum accused a New York Times reporter of “bullshit,” something, he said, only a real Republican would do. And now, real Republican Sarah Palin would like to congratulate the presidential candidate on sticking it to the lamestream media. “It was good and it was about time because he’s saying enough of the liberal media twisting conservatives’ words,” the former Alaska governor said on Fox Monday night. “I was like, welcome to my world, Rick. And good on ya, don’t retreat.”

The writing may be on the wall for Obamacare. After a second day of tense Supreme Court hearings, SCOTUS scholar and CNN legal expert Jeffrey Toobin called the proceedings a “train wreck” for the administration and predicted the law will be struck down. Justice Anthony Kennedy, a crucial swing vote, sparred with lawyers defending the reform’s individual mandate, saying the government has a “heavy burden of justification” to prove that it can require citizens to purchase a service. He also said it would change the government's role in a “very fundamental way."

TV host Gerald Rivera apologized Tuesday for his comments about Trayvon Martin, the Florida teenager killed by a neighborhood-watch volunteer. Last week, Rivera said that Martin’s hoodie was “as much responsible” for his death as George Zimmerman, the man who shot and killed him. In his apology, Rivera said his comments were called “very practical and potentially life-saving campaign” for parents, but he conceded that he had “obscured the main point that someone shot and killed and an unarmed teenager.”

Maybe J.K. Rowling doesn't have enough money. After writing seven Harry Potter books, which spawned the most successful movie franchise of all time, Rowling is now offering digital versions of the novel at the Pottermore Shop. The e-books, which range in price from $7.99 to $9.99, are expected to sell like crazy. They are currently available in English, but Spanish, French, Italian and German translations will be available soon. Rowling retains the digital rights to the Potter series.