French President Nicolas Sarkozy stood his first reelection trial Sunday as voters went to the polls to choose two candidates for a runoff election May 6. In exit polls, Sarkozy pulled through with 27 percent of the vote, losing by a narrow margin to rival Francois Hollande, who took 28.6 percent. Sarkozy's campaign has struggled to gain traction, and the incumbent has found himself up against the ropes on economic issues in recent weeks. Marine Le Pen of the rightist National Front party came in with 19 percent of the vote. Sarkozy will likely try to scoop up some or all of those voters before he and Hollande go mano-a-mano in May.

A Secret Service agent staying at a different hotel than the 11 being investigated for misconduct has been added to the ongoing probe, though is said to have been involved in a separate incident a week prior to President Obama's arrival. The agent was said to be staying at the same Hilton as Obama. Rep. Peter King, the Chairman of the House Homeland Security Committee said Sunday that more firings are to be expected as the investigation continues. Six members of the Secret Service have already lost their jobs, while an additional 12 military members are being investigated. “What they were thinking is beyond me,” King said Sunday. Adding that in the “near future, several others” would possibly lose their jobs.

At least seven states will have their gaze fixed on the Supreme Court beginning Wednesday as oral arguments will be presented over an immigration law that took root in Arizona two years ago. The law, which gave the right to state officials to question anyone they stop about immigration status, led to similar measures in Alabama, Indiana, South Carolina, and Utah. If the court endorses the law, it would be seen as a blow to immigrants’ rights. The Obama administration fought against the measure, which, it said, “focuses solely on maximum enforcement and pays no heed to the multifaceted judgments.”

After a New York Times article alleged Saturday that retail giant Walmart had used bribery to expand its Mexican markets, the company responded, saying an investigation is underway. According to The Times, managers at Walmart de Mexico greased palms all over the country to gain building permits, a practice Walmart headquarters got wind of and began investigating—but only after as much as $24 million may have been laid out. “This work is ongoing and continues today,” said Walmart’s spokesman of the investigation, who added that the company doesn’t “have a full explanation of what happened.”

The U.S. agreed to provide assistance to the Afghan people for ten years after the military pullout, the two countries announced Sunday. America will assist with aid and a limited number of troops. The pact is meant to provide assurance that the US isn't abandoning Afghanistan after the 2014 exit. The agreement was worked out by Afghan National Security Adviser Rangin Dadfar Spanta and U.S. Ambassador Ryan Crocker.

George Zimmerman walked out of the Seminole County jail just after midnight Monday morning after posting $150,000 bail. Zimmerman put up $15,000 (10 percent) of the bail total to be released and was headed to an undisclosed location that could be outside of Florida. The neighborhood-watch volunteer did not make any statement before entering a white BMW outside the jail. Zimmerman has been ordered to adhere to an evening curfew and was stripped of his passport. He also is not allowed to possess a gun. Legal experts say it is not uncommon for a person charged with second-degree murder to go free before his or her trial.

The suburbs of Syria’s capital saw shelling and other violent activity by forces loyal to President Bashar al-Assad’s regime Sunday, activists said. Even as the United Nations voted Saturday to send hundreds of extra observers to the country to maintain a fragile ceasefire, activists reported that violence often ceases in an area where U.N. observers are present, only to continue elsewhere. The shelling Sunday was in a suburban district outside the Syrian capital where opposition forces and Assad’s troops have clashed in the past, and at least two people were reportedly killed.

Former Republican presidential candidate Jon Huntsman returned to the podium to mourn the current state of his party on Sunday night at the 92nd Street Y in New York. He spoke of being disappointed when he was uninvited from a Florida fundraiser for suggesting a third-party run, saying, “This is what they do in China on party matters if you talk off script.” He noted that even Ronald Reagan wouldn’t have a shot at the nomination in this climate. Huntsman added that he doesn’t regret sticking by his principles, but does wish he hadn’t opposed a 10-to-1 spending-cuts-to-tax-increase deal at the Iowa debate.

In a profile in New York magazine, Colin Myler, former editor of Rupert Murdoch’s now defunct tabloid, News of the World, implies that Murdoch tarred his reputation and let him take the blame for the phone-hacking scandal to protect Murdoch’s son, James. Now editor of the New York Daily News, Myler is competing with the empire he once worked for. During the investigation, James put the blame on Myler, telling the court that he was just following advice. “The Post will have a much tougher competitor than it’s ever had in the Daily News,” an editor said of the New York papers, now that Myler has been put in charge of the Daily News.

There can only be one winner. The Hunger Games finally ended its four-week reign at the top of the box office, finishing third behind Think Like a Man and The Lucky One. Think Like a Man, inspired by comedian Steve Harvey’s dating-advice book, performed far beyond expectations and raked in $33 million. The film was made for only about $13 million. Meanwhile, the Zac Efron love story, based on a Nicholas Sparks novel, finished in second place with $22.8 million.

The perfectly coiffed Canadian crooner is finally old enough to see Borat—or so it seems from a tweet the Biebs sent Saturday. Jumping on the media bandwagon of five months ago, when Justin Bieber was briefly accused of fathering a child with fan Mariah Yeater, he tweeted a message that linked to a clip of comedian Sacha Baron Cohen’s Borat character saying, “You will never get this, you will never get this, la la la la la.” Bieber, who is dating actress Selena Gomez, submitted to a paternity test in November to prove that he was not the father. Bieber directed the message to Yeater and wrote “from the heart i just wanted to say” before linking to the clip.

Two Amsterdam passenger trains collided yesterday, leaving 42 people seriously injured and others with more-minor injuries. Authorities now say that they’re looking into what caused the crash, which continued to disrupt rail service in the city Sunday. Police told reporters Saturday that passengers may have been thrown about the trains’ spacious cabins in the crash, contributing to the severity of some injuries. The collision occurred near an Amsterdam park, and investigations will focus on determining whether human error or a mechanical problem led to the accident.

They kept coming, and he kept knocking them down. Chicago White Sox pitcher Phil Humber took the Seattle Mariners to task Saturday, pitching the first perfect game the major leagues have seen in nearly two years. The third perfect game in White Sox history, the team won 4–0. “This is awesome,” said Humber, a former New York Met who had surgery on his elbow seven years ago. “I’m so thankful.” Humber has also pitched for the Minnesota Twins and Kansas City Royals, and his was only the 21st perfect game in major-league history.

Republican legislatures have passed voting laws that are supposed to fight fraud in a handful of states, but some say President Obama’s reelection bid may suffer as young and low-income voters find it more difficult to cast their ballots. Many of the laws require that voters show photo identification before voting. Bills under consideration in other states would make it more difficult for groups to register voters or make it impossible to register on Election Day at all. “The types of laws have varied, but state by state they’ve added up to the fact that it’s going to be harder for young people to get registered and vote in this election cycle,” said the president of Rock the Vote.

A spokesman for Bee Gee Robin Gibb said Sunday that the star has woken from a coma and is in improving health. Sixty-two-year-old Gibb fell into the coma last week. He has been in and out of the hospital over the past two years for treatment of unspecified stomach and colon ailments and told the BBC that he had a growth removed from his colon 18 months ago. Family members kept careful watch over Gibb as he remained in the coma for nearly two weeks. The singer opened his eyes Sunday and said hello to his 28-year-old son.

Hardline conservatives are dragging the Republican Party down, Obama campaign strategist David Axelrod said Sunday on CNN’s State of the Union. “I think there are a lot of Republicans in Congress who want to cooperate,” Axelrod said, “but they’re in the thralls of this reign of terror from the far right that has dragged the party to the right.” The strategist cited opposition to the White House’s attempts at immigration reform as an example of the kind of “monolithic opposition” that he said has driven moderate Republicans, including GOP candidate Mitt Romney, to take more-extreme conservative stances on many issues.

Muslims targeted a Catholic church Sunday in the Sudanese capital of Khartoum, burning it to the ground as tensions flared in a disputed border region. Predominantly Christian South Sudan has clashed repeatedly with Muslim Sudan in the past week as the two countries feud over the oil-rich border territory of Heglig. The attack on the church Sunday reportedly involved a mob of hundreds who surrounded the church and shouted insults against the South, which seceded from Sudan last year. The church in the Sudanese capital was frequently visited by South Sudanese faithful as well as Ethiopian refugees.

Tucson law-enforcement officers scoured the city Sunday for 6-year-old Isabel Mercedes Celis, who was last seen Friday. Close to 100 officers are looking for the first grader in a case that police have said may involve a kidnapping. While Celis’s friends and family have fanned out with fliers in their Arizona neighborhood, police combed the city’s east side with helicopters and bloodhounds. The police also searched the girl’s home, where she lives with both of her parents, for signs of a possible break-in, and a police spokesman said the case is being treated as a “possible abduction.”

An unusual stain on a basement wall drew investigators’ attention Saturday as law enforcement continues to search for clues in the case of Etan Patz, who went missing in 1979. They discovered the stain by spraying luminol, a chemical used to indicate the presence of blood. Investigators described the stain as an area of interest, and part of the wall on which they found it will be sent to an FBI lab for analysis. The Manhattan basement, within a block of where the boy lived, became a subject of attention last week as police followed up on new leads in the 30-year-old case.

Iran is building a copy of the U.S. surveillance drone that it captured last year, according to the nation’s officials. Gen. Amir Ali Hajizadeh claimed that Iran had hacked the drone’s controls, which allowed the Iranians to reverse-engineer it and possibly make its own copy. “The Americans should be aware to what extent we have infiltrated the plane,” Hajizadeh said. But experts think that Iran lacks the capability to reverse-engineer a drone. Sen. Joe Lieberman dismissed it as a case of “Iranian bluster” and said, “They’re on the defensive because of our economic sanctions against them.”

Two women have filed a lawsuit against the U.S. Military Academy at West Point, and the U.S. Naval Academy in Maryland, claiming that they were raped and saying there is "rampant sexual harassment" that's being ignored at both institutions. The women, Karley Marquet and Annie Kendzior, say that despite reporting rape cases at the academies, neither perpetrator was punished. The suit says former Secretary of Defense Robert Gates, the heads of both schools, and the secretaries of the Army and Navy should be held responsible to prevent sexual assault cases. A Department of Defense study has found that such cases are up 60 percent. Secretary of Defense Leon Panetta recently announced the creation of a Special Victims Unit charged with investigating sexual assault cases.

What a difference a year makes. After earning just $313,219 in 2010, Google’s Chairman Eric Schmidt raked in more than $101 million last year in salary, stock options, and other compensation. The former CEO received almost $94 million in shares and options (which will vest over a four-year period) and millions more in other compensation, according to Google's regulatory filing. Schmidt stepped down from his position as CEO in 2011, handing control of the company to co-founder Larry Page and transitioning to executive chairman.

It might be nearing May, but a storm that could cover one third of the country is expected to dump inches of snow throughout the Northeast and as far west as Michigan. The same storm sent golf-ball-sized hail to Orlando last week. Forecasters warn that the unexpected weather could cause a mess similar to the one that left 20 million without power and dumped record snowfall on the Northeast last fall.

The FBI and NYPD have ended the search for Etan Patz, after new clues led them to a basement near where he lived in New York City. Patz, who disappeared in 1979 at the age of 6, was one of the first cases to have his picture printed on milk cartons. Investigators found one stain on the basement wall that is being tested. "A stain on the wall is being tested [in a laboratory] but it's inconclusive what that's about,” a source told Reuters. “The digging has been done. There were no bones or obvious human remains found."