It won’t be much of a holiday weekend for people in the Peach State. Forecasters have warned that Tropical Storm Beryl may make landfall along the Georgia border with Florida on Sunday night. Thunderstorms building along the coast could dump torrential rains, according to predictions, slackening off during the coming week. Rough waves and dangerous surf will likely contribute to inclement conditions along the coastline. On Saturday temperatures in Atlanta approached 94 degrees, the record in the area for this time of year.

United Nations observers reported that a brutal attack in a city near Homs on Friday left 32 children and at least 60 adults dead, with an estimated 300 wounded. Syrian anti-government groups claim that official troops raked the city with mortar shells and then sent thugs and soldiers in. U.N. Secretary General Ban Ki-moon and his predecessor, Kofi Annan, released a joint statement calling for a ceasefire and criticizing the government for the attack. Bloody images of the young casualties prompted anti-government demonstrations across the country.

Paolo Gabriele, Pope Benedict XVI’s butler, was arrested this week after leaking personal letters and confidential documents to an Italian journalist, the Vatican confirmed on Saturday. The information was published in a top-selling book called Sua Santita (or His Holiness). Gabriele is one of the only Vatican staffers with access to the pope’s desk and was found in possession of the documents on Saturday. The documents reportedly showed widespread corruption and cronyism inside the church. The pope is reportedly “saddened and shocked” by the arrest.

A group of 25 Israeli settlers burned fields in a Palestinian village in the West Bank. Stone-throwing Palestinians clashed with the settlers, some of whom had guns, and one Palestinian was shot in the stomach. The Israeli Army broke up the clashes and are investigating the incident. In a similar incident last week, a video captured a settler shooting a Palestinian as soldiers stood by.

Petty Officer 1st Class Ryan J. Wilson was the 3000th member of the coalition to die during the Afghanistan war, the U.S. Defense Department reported Friday. The 26-year-old sailor was serving in Bahrain, where he was assigned to the U.S. Naval Forces Central Command. American engagement in Afghanistan began in October 2001, and Wilson was the 1,974th American to die in support of Operation Enduring Freedom, the ongoing mission in Afghanistan. Among the 50 other coalition countries, Britain has the second-largest number of dead in support of the mission, with 414 fatalities.

The lawyer for Pedro Hernandez, the man who has been charged with the 1979 murder of Etan Patz, said his client has a “long history” of “hallucinations, both visual and auditory.” Hernandez, a married father, has been placed on suicide watch at Bellevue Hospital since he confessed to killing the 6-year-old in a bodega basement in 1979. His sister told the New York Post that Hernandez had told them for years that he had “done a bad thing and killed a child in New York City,” and the family would be “haunted” by the story whenever it was revisited by the media. Meanwhile, many worry that 33 years of ice-cold leads on the case—one of the most famous unsolved mysteries in history—will make it hard to convict Hernandez.

A Nazi war criminal who escaped a life sentence in the Netherlands to live out his life in Germany, Klaas Carel Faber, died on Thursday at age 90, officials confirmed Saturday. Faber ranked at No. 3 on the Simon Wiesenthal Center’s list of the most-wanted Nazis up until his death—he was convicted in 1947 of involvement in the murder of 22 individuals. Escaping from the Netherlands in 1952, the SS volunteer fled to Germany, where he lived in freedom for decades despite efforts to extradite him. According to Dutch prosecutors, Faber was involved in killings at three locations in the Netherlands during the World War II.

Vice President Joe Biden on Saturday told the West Point graduates that they are “more than worthy” of the “proud legacy” of the military academy. Graduates of West Point are commissioned second lieutenants in the Army. While saying that the United States has foreign-policy objectives now that are different from those it held in the immediate aftermath of the 9/11 attacks, the vice president pointed to the men and women who responded to the call to arms as an example for the graduates. “Those warriors sent a message to the world that if you harm America, we will follow you to the end of the earth,” Biden said.

The United States Postal Service announced on Friday it will be offering $15,000 buyouts to 45,000 staff in an attempt to lower operating costs. During a time when 60 percent of Americans pay their bills online, the postal service plans to cut 229 mail centers in total to save $2.1 billion annually. Starting this summer, it will begin by closing 48. Mail handlers must agree to retire by the end of August to be eligible for the payouts. “The agreement with the Postal Service is intended to provide a financial cushion, and added peace of mind, for mail handlers who might be prepared to move on to the next chapter of their lives by leaving the Postal Service,” the National Postal Mail Handlers Union posted on its website.

Keira Knightley’s publicist confirmed on Friday that the movie star is engaged to James Righton, keyboardist for indie band the Klaxtons. The two began dating early last year and were reportedly introduced by fashion icon Alexa Chung. Knightley’s latest project, Seeking a Friend for the End of the World, is set to be released in June.

Baseball’s three strikes are a handy metaphor, but in life it takes just one. After receiving millions of dollars from the state, the videogame company owned by former Boston Red Sox pitcher Curt Schilling seems to have all but closed down after a lackluster meeting with Rhode Island politicians earlier this week. The company had failed to make a payment of more than $1 million to the state in the week before, and Schilling needed to make a strong case to save his company—but he couldn’t pull it off. After years in the making, 38 Studios folded within a matter of days, laying off all its employees, nearly 400 people, on Thursday.

Gregg Allman defended his love for 24-year-old fiancée Shannon Williams, saying that this time—unlike the past six times—it’s the real thing. Williams reportedly met the roots rocker sometime after the 64-year-old had a liver transplant, and Allman told The Associated Press that he met Williams back in January in Florida, and that he is “totally in love.” Allman has said that he does not think most of his previous six wives—a list that includes Cher—ever really loved him. “It’s just different, it’s altogether different,” Allman told Piers Morgan earlier this week. “I’m sober.”

More than 110 regulators from the Federal Reserve Bank of New York and the Office of the Comptroller of the Currency work in JPMorgan Chase’s offices, and they keep an eye on the bank’s operations. Except when they don’t. Somehow, these scores of government regulators missed the bum trades in the chief investment office that led to massive losses at one of the nation’s largest banks. Anonymous sources told The New York Times that even as this unit of the bank continued to grow, making increasingly larger investments, regulators did not increase their oversight and failed to place personnel in key offices in London and New York.

Barack Obama’s campaign has its marching orders. He lost the veteran vote to former serviceman John McCain in 2008, but recent polls show the president winning among former members of the armed services over Mitt Romney, 44 percent to 37 percent. It’s a portion of the population the incumbent Democratic is likely to continue to focus on as the general election nears, making use of grassroots campaign efforts like Veterans and Military Families for Obama. While some vets say that Republicans have the stronger defense credentials, particularly when it comes to spending, the most recent numbers may show that Obama has a chance to pick up voters who would usually tilt Republican, but are disappointed with Romney.

Blind dissident Chen Guangcheng’s worst fears may be coming true. A lawyer based in China said Saturday that the elder brother of the rights activist who fled to America earlier this month has gone missing after a visit to Beijing on Wednesday in what appears to be an act of government reprisal. Chen Guangfu reportedly went to Beijing to help his son fight a murder charge, but failed to return to his hotel Friday, according to lawyer Liu Weiguo. “As of now, there’s no news on brother Guangfu,” Liu told Reuters. “We’re not optimistic. Guangcheng is also very worried. He’s contacting friends to look [for him].” U.S. Assistant Secretary of State Michael Posner told reporters Thursday that the United States is keeping an eye on Chen’s relatives in China.

Investment banking can be a real boys’ club—until one of the boys makes a dud call. That may be the case with 45-year-old Morgan Stanley banker Michael Grimes, who’s catching a lot of flak for Facebook’s fraught initial public offering. Morgan Stanley was lead underwriter on the deal, and with the social network’s share now tumbling to 16 percent below its IPO price, the relationship that developed between Grimes and Facebook’s chief financial officer, David Ebersman, is getting a second look. Grimes reportedly encouraged Ebersman to jack Facebook’s share price to $38 as well as to make more shares available in the initial offering. Analysts have said that underwriters on the Facebook deal allowed themselves to get carried away by hype.

Vice President Joe Biden told families and friends of military personnel killed in action that he knew firsthand how grief might push a person to suicide after the deaths of his wife and daughter nearly 40 years ago. Speaking at the Tragedy Assistance Program for Survivors’ 18th annual survivor seminar, Biden said that people commit suicide not because they are “deranged” or “nuts,” but “because they’d been to the top of the mountain, and they just knew in their heart they’d never get there again, that it was never going to get—never going to be that way again.” Although this is the first time Biden told this story in public, he addresses it in his 2007 memoir, Promises to Keep.

Iran’s nuclear program has enriched enough uranium to come close to building as many as five bombs, the Institute for Science and International Security said, based on new data. The International Atomic Energy Agency, a United Nations watchdog group that monitors Iran’s nuclear program, released a report Friday said that the Islamic Republic has produced more than six and a half tons of enriched uranium in the past five years. The report also noted that Iran’s pace of production seems to be increasing, and monthly production may be up by as much as a third. Iran has claimed it is only refining nuclear material to use as fuel.

The Muslim Brotherhood will clash with Egypt’s old guard in a runoff election in June, according to state media. While official results from the most recent round of votes will not be available until Tuesday, Muslim Brotherhood candidate Mohamed Morsi reportedly took home 25.3 percent of the vote, narrowly beating out former prime minister Ahmed Shafiq, who won just under 25 percent. The election has come to be seen as a fight for the soul of Egypt after the popular uprising that ousted dictator Hosni Mubarak. The Muslim Brotherhood has warned that Shafiq will bring back Mubarak’s worst abuses, while a spokesman for the former prime minister hinted that the brotherhood is interested in creating an “Islamic empire.”

An 18-year-old man was arrested in Finland early Saturday morning after allegedly killing two people and wounding eight others in a shooting spree at a local restaurant. Police said they heard about the shooting shortly before 2 a.m., responded within a minute, and immediately heard gunfire, but the suspect escaped. The police took him into custody around 7:45 a.m., but have not released any information about his motive. The alleged shooter is a local man who did not have permission to be carrying firearms. Police are looking to see whether he acted alone.

Children were among the 90 people Syrian antigovernment activists claimed were killed in a day of shelling by forces loyal to President Bashar al-Assad on Friday. The Local Coordination Committees of Syria called the attack a "barbaric act" in a statement, saying that "the campaign ended when the armed militias slaughtered entire families in cold blood." The violence reportedly began Friday when government forces fired on a protest in the town of Houla. The situation escalated when resistance forces struck back, causing the Syrian military to shell the area. A spokesman for the United Nations monitoring mission in Syria told The Associated Press that observers were traveling Saturday to the site of the attack.