Rep. Todd Akin, a Republican from Missouri who is running for Senate, said in an interview released Sunday that women's bodies have a defense mechanism that keeps them from getting pregnant if they are the victims of "legitimate rape." "First of all, from what I understand from doctors [pregnancy from rape] is really rare," Akin told KTVI-TV. "If it's a legitimate rape, the female body has ways to try to shut the whole thing down." After the comments went viral, Akin said on Twitter that he "misspoke," and released a statement clarifying that the comment "does not reflect the deep empathy I hold for the thousands of women who are raped and abused every year."

Gu Kailai, the wife of shamed Chinese politician Bo Xilai, has received a suspended death sentence for killing a British businessman. A former family aide was also sentenced as an accomplice to nine years in prison. Gu is expected to have her sentence commuted to life imprisonment after a few years served. Bo was dismissed from his post as party secretary of Chongqing after the scandal broke.

Sometimes the water's just too nice to resist. The FBI is investigating an incident last summer when about 20 GOP lawmakers and staff took a dip in the Sea of Galilee—some partially clothed and one completely nude. Kansas Rep. Kevin Yoder admitted that he skinny-dipped in a statement to Politico: "After dinner I followed some members of Congress in a spontaneous and very brief dive into the sea and regrettably I jumped into the water without a swimsuit.” Congressmen from Florida, New York, California, and Arizona also partook in the swim, with varying degrees of clothing. Some said they were cooling off, others cited the religious significance of the water and a few have admitted that alcohol fueled their decision.

Militant groups believed to be affiliated with Al Qaeda were responsible for two attacks within 24 hours in south Yemen. At least 20 were killed when gunmen opened fire on the intelligence headquarters on Saturday, and on Sunday a suicide bombing took the life of a local anti-Al Qaeda militia leader. Attacks have continued since the country's Arab Spring uprising, when Al Qaeda-linked groups took control of certain areas but were pushed out by a U.S.-backed intervention.

WikiLeaks founder Julian Assange made his first public appearance in two months Sunday after securing diplomatic asylum in Ecuador. Assange took refuge in the Ecuadoran Embassy in London in a bid to escape extradition to Sweden to face allegations of sexual misconduct. Speaking from the balcony of the embassy, Assange called on the U.S. to end its “witch hunt” against WikiLeaks, thanked supporters, and credited them with stopping the British police from seizing him. “To my family and my children who have been denied their father, forgive me; we will be reunited soon,” Assange said. Ecuador granted Assange diplomatic asylum Thursday.

Iraqi banking institutions have been helping Iran sidestep regulations imposed by the United States, said American officials. The country’s cozy relationship with Iran little more than eight months after American troops left Iraqi soil has caused concern among American leaders, and Obama placed a call to Iraq’s prime minister recently after learning that Iranian supply planes were passing through Iraqi airspace en route to Syria. The Treasury Department undersecretary for terrorism and financial intelligence wrote in a note to The New York Times that the Islamic Republic “may seek to escape the force of our financial sanctions through Iraqi financial institutions.”

At least 10 Japanese activists have landed on islands at the center of a territory dispute with China, as tensions mount between the two nations. The individuals, whose requests to be allowed to visit the islands were denied, have been detained by Japan’s Coast Guard and are being questioned. Chinese officials have taken a hard line on visits to the island by Japanese nationalists, calling them “illegal and invalid.” The Japanese said they wanted to pay their respects to soldiers who died fighting near the islands in the Second World War.

British director Tony Scott, director of Top Gun and The Taking of Pelham 123, and producer of The Good Wife, among many others, died Sunday. Scott, 68, brother of director Ridley Scott, jumped "without hesitation" to his death off the Vincent Thomas Bridge crossing Los Angeles Harbor at 12:30 p.m., according to coroner's officials. A suicide note was found in his Toyota Prius, parked on the bridge. His body was recovered by a Coast Guard dive team four hours later.

More young American college graduates are joining the military after discovering that other work is nearly impossible to find. The Navy saw 60 percent more enrollees with college degrees last year than in 2007. For many of those young men and women, the armed services is a career path they never thought they would pursue. “What I thought I’d be doing, going into college as an electrical engineer, I thought that I’d be working with gadgets, making robotic things,” says University of Maryland student Louis Lam. Instead, Lam has enlisted in the Navy after both of his parents lost their jobs.

Chuck Norris and the gang still got it. The Expendables 2 pulled in $28.8 million, making it the highest-grossing movie over the weekend. While the original Expendables brought in $34.8 opening weekend, industry experts say the sequel still had a solid debut. The Bourne Legacy, which has made close to $70 million in 10 days, slipped to second place, taking in $17 million. ParaNorman, a stop-motion zombie cartoon, came in third with $14 million in ticket sales. Will Ferrell's The Campaign, a political comedy, was fourth with $13.4 million.

Never one to keep quiet, Madonna added her famous voice to criticize the jail sentence given to Russian group Pussy Riot. “I protest the conviction and sentencing of Pussy Riot to a penal colony for two years for a 40-second performance extolling their political opinions,” she said in a statement, adding a plea for Russians to demand they be let free. The three female band members were handed a two-year sentence for “hooliganism motivated by religious hatred” after an anti-Putin performance in a Russian Orthodox church in Moscow. Other celebrities like Bryan Adams, Sting, and Paul McCartney have also shown support for Pussy Riot, and the U.S. and E.U. have expressed concern over their sentencing.

Well, isn’t that sweet. Speaking in the Villages, Fla., Paul Ryan said his grandmother relied on Medicare and that his mother currently counts on the program. Ryan brought his 78-year-old mother along to the campaign rally at the world’s largest retirement community, which has been known to slant heavily Republican. Ryan tried to paint President Obama’s health-care plan as cutting Medicare, although Ryan has long pushed for privatizing the federal program. Obama is expected to push that point at a campaign rally in New Hampshire on Saturday.

Two people were killed in Libya on Sunday after three car bombs exploded in the capital city of Tripoli. The bombs went off near the country’s Interior Ministry and other security buildings and interrupted celebrations by Muslims in the city marking the festival of Eid al-Fitr, which ends the holy month of Ramadan. On responding to one explosion, police also found another car bomb that had failed to detonate. The attacks were reported to be the first of their kind in Libya since Muammar Gaddafi was driven from power a year ago.

Kim Jong-un told North Korean troops to be ready for a “sacred war” as the United States and South Korea prepare for a series of training exercises. The North Korean leader’s saber-rattling rhetoric came as he visited with troops on an island where the military responded to war games led by South Korea in 2010 by shelling a nearby island. “He ordered the service persons of the detachment to be vigilant against every move of the enemy and not to miss their gold chance to deal at once deadly counter blows at the enemy,” a North Korean state news agency reported.

General Motors says a fire hazard has caused the company to recall a quarter million sport utility vehicles. The cars, which include some Chevrolet TrailBlazers and GMC Envoys, have a defect that may cause a short circuit in the driver’s-side door, the car manufacturer said. “A short may cause the power door lock and power window switches to function intermittently or become inoperative,” the recall says. “The short may also cause overheating, which could melt components of the door module, producing odor, smoke, or a fire.”

It’s a sad day for Twilight fans across the country. Robert Pattinson, Kristen Stewart, and Taylor Lautner have all backed out of the last four Twilight conventions scheduled for San Antonio, Detroit, Los Angeles, and Parsippany, N.J. Whether Pattinson and Stewart will appear together at other Twilight press events remains to be seen. Pattinson has remained quiet on the subject of his love life since Stewart was caught cheating on him. But he hasn’t been shy about criticizing the media’s coverage of their breakup, calling the press “a monstrous thing.”

Syrian President Bashar al-Assad made a rare appearance at a Damascus mosque Sunday, one day after rumors spread that the country’s vice president had defected. The Sunday appearance is the leader’s first since a bombing in the Syrian capital in July. Vice President Farouk al-Shara, whose defection Syria has denied, was not among the officials who appeared alongside Assad Sunday. Footage of Assad’s visit to the mosque shown on state television included a sermon in which Syria was described as the target of a Western plot that would not “defeat our Islam, our ideology, and our determination in Syria.”

Maybe she wasn’t really so sweet. Ninety-six-year-old actress Olivia de Havilland, who played Melanie in Gone With the Wind, has not spoken to her sister, Joan Fontaine, 94, in 35 years. Their feud has spanned eight decades, going back to their childhood, and lasted throughout their lives because of competition over roles, awards, and lovers. After their mother’s death in 1975, they simply stopped talking altogether. Fontaine was not even invited to the memorial service. And it seems unlikely the pair will make up in their lifetimes. Asked about the possibility of reconciliation, de Havilland replied, “Better not.”

Baseball star Melky Cabrera tried to use a fake website and product to sidestep a doping suspension, sources told the New York Daily News. The paper reports that after the San Francisco Giants player tested positive for steroid use, a ploy to convince baseball investigators that another product was to blame fell apart upon closer scrutiny from federal and Major League Baseball investigators. An associate of Cabrera’s, Juan Nunez, is alleged to have made a $10,000 payment for the fictitious site and told the newspaper Saturday that he was “accepting responsibility for what everyone else already knows.”

Lawyers who racked up millions taking on the tobacco industry have a new foe: food manufacturers. More than a dozen attorneys who brought in record settlements now have filed suits against PepsiCo, Heinz, and other companies in the last four months that say the food makers are misleading customers with their packaging. The food industry has dismissed the claims, some of which could seek damages of billions of dollars, as frivolous.

Thirty-one Sudanese government officials, including two state ministers, were killed Sunday after their plane crashed, state television reported. “All people on board were killed,” said Sudan aviation authority spokesman Abdelhafiz Abdelrahim, when the plane was landing at an airport southwest of Khartoum. The spokesman said “an explosion was heard, and the plane was destroyed,” though another official told state media that the plane “crashed into a hill.” The officials were on their way to celebrations to mark the end of the Muslim holy month of Ramadan.