Republicans aren’t easing up on Ambassador Rice, but at least she has one powerful defender. “Susan Rice is extraordinary. Couldn’t be prouder of the job that she’s done,” President Obama reaffirmed Wednesday. Republicans seem to disagree. Senator Susan Collins, a Maine Republican, met with Rice today to raise concerns as to why the White House didn’t classify the Benghazi attacks as terrorism. On Tuesday, Rice met with three other Republican senators who expressed similar concerns.

House Speaker John Boehner’s cautious optimism that the fiscal cliff may be averted gave investors a reason to rally on Wednesday. After weeks of volatile trading, the Dow Jones industrial average was up about 65 points this afternoon as was the S&P 500, which had gained more than four points on the day. Analysts say the markets were mostly responding to Boehner’s comments that he was optimistic a budget deal could be struck—despite the House Republicans’ aversion to raising taxes on the wealthy. President Obama also expressed hope Wednesday that a deal would be reached before the Bush tax cuts expire for all income groups.

Locked security gates prevented workers from evacuating a textile factory in Bangladesh, according to survivors who are telling their stories to human-rights activists. Believing it was a false alarm, factory managers actively took steps to keep the workers penned in on Tuesday. Local police arrested three supervisors who prevented workers from evacuating. More than 110 people died in the fire, though authorities expect that number to rise as they put together a list of the 1,500 people who worked at the factory. The tragedy at the factory, which supplies clothes to stores like Walmart and Disney, has spawned protests over working conditions.

Could President Obama be moving toward closing Guantánamo Bay after all? A new government report shows that the 166 prisoners currently held in the prison could be absorbed by facilities inside the United States. There are already 373 convicted terrorists currently being held in the U.S. “As far as I know, there hasn’t been a single security problem reported in any of these cases,” Sen. Dianne Feinstein, who commissioned the study, said. “This fact outweighs not only the high cost of maintaining Guantánamo—which costs more than $114 million a year—but also provides the same degree of security without the criticism of operating a military prison in an isolated location.”

Sea levels are rising faster than previously predicted, according to a new U.N. study released Wednesday. The U.N. team found that the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change’s estimate that sea levels would rise by about two millimeters a year was “biased low.” The group, which presented its findings in a peer-reviewed study, found that sea levels are actually rising by 3.2 millimeters a year—or 60 percent faster than previously expected. The rising sea levels are expected to worsen flooding and storm surges in coastal areas, especially when storms like Hurricane Sandy make landfall.

Some lucky American is about to become mind-blowingly rich. The Powerball jackpot grand prize has soared to a record-breaking $550 million, up $100 million from Tuesday morning, and the astronomical sum has produced a “national ticket sales frenzy.” In Massachusetts, lottery dealers were selling tickets at a rate of $14,800 per minute. The Powerball jackpot is the largest in the game’s history, and the second-largest in lottery history. So pick those numbers wisely.

Letter-writing campaigns are officially a thing of the past. President Obama is calling on Americans to use Twitter as a device to pressure Congress into saving middle-class tax cuts. “If there’s one thing that I’ve learned, when the American people speak loudly enough, lo and behold, Congress listens,” he said Wednesday. The president urged the middle class to tweet their support of his proposal not to raise taxes on families earning less than $250,000, with a specific hash-tag: #My2K. “If we get this wrong, the economy is going to go south,” the president said.

At least he won something this year. GQ has named former presidential candidate Mitt Romney one of its least influential people. The list is “a collection of people so uninspiring that we should round them all up and stick them on an iceberg.” The magazine explains that although Romney is listed as No. 1, the list is ranked in no particular order, “because all zeroes are created equal.” However, it did note that “voting for Mitt Romney is like hooking up with the last single person at the bar at 4 a.m.” Other noninfluential on the list included Amanda Bynes, Michelle Obama, Ryan Lochte, and Jerry Sandusky’s lawyer.

A brawl at Halle Berry’s house on Thanksgiving was apparently started by her ex-boyfriend Gabriel Aubry, according to the police report TMZ acquired Wednesday. The love/hate triangle got violent on Thanksgiving Day when Berry’s ex, Aubry, and her fiancé, Oliver Martinez, got into an altercation that left the former with a broken rib and the latter with a possible broken hand and head injury. Police allegedly noted that Aubry punched Martinez first, but then was knocked down. No criminal charges have been filed.

Angus T. Jones must not be a “true God-fearing person,” because he’s sticking with Two and a Half Men until the season’s done and his contract’s over. After apologizing for calling the show “filth” and declaring he wants to quit in a video posted by a California church, sources said Wednesday that Jones plans to stay with his gig of 10 years for just one more season—unless Warner Bros. asks him to leave. The 19-year-old actor apologized on Tuesday, but there’s no word on whether the network will accept him back with open arms just yet.

Lisa Robin Kelly, a former star of That ’70s Show, was arrested for assaulting a man on Tuesday. Kelly was arrested along with a 61-year-old man—identified as her husband—after a violent incident at their North Carolina home. Police said there were no visible injuries, and drugs and alcohol were not suspected to have been involved. This is hardly Kelly’s first brush with the law: the actress was arrested for spousal abuse back in March, although the charges were eventually dropped, and she pled guilty to DUI in 2010.

China is considering easing some of the rules in its famous one-child-per-family policy, a former family-planning official told China Daily Wednesday. The official, Zhang Weiqing, said the government is drafting proposals allowing urban families to have two children even if the parents themselves are not only children, which is the current rule. The current policy allows for rural families to have more than one child. Demographers have warned that the policy, enacted in 1979, has created a rapidly aging population that may not be able to compete in the global economy. Additionally, the policy has come under harsh scrutiny over the years as a cause of forced abortions—this year, a woman in Shaanxi said she was forced by officials to terminate her pregnancy at seven months, despite that forced abortions are illegal.

Well, at least they didn’t fire Siri. Apple Inc. on Tuesday let go the manager responsible for creating the much-maligned Apple Maps, which had replaced Google Maps on all iPhone 5s. Robert Williamson, who oversaw the mapping team, was reportedly ousted as part of an effort to overhaul the software. Senior vice president Eddy Cue is reportedly seeking advice from map-technology experts and negotiating with maps provider TomTom NV to fix the landmark and navigation data it shares with Apple. The Maps software has been widely criticized since the iPhone 5’s launch in September, and CEO Tim Cook offered a rare apology for the misstep.

A 6-year-old Long Island boy died Tuesday after a county bus hit his house when swerving to miss a pedestrian. The crash also injured his 7-year-old brother as well as 11 passengers, authorities said. The bus driver swerved to avoid hitting a pedestrian crossing a four-lane road, but hit the pedestrian anyway and slammed into the front bedroom of a multifamily home. Police did not release the name of the brothers, but said that the 6-year-old died at Nassau County Medical Center with his parents by his side.

Former Senate Republican leader and 1996 GOP presidential candidate Bob Dole has been hospitalized, Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid said on Tuesday. “He is at Walter Reed not for a checkup,” Reid said. “He is there because he is infirm. He is sick.” But an aide to Dole said he was undergoing a “routine procedure.” Dole, 90, has been hospitalized a number of times of the past couple of years. He was seriously wounded in Italy in World War II and then spent more than three years in the hospital.

More like two and a half messes. Just a couple of days after slamming Two and Half Men as “filth,” Angus T. Jones issued a statement Tuesday clarifying he has “the highest regard and respect for all of the wonderful people” who work on the show. Jones is in damage-control mode after calling his own show “filth” in a  video testimonial for Forerunner Christian Church. Not to be outdone, Charlie Sheen issued a statement Tuesday night calling the show “cursed.” The Warlock has spoken.

The DSK scandal will live on. A French court on Wednesday delayed ruling on whether former International Monetary Fund chief Dominique Strauss-Kahn will stand trial for sex charges. Strauss-Kahn has been alleged to have participated in sex parties in the northern city of Lille with prostitutes, although Strauss-Kahn’s lawyer has argued his client did not know the women were prostitutes. Strauss-Kahn, 63, was once considered a contender for the French presidency, until he was arrested in May 2011 in New York for allegedly sexually assaulting a maid. The charges were later dropped. Several other women came forward in France and alleged abuse, although the Lille charges are the only pending ones left.

Does this mean Jill Kelley could get her civilian honors back? The investigation into the correspondence between the Tampa socialite and NATO commander Gen. John Allen has been narrowed to about 60 to 70 emails that “bear a fair amount of scrutiny,” a defense official said on Wednesday. Defense Secretary Leon Panetta ordered an inquiry two and a half weeks ago into some 20,000 to 30,0000 “potentially inappropriate” emails between Allen and Kelley, the suspected “other woman” contacted by Paula Broadwell, Gen. David Petraeus’s biographer with whom he was having an affair. The investigation into Allen has held up his nomination as NATO’s supreme commander in Europe, and he has denied any wrongdoing. The defense official said there is no evidence so far of any security breaches between Allen and Kelley.

It's about time. The Texas attorney general's office is attempting to take ownership of Warren Jeffs's polygamist ranch in Eldorado, where prosecutors claim the convicted sect leader sexually assaulted children. State child-welfare workers initially raided the Yearning for Zion ranch in 2008, but after a lengthy court battle, the 400 children whom they had removed due to suspected sexual abuse were returned. Nine men, including Jeffs, were ultimately convicted of sexual assault and bigamy. A judge will determine whether the state can seize control of the property, a decision that hinges on proving the ranch was used to "commit or facilitate" crimes.

The 2012 campaign can’t go on, but it will go on. The White House announced on Tuesday that President Obama will be going on a series of campaign-style events this week—an indication that the administration is launching a public-relations offensive to help persuade Americans to back its plan to avoid the fiscal cliff. Obama needs all the friends he can get in the negotiations after his own party said on Tuesday that the president must demand Republicans agree to raise the nation’s $16.4 trillion debt limit as part of any deal. A deal is necessary to stop draconian spending cuts from being automatically enacted and from the Bush tax cuts to expire—a series of events that, if they happen, are referred to as “going over the fiscal cliff.”

Egypt’s top courts suspended work on Wednesday to protest President Mohamed Morsi’s ban on legal opposition while hundreds of protesters returned to Tahrir Square for the sixth straight day. The country’s cassation and appeals court said work would be suspended until the constitutional court rules on Morsi’s decree, and a spokesman for the supreme constitutional court said it feels under attack by Morsi. Senior judges have been negotiating with Morsi about how to deal with his new powers,  while Morsi has tried to appease the judges by saying his decree only applies to  matters of “sovereign” importance. Protesters have said that Morsi is acting like a dictator and have called for him to dissolve his Islamist-dominated government.

Yahoo’s CEO Marissa Mayer discussed juggling work and family at a Fortune “Most Powerful Women” event on Tuesday. The 37-year-old become Yahoo’s CEO when she was six months pregnant, then gave birth and returned to work after just a two-week maternity leave. Yahoo’s stock has risen 18 percent since she took over. When asked how she gets it all done, Mayer replied, “You have to ruthlessly prioritize,” adding, “and you know Vince Lombardi says, in my life there are three things: God, family, and the Green Bay Packers, in that order. For me, it’s God, family, and Yahoo, in that order.”

That was fun while it lasted. New York City was free of shootings, stabbings, or murders between 10:30 p.m. Sunday and 11:20 a.m. Tuesday, making Monday entirely murder-free in the city. Police officials say they can’t recall the last time such a day occurred. The city’s murder rate is already low this year, with the 2012 tally expected to be about 400. Last year’s murder total was 515. However, the city was not entirely free from violence on Monday—one teenager accidentally shot himself in the leg.

What is said on the campaign trail stays on the campaign trail? Let’s hope that’s so for President Obama and Mitt Romney, who will meet for lunch at the White House on Thursday, Obama Press Secretary Jay Carney said on Wednesday. In Obama’s victory speech, he invited Romney “to talk about where we can work together to move this country forward.” Thursday’s visit will be Romney’s first to the White House since the election. Try not to get those tears on the furniture, Mitt.

New York City’s alleged “killer nanny” pleaded not guilty on Wednesday, when she faced a judge at the hospital where she is being treated for self-inflicted stab wounds. Yoselyn Ortega has been accused of stabbing Lucia Krim, 6, and Leo Krim, 2, to death in the family’s apartment, and then turning the knife on herself when the children’s mother returned home with her 3-year-old daughter. Ortega allegedly had been having family and financial troubles, and she reportedly told police she resented the family for giving her an extra five hours of work a week.

But what about Jessica Simpson’s Weight Watchers contract? The singer is pregnant with her second child with fiancé Eric Johnson, Us Weekly reported on Wednesday. Simpson, 32, and Johnson, 33, have a 7-month-old daughter, Maxwell Drew. A source told Us that the second baby “definitely wasn’t planned.” Simpson famously gained 70 pounds while pregnant with Maxwell, and signed on to be a spokeswoman for Weight Watchers during her effort to lose the weight—with her first commercial airing this week.

Good news, couch potatoes: you're healthier than you think. Two new studies—presented at a recent medical conference—suggest that in older, high-endurance athletes, the benefits of running are nearly canceled out by the cardiac risk they present. In a study that followed 52,600 people, both runners and nonrunners, for three decades, researchers found that the runners in the group had a 19 percent lower death rate, but that number disappeared in the group who went on high-endurance runs (more than 20–25 miles per week). A second study found no mortality benefit for those who ran faster than eight miles per hour. While not everyone in the health world is behind the data, sports cardiologists are beginning to take note of the wear-and-tear that chronic exercise imparts on the body over time.

Thankfully, these new stats from the Fed won't be showing up in a campaign ad anytime soon. On Wednesday, the Federal Reserve report shows the U.S. economy is moving along at a “measured” rate, with consumer spending growing “at a moderate pace” and modest hiring. The Beige Book report noted concern for the upcoming fiscal cliff and worries over 2013's outlook.

At least 34 people were killed and 83 people were injured early Wednesday morning in a series of bomb blasts in Damascus, with Syrian state television blaming the attack on “terrorists.” “When people gathered to try to rescue those injured in the first explosion, another explosion took place,” said Al Jazeera’s Rula Amin, reporting from Damascus. Syrian state television said that most of the victims were killed after a "suicide attacker" blew up his car. The blasts occurred in a Damascus neighborhood that is mainly Druze and Christian—two groups who have not predominately joined the uprising against President Bashar al-Assad yet, although the rebels indicated the government may have orchestrated the attack to turn the minorities against each other. Meanwhile, government fighter jets reportedly bombarded rebel-held portions of the Damascus suburb of Daraya.