OBAMA-GUNS

WASHINGTON — President Barack Obama, with tears streaking his cheeks, launches a final-year push to tighten sales of firearms in the U.S., using his presidential powers in the absence of tougher gun restrictions that Congress has refused to pass. 

VENEZUELA-NATIONAL ASSEMBLY

CARACAS, Venezuela — Venezuela's opposition takes majority control of the National Assembly after years in the political wilderness, setting the stage for a potential power struggle with embattled President Nicolas Maduro. 

UNITED STATES-SYRIA

WASHIGTON — The Obama administration's best-case scenario for political transition in Syria does not foresee Bashar Assad stepping down as the country's leader before March 2017, outlasting Barack Obama's presidency by at least two months, according to a document obtained by The Associated Press.

PRESIDENTIAL RACE-TRUMP-CRUZ

SIOUX CENTER, Iowa — Ted Cruz tries to make a joke out of Republican presidential rival Donald Trump raising questions about whether the Texas senator's birth in Canada could be a liability if he becomes the party's nominee.

PRESIDENTIAL RACE-SANDERS

NEW YORK — Characterizing Wall Street as an industry run on "greed, fraud, dishonesty and arrogance," Democratic presidential candidate Bernie Sanders pledges to break up the country's biggest financial firms within a year, should he become president, in a major policy address. 

HAITI-ELECTIONS

PORT-AU-PRINCE, Haiti — Haiti's election chief sets Jan. 24 as the new date for presidential and legislative runoff votes after meeting with other members of the country's much-criticized Provisional Electoral Council. 

NAVY-NUCLEAR FUTURE

WASHINGTON — In his blueprint for a stronger U.S. Navy, the sea service's new top boss, Adm. John M. Richardson, is blunt about what he thinks matters most: nuclear punch.