BIG SNOWSTORM

WASHINGTON — A massive blizzard plods toward the eastern United States on Friday, with forecasters predicting more than 2 feet (0.61 meters) of snow in Washington and a state of emergency declared in five states and the District of Columbia. 

UNITED NATIONS-SYRIA-AIRDROPPING AID

UNITED NATIONS — As images and reports of starvation in besieged Syrian communities drew an international outcry and two rare aid convoys this month, an urgent question arose: Why not drop food and other needed supplies by air? But U.N. officials say airdrops face deep complications both political and logistical. 

UNITED NATIONS-REVIVING INDIGENOUS LANGUAGES

UNITED NATIONS — A Canadian tribal chief is calling for urgent efforts to revive indigenous languages, saying their extinction is going unnoticed while the world focuses on the preservation of cultural heritage sites. 

GUANTANAMO-PRISONER RELEASES

MIAMI — A Guantanamo Bay prisoner who protested his indefinite confinement with a lengthy hunger strike has taken the unusual step of turning down a chance to finally leave the U.S. base in Cuba, rejecting an offer to be resettled in an unfamiliar new country. 

HAITI-ELECTION PROTESTS

PORT-AU-PRINCE, Haiti — Haiti's outgoing leader insists that a presidential runoff will be held as scheduled this weekend, regardless of a boycott by the opposition candidate and deep suspicion of electoral fraud. 

PRESIDENTIAL RACE-BUSH

HAMPTON, New Hampshire — Republican presidential candidate Jeb Bush says that while his brother will join him on the campaign trail and his mother stars in a new ad, he remains wary of leaning on his famous family as he seeks to become its third president.