IRAQ

Iraq war veteran and “Dancing With the Stars” champion J.R. Martinez is penning his memoir.

Occupy Wall Street is far from dead, though it's also far from Wall Street at this point. On Tuesday evening, while the weather touched down to 13 degrees, about 100 demonstrators gathered in the main concourse of Grand Central. The demonstrators used Grand Central as a place to voice their opposition against the National Defense Authorization Act (NDAA).

Rick Santorum surprised voters Tuesday by nearly winning the Iowa Caucus, the first indication in the 2012 Election as to which candidate may win the Republican nomination. Santorum was only eight votes shy of Mitt Romney, the GOP frontrunner, and the Caucus has been deemed an essential tie between the two leading candidates. Here are the thirteen top political, social and economic issues and Santorum's position on the issues.

Ron Paul’s 2012 campaign is the only hope of ending the political theater of Democrats vs Republicans.

Wesley Durden isn't the first reality star who died by suicide. Many others have fallen under the bright light of reality television only to commit suicide after the television cameras leave.

The latest threat comes days after U.S. President Barack Obama signed into law sanctions against Iran's central bank which processes most of the country's oil-export payments. Obama and other leaders, including European Union foreign ministers set to meet in Brussels on Jan. 30 to consider a oil-export ban on Iran, hope more sanctions will slow the country from further developing its nuclear weapons program.

Fans of TLC's Next Great Baker were saddened to learn that one of its contestants, Army Sgt. Wesley Durden, had committed suicide last October. They didn't know that Durden had passed until he was voted off the show one Monday night and saw the memorial note after the episode. Here are some interesting facts about Wesley Durden.

Benjamin Colton Barnes, who was found dead in Mt. Rainier National Park, is believed to be the shooter in the death of park ranger Margaret Anderson. Barnes died from freezing as he tried to escape police.

Wells Fargo Securities believes 2012 will be very similar to 2011 in that there are plenty of risks affecting prospects for economic growth across the world.

Crude prices started their jolly ride to the top in February last year when simmering discontent in the Middle East erupted into several violent anti-government protests.

President Barack Obama, striking a hopeful note in a year-end weekly address, hailed foreign policy milestones while keeping pressure on Congress to further extend payroll tax cuts through the end of 2012.

Happy New Year! 2012 is almost upon us and we can only hope it will be as interesting and eventful as was 2011. There were several major events that happened in news, entertainment and technology throughout 2011. The U.S. captured and killed Osama Bin Laden, the iPhone 4S was released, Apple Inc. lost its CEO and co-founder Steve Jobs and the Iraq War ended.

The great Norwegian butter shortage got me to thinking that shortages of 2012 might be just the ticket to send my faithful readers off to a rockin' New Year's Eve celebration. For sure, Lady Gaga will make it seem alright, though.

Iran said it had delayed its promised long-range missile tests in the Persian Gulf on Saturday and signaled it was ready for fresh talks with the West on its disputed nuclear program.

A nuclear-powered Iran poses a grave threat not only to the Jewish state, but to the entire Middle East, warned Israeli defense chief.

As America begins to put its military pieces back together again after the end to a nine-year campaign in Iraq amid threats from Iran that it may close the Strait of Hormuz, the most vital corridor for oil-tanker traffic in the world, the reality is that another conflict may be looming in the Middle East.

Turkish warplanes killed 35 civilian smugglers in northern Iraq after mistaking them for Kurdish militants, Ankara's ruling party said on Thursday, promising not to allow a cover-up of an incident that threatens to wreck relations with minority Kurds.

The sale coincides with rising tensions in the Middle East between Sunni Muslim Saudi Arabia and its Shia-dominated enemy Iran, which is believed to be developing nuclear weapons.

Lt. Col. Karl Trenker, a U.S. Marine veteran shot several times by a Craigslist buyer on Dec. 21, had to uses his fingers to plug his bullet wounds. Trenker said he knew he got shot, but what he didn't know was how many times.

Most of the dead are believed to have been teenagers.

China this week reached a milestone in its drive to master the military use of space with the launch of trials for its Beidou satellite global positioning network, a move that will bring it one step closer to matching U.S. space capabilities.