Vice President Joe Biden and senior Obama administration officials convinced a number of senators to hold off on another round of Iran sanctions as Western powers test Tehran's willingness to scale back its nuclear aims.

The full-court press Thursday didn't sway every senator who participated in the hours-long, closed-door briefing, but the chances that the Senate Banking Committee would draft new, punitive measures next week just as negotiations occurred in Geneva diminished significantly.

President Barack Obama welcomes Iraq's Prime Minister Nouri al-Maliki to the White House on Friday, as sectarian violence in the country hits its deadliest peak since April 2008.

The Oval Office talks take place nearly two years after the last American troops left Iraq following an eight-year occupation and as a wave of Al-Qaida attacks sows terror in the Iraqi Shiite community.

Slapping a 20 percent tax on soda in Britain could cut the number of obese adults by about 180,000, according to a new study.

Though the number works out to a modest drop of 1.3 percent in obesity, scientists say that reduction would still be worthwhile in the U.K., which has a population of about 63 million and is the fattest country in Western Europe. About one in four Britons is obese.

The nations that make decisions about Antarctic fishing have failed for a third time to agree on a plan to create the world's largest marine sanctuary.

The U.S. and New Zealand had proposed creating a reserve in the pristine waters of the Ross Sea. At 1.34 million square kilometers (517,000 square miles), it would have been twice the size of Texas.

The manager of the region's largest camp for Syrian refugees arranges toy figures, trucks and houses on a map in his office trailer to illustrate his ambitious vision. In a year, he wants to turn the chaotic shantytown of 100,000 into a city with local councils, paved streets, parks, an electricity grid and sewage pipes.

Zaatari, a desert camp near Jordan's border with Syria, is far from that ideal. Life is tough here. The strong often take from the weak, women fear going to communal bathrooms after dark, sewage runs between pre-fab trailers and boys hustle for pennies carting goods in wheelbarrows instead of going to school.

Israeli warplanes have struck a military base near the Syrian city of Latakia, targeting missiles that might have been destined for Hizbullah, CNN quoted an Obama administration official as saying on Thursday.

An explosion at a missile storage site in the area was widely reported in the Israeli press, but an attack has not been confirmed by the Israeli government.

One thing about season 13 of "American Idol" is that unlike last season, the judges seem to be getting along.

At an audition stop in Atlanta on Wednesday, Jennifer Lopez said she's excited for people to see how funny Harry Connick Jr. is and how much he knows about music.

When Hugh Jackman decided to marry the daughter of a woman who's dedicated her life to fighting cancer, he became part of the fight as well — it was a package deal.

The "X-Men" actor said that when he asked his mother-in-law Fay Duncan — president of the Fight Cancer Foundation in Australia — for her blessing when he proposed to Deborra-Lee Furness, she told him that supporting the fight against cancer was one of the requirements to get that blessing.

The U.S. Food and Drug Administration says that almost 7 percent of imported spices over a three-year period were contaminated with salmonella.

In a report released Wednesday, the FDA says testing of imported spices between 2007 and 2010 showed that spices were twice as likely as other inspected foods to be contaminated with the pathogen. More than 80 different types of salmonella were detected.

Smokers younger than 21 in the nation's biggest city will soon be barred from buying cigarettes after the New York City Council voted overwhelming Wednesday to raise the tobacco-purchasing age to higher than all but a few other places in the United States.

City lawmakers approved the bill — which raises from 18 to 21 the purchasing age for cigarettes, certain tobacco products and even electronic-vapor smokes — and another that sets a minimum $10.50-a-pack price for tobacco cigarettes and steps up law enforcement on illegal tobacco sales.