The Washington Post’s David Ignatius has a good scoop about papers found in the Osama bin Laden compound. You can read it HERE. ABC News can confirm that bin Laden wrote to others in al Qaeda about a plot to kill President Obama and General...

Matthew Continetti, Washington Free Beacon
On March 13 the Obama campaign released one of the more interesting fundraising appeals in recent memory. "If the general election were held today," wrote campaign manager Jim Messina, “President Obama would lose to Mitt Romney—according to the latest poll from Washington Post-ABC News.” More troubling to Messina: “The other side has groups ready to spend hundreds of millions of dollars to tear down President Obama.” The Republican frontrunner, Mitt Romney, “will spend and say anything to win.” The letter...

ABC News’ Michael Falcone reports: Listen to Puerto Rico Gov. Luis Fortuño and you can almost hear the voice of Mitt Romney. “I love metrics and hard data,” Fortuño said, winding up to his prediction about whether Romney, who he has endorsed, is headed toward...

MOSCOW (Reuters) - Statements from Western and Arab countries that President Bashar al-Assad's rule is illegitimate are counterproductive to establishing peace in Syria, Russia's envoy to the Middle East said on Friday. "The Syrian people should determine who will lead their country and so the opinion of some of our foreign partners will hardly foster a solution," Mikhail Bogdanov, a deputy foreign minister, told a news conference. ...

Compiled by ABC News’ Jayce Henderson, Amanda VanAllen and Alicia Tejada The Note’s Must-Reads are a round-up of today’s political headlines and stories from ABC News and the top U.S. newspapers. Posted Monday through Friday right here at www.abcnews.com RICK SANTORUM ABC News’ Matthew Jaffe...

KABUL/WASHINGTON (Reuters) - President Hamid Karzai exploded in anger when he learned last week that an American soldier had massacred 16 Afghan civilians, including nine children. When Karzai discovered that an aide had kept the news from him until after he had addressed the nation on television, the anger turned to rage. "I would have condemned this openly to my people," Karzai shouted at the aide in the Kabul television studio, officials told Reuters. Turning to another official, Karzai made himself even more clear: After a decade of war against al Qaeda and the Taliban, it was time for ...

TOKYO (Reuters) - A senior official at Japan's Foreign Ministry said a planned satellite launch by North Korea would be in violation of a U.N. Security Council resolution, Jiji news agency reported on Friday. Jiji also quoted the official as saying Japan will discuss the issue with the United States and South Korea. North Korea said it would launch a "working" satellite to mark the centenary of its founder Kim Il-sung's birth next month in the face of a declaration to suspend long-range missile testing. Foreign officials have said the past launches are disguised long-range missile tests. ...

Doyle McManus, Los Angeles Times
President Obama has long been criticized by Republicans for his purportedly inadequate zeal in pursuing the war in Afghanistan. He was criticized sharply from the right for his plan to draw down troops over three years; too fast, they said.So it's ironic that Obama now finds himself defending that timetable against GOP critics who want to pull out more quickly in the wake of news that a U.S. soldier allegedly massacred at least 16 civilians.

Brent crude rebounds above $123 on Iran-West tensions SINGAPORE (Reuters) - Brent crude rebounded above $123 on Friday after a sharp sell off the previous session, as rising tensions between Iran and the West fuelled an oil rally that has forced Western leaders to prepare a release of their strategic oil reserves. Brent crude rose 55 cents to $123.15 a barrel by 0302 GMT, after settling down nearly $2 the previous session following a Reuters report that Britain and the United States were preparing to tap into its oil reserves. U.S. crude climbed 49 cents to $105.60. ...

Actor and activist George Clooney visited the White House today to lobby the president on the plight of the people in South Sudan. “The good news is we feel like there is a commitment at a very high level,” Clooney told reporters at the White...

DUBAI (Reuters) - Bahrain has decided to shut down its embassy in Damascus and to withdraw all diplomats and staff because of worsening security conditions there, the foreign ministry said on Thursday in a statement quoted by state news agency BNA. The foreign ministry also called upon Bahraini nationals in Syria to be cautious and to leave the country immediately, BNA reported. The move came one day after Saudi Arabia and Italy closed their missions, amid an escalating crackdown on protests against President Bashar al-Assad that has killed thousands. ...

ANKARA (Reuters) - A Syrian general was among some 1,000 refugees who fled to Turkey in the last 24 hours, bringing the number of Syrian generals now in Turkey to seven, a Turkish Foreign Ministry spokesman said on Thursday. He said the total number of Syrian refugees in Turkey as of Thursday morning was now 14,700. "This shows the seriousness of the situation in Syria," spokesman Selcuk Unal told a news conference. (Reporting by Tulay Karadeniz; Writing by jon Hemming; Editing by Toby Chopra)

The Note’s Must-Reads are a round-up of today’s political headlines and stories from ABC News and the top U.S. newspapers. Posted Monday through Friday right here at www.abcnews.com Compiled by ABC News’ Jayce Henderson, Amanda VanAllen, and Alicia Tejada ELECTION 2012: Bloomberg’s Julianna Goldman: “Obama-Romney...

(Reuters) - Zohra Bensemra is a news photographer for Reuters. Based in Algiers, she traveled on assignment to Syria in February. This is her account of that journey: The contact from Syria called: "Be ready in 30 minutes," he said. "If you want to go, we have to go now." From the moment we left our Turkish hotel near the border, my colleague and I traveled on dirt roads used by smugglers and farmers around Syria's northern frontier. The highways were busy with soldiers and shabbiha, irregular pro-Assad fighters. ...

The Truth-o-Meter says: Mostly True | Gingrich said energy secretary advocated raising gas prices

Newt Gingrich, who has promised gasoline at $2.50 a gallon if he’s elected president, frequently blames the Obama administration for rising prices at the pump. He recently called President Barack Obama’s energy plan "outrageously anti-American." And in an interview on Fox News Sunday on March 11, 2012, Gingrich said Obama is leading the nation toward "greater dependency and much more expensive gasoline, maybe ultimately as high as $9 or $10 a gallon, which is what his secretary of energy, Dr. Chu, says he wants it to be. "He has said publicly he wants ...

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All was not gloom and doom for the on-again, off-again, on-again frontrunner for the Republican presidential nomination. A new Pew Research poll indicated that Romney was once again the clear favorite nationally among Republicans and GOP-leaning independents for the nomination, leading Rick Santorum 33 to 24 percent in a poll that was in the field through Sunday.

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Newt Gingrich has won only two of the 25 states to vote so far, a win-loss record that makes the 1962 Mets look like a powerhouse. Gingrich may be about to find it much harder to get news coverage and he will face even more...

(Reuters) - Zohra Bensemra is a news photographer for Reuters. Based in Algiers, she traveled on assignment to Syria in February. This is her account of that journey: The contact from Syria called: "Be ready in 30 minutes," he said. "If you want to go, we have to go now." From the moment we left our Turkish hotel near the border, my colleague and I traveled on dirt roads used by smugglers and farmers around Syria's northern frontier. The highways were busy with soldiers and shabbiha, irregular pro-Assad fighters. ...

WASHINGTON (Reuters) - President Barack Obama said on Wednesday he did not anticipate any "sudden" change in plans for the pace of withdrawing troops from Afghanistan. Obama was speaking at news conference following a White House meeting with British Prime Minister David Cameron. (Reporting By Jeff Mason and Matt Spetalnick; Editing by Jackie Frank)

Rick Santorum won the Alabama and Mississippi primaries last night, despite being outspent by GOP front-runner Mitt Romney. Santorum's wins raise questions about the candidates' ability to connect with the party's base. Host Michel Martin speaks with Mississippi Public Broadcasting's Jeffrey Hess and John Archibald of The Birmingham News.

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It has been nearly two weeks since Rush Limbaugh called Sandra Fluke a “slut” and in the age of the 24-hour news cycle, that is virtually an eternity. Yet the outrage over the conservative talk radio host’s remarks is still making headlines, spawning activist attacks...

DUBAI (Reuters) - Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad has appeared in parliament for an unprecedented grilling by lawmakers dissatisfied with his performance, Iranian media reported on Wednesday. Ahmadinejad was accompanied by a number of cabinet ministers to the special session, state news agency IRNA said, after being summoned last month by a group of hostile MPs. He is the first president to be summoned by parliament in the history of the Islamic Republic. ...

The Note’s Must-Reads are a round-up of today’s political headlines and stories from ABC News and the top U.S. newspapers. Posted Monday through Friday right here at www.abcnews.com Compiled by ABC News’ Jayce Henderson, Amanda VanAllen, and Alicia Tejada PRESIDENT OBAMA: Bloomberg’s Mike Dorning: “Obama...

BEIJING (Reuters) - China's Premier Wen Jiabao said on Wednesday that Beijing has no favorites in the Syrian crisis and that he is "deeply pained" by the suffering of the Syrian people, though his remarks do not suggest Beijing's diplomatic stance will change. "China has no personal interests on the issue of Syria and China does not seek to protect any party, including the government of Syria," Wen said, speaking at a news conference at the end of the annual meeting of China's parliament. ...