United States

BRUSSELS -- Afghan and Pakistani leaders met with U.S. Secretary of State John F. Kerry on Wednesday to try to reverse a deterioration in relations that has threatened Afghanistan's peacemaking efforts. Invited by Kerry, Afghan President Hamid Karzai and Pakistani army chief Gen. Ashfaq Kayani flew to a sprawling Flemish-style estate on the edge of Brussels to try to overcome their differences on a long list of security issues. Kerry emerged after more than three hours of talks saying that he believed “we made progress,” but making no claims of a breakthrough.

The U.S. Supreme Court ruled Tuesday that legal immigrants convicted of small amounts of marijuana possession are not subject to mandatory deportation. I hope the decision will serve as a strong warning to federal authorities to stop using laws intended to deport serious criminals to go after green card holders convicted of minor drug offenses. Tuesday's decision involves Adrian Moncrieffe, a Jamaican man who legally moved to the United States in 1984, when he was a three. In 2007, during a traffic stop police discovered about a small amount of marijuana in his car. He eventually pleaded guilty under Georgia law to possession with intent to distribute.

BRUSSELS - Secretary of State John F. Kerry urged nervous NATO allies to begin considering how they would respond if the Syrian regime uses chemical weapons in its civil war. Though NATO officials insist they are far from any military involvement in the 2-year-old conflict, Kerry told officials of the Western military alliance Tuesday that they needed to “carefully and collectively consider how NATO is prepared to respond to protect its members...

On Monday morning, Boston bombing suspect Dzhokhar Tsarnaev was charged with using a weapon of mass destruction. According to a transcript of that proceeding, a magistrate at Tsarnaev's hospital bedside read him the Miranda warning, informing him of his right to counsel and his right to remain silent. But among the things we don't know is if, or to what extent, Tsarnaev was interrogated before being informed of his rights. Over the weekend, Atty. Gen. Eric H. Holder Jr. gave every indication that he intended to have Tsarnaev questioned without the Miranda warning.

For more than half of my 38 years in the news business, I've been a member of a union, though I'm not currently. And my late father was a proud Teamster for decades. So I appreciate the goods that unions deliver to nearly 15 million members in the United States: living wages and good benefits. Workplace safety. A measure of job security. And protection against management abuse. In other words, don't count me among those who vilify organized labor, which in many parts of the country offers the best hope for hanging on to a place in the middle class.

WASHINGTON - President Obama believes the civilian justice system can handle cases of domestic terrorism and supports the decision to try the Boston Marathon bombing suspect in federal court, White House Press Secretary Jay Carney said Monday. “The effective use of the criminal justice system has resulted in the interrogation, conviction and detention of both U.S. citizens and noncitizens for acts of terrorism committed inside the United States and around the world,” Carney said.

JERUSALEM -- Defense Secretary Chuck Hagel arrived in Israel on Sunday to begin a weeklong tour of the Middle East as the region grapples with the worsening civil war in Syria and the stubborn nuclear threat from Iran. Making his first visit to the region as Pentagon chief, Hagel is seeking to demonstrate solidarity between the U.S. and Israel -- allies whose relations have been strained over how to deter Iran from pursuing a nuclear weapon. Israel is said to be mulling unilateral military action against Iran's nuclear facilities, a move that Obama administration officials consider extremely risky.

WASHINGTON - The FBI did “a very thorough job” vetting Boston Marathon bombing suspect Tamerlan Tsarnaev after the Russian intelligence service flagged him in early 2011 as a possible Islamic radical, the Republican chairman of the House intelligence committee said Sunday. “I don't think they missed anything,” said Rep. Mike Rogers (R-Mich.), a former FBI agent who has not hesitated to criticize the bureau and Obama administration on counter-terrorism issues. Rogers, interviewed on NBC's “Meet the Press,” said the FBI examined Tsarnaev's “digital footprints,” conducted all the database checks at its disposal and interviewed the suspect.

BOSTON - As the investigation into the Boston Marathon bombing continued Sunday, family members prepared to bury the victims, and hundreds of stunned and sorrowful residents prayed together for the dead and wounded and worked to reclaim the streets where the violence occurred a week ago. Federal officials had yet to file charges against 19-year-old Dzhokhar Tsarnaev, who was captured Friday and remains in serious condition under heavy guard at...

MOSCOW -- Tamerlan Tsarnaev, the older of the two brothers suspected in the Boston Marathon bombings, called his mother Thursday morning, hours before being killed in a shootout with police, and told her he had received a call from the FBI, she said. “He would call me every day from America in the last days,” Zubeidat Tsarnaev said Sunday in a telephone interview with The Times from her home in the Russian republic of Dagestan, “and during our last conversation on the morning [before the shootout]