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While Chicago and Detroit are struggling to control rising murder rates, New York City hit a record low number of homicides in 2012. The police commissioner has often pointed to several controversial policing tactics for falling crime, but some analysts say there are many potential explanations.

After threatening to gut the rule that lets a single senator bring the Senate to a virtual halt, Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid has agreed to tweak rather than transform the practice. Under the accord, Democrats would gain the ability to skip a procedural step to begin debate on a bill.

Senate leaders have reached an agreement to limit filibusters in the new Congress, especially as they relate to presidential nominations. But they stopped short of requiring senators to hold the floor in person and in real time, as the classic filibuster required.

The share of the American work force that belongs to a labor union has hit a 97 year low. Today only 11.3 percent of workers hold a union membership. Labor expert Tony Carnevale of Georgetown University's Center on Education and the Workforce says the federal government has replaced the labor union for many American workers, in pushing for health and safety regulations, minimum wage legislation and equal pay.

President Obama has nominated former prosecutor Mary Jo White to head the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC). White made her mark in high profile cases against terrorists and the mobster John Gotti. She would be the first prosecutor to head the SEC, and that could blunt criticisms that the administration hasn't been tough enough on Wall Street. But White also advised securities firms as a corporate lawyer after her stint as U.S. Attorney for the Southern District of New York.

Melissa Block talks to Col. Ellen Haring about the announcement of the end to the ban on women in combat. Haring is one of two women in the Army Reserves who filed a lawsuit last year against the Department of Defense seeking to reverse the ban.

Dror Moreh's Oscar-nominated documentary, The Gatekeepers, is built around the confessions and ruminations of the six surviving heads of the Shin Bet — Israel's domestic security service.

The Notre Dame linebacker admitted that in early interviews he was not "forthcoming," but said he did not lie. He insisted he was the victim of a hoax.

Another new consequence of Greece's economic crisis is that the skies of Athens and other cities are filled with smoke due to the increase in the use of wood burning stoves. The cost of heating oil has gone up 40 percent — a tax increase imposed by the troika. The Greek Environment ministry has issued a warning that the increase in pollutants in the air is posing public health risk.

Photographer Mustafah Abdulaziz's project documents the causes and effects of Sierra Leone's recent cholera outbreak. His images capture the immense scope and scale of the crisis — depicting the role of water, an essential element of life that cannot always be trusted.