Updated at 9:40 a.m. ET: U.S. Secretary of State Hillary Rodham Clinton called Sunday for “friends of democratic Syria” to unite and rally against President Bashar Assad’s regime, previewing the possible formation of a formal group of likeminded nations to coordinate assistance to the Syrian opposition.

Speaking in the Bulgarian capital of Sofia a day after Russia and China blocked U.N. Security Council action on Syria, Clinton said the international community had a duty to halt ongoing bloodshed and promote a political transition that would see Assad step down. She said the “friends of Syria” should work together to promote those ends.

Clinton was bluntly critical of Saturday’s veto by Russia and China at the United Nations blocking action against the continuing violence in Syria. “What happened yesterday at the United Nations was a travesty,” she said.

Why are they pardoning the DUI drivers?  I think that you do the crime you do the time. They are just learning to do something wrong and they can get away with doing the wrong thing. Why do the Judges give such a lite sentence to these people, but to have a Govern to pardon them for drinking while driving I don’t think it is right. What is this teaching our children when they want to drink and drive. They watch and learn from us and this is not the right way.  I know these people have families to, but someone has to step up to the plate and get them help one way or another. Just my opinion.

OXFORD, Mississippi (CNN) — Unraveling the complex back stories of the more than 200 pardons issued by former Mississippi Gov. Haley Barbour is revealing serious questions about how pardon review decisions were carried out.

But perhaps no pardon is as confounding as the case of Harry Bostick. The retired Internal Revenue Service investigator’s pardon has been called “heinous” by critics of Barbour.

“Someone didn’t do their homework on this case,” said Democratic state Rep. Steve Holland.

When Barbour pardoned Bostick in January, the convicted DUI felon was sitting in an Oxford, Mississippi, jail cell for violating the terms of a previous DUI sentence and was awaiting formal charges from yet another drunken driving accident in October that ended in the tragic death of 18-year-old Charity Smith. Who’s at fault in that accident has yet to be determined.

Is the end of the Afghanistan war near? While another story is the top topic of political conversation — Romney’s “I’m not concerned about the very poor” — there’s a more impactful story that’s in the news today: Defense Secretary Leon Panetta’s announcement that the U.S. will end its combat operations in Afghanistan by the middle of next year. The Washington Post: “The United States hopes to end its combat mission in Afghanistan by the middle of next year, more than a year earlier than scheduled, Defense Secretary Leon E. Panetta said Wednesday. His remarks reflected a growing sentiment within the Obama administration that its approach to Iraq, where the official end of U.S. combat operations came 16 months before the final U.S. troop withdrawal in December, may provide a useful model for winding down operations in Afghanistan.”

Adam Bevelacqua graduated from Brooklyn Law School last year with $100,000 in debt but high hopes for his future.

He passed the bar on his first try in New York and had internships to highlight on his resume. And, according to his research, the school’s job placement rate for new graduates was between 90 to 95 percent.

But Bevelacqua, 29, is no longer as optimistic.

“I’ve been looking for work ever since,” Bevelacqua told msnbc.com. “The jobs aren’t really there.”

On Wednesday, Bevelacqua joined 50 other law school graduates from across the country who sued their alma maters, alleging they were misled about job prospects and burdened with huge amounts of student debt.

LONDON — Landlords in Britain’s capital are evicting tenants so they can cash in on this summer’s Olympic Games by charging tourists many times the usual rent.

Homes in the east London boroughs where many events are to be held are fetching between five and 15 times their typical rates as properties are rebranded as short-term “Olympic lets.” Some landlords are also enforcing expensive “penalty” clauses for tenants who want to remain during the gathering of the world’s top athletes.

Rent controls are almost non-existent in Britain and some Londoners told msnbc.com that the looming increase in housing costs will leave them with no choice but to leave the city for the summer.

McDonald’s confirmed that it has eliminated the use of ammonium hydroxide — an ingredient in fertilizers, household cleaners and some roll-your-own explosives — in its hamburger meat.

The company denied that its decision was influenced by a months-long
campaign by celebrity chef Jamie Oliver to get
ammonium-hydroxide-treated meats like chicken and beef out of the U.S.
food supply. But it acknowledged this week that it had stopped using the
unappetizing pink goo — made from treating otherwise inedible scrap
meat with the chemical — several months ago.

KANEOHE BAY, Hawaii — A Marine accused of hazing a colleague who later committed suicide in Afghanistan was sentenced Monday to 30 days in jail and a reduction in rank.

Navy Capt. Carrie Stephens, the judge in Lance Cpl. Jacob Jacoby’s special court-martial, handed down the sentence after Jacoby pleaded guilty to assault.

Jacoby’s rank will be reduced by one grade to private first class.

Two other Marines have also been accused of hazing Lew and face courts-martial.

Jacoby admitted he punched and kicked Lance Cpl. Harry Lew. As part of the plea deal, prosecutors withdrew charges that Jacoby humiliated and threatened Lew.

KITAMAAT VILLAGE, British Columbia — The latest chapter in Canada’s quest to become a full-blown oil superpower unfolded this month in a village gym on the British Columbia coast.

Here, several hundred people gathered for hearings on whether a pipeline should be laid from the Alberta oil sands to the Pacific in order to deliver oil to Asia, chiefly energy-hungry China. The stakes are particularly high for the village of Kitamaat and its neighbors, because the pipeline would terminate here and a port would be built to handle 220 tankers a year and 525,000 barrels of oil a day.

ALBUQUERQUE, N.M. — A homeless man who was stuck in thick mud near the Rio Grande river in Albuquerque for three days was rescued Saturday after some high school students on a field trip heard him ye

However, the man’s newfound freedom wasn’t going to last. Police said
he was wanted on a felony warrant, and they planned to arrest him after
he was treated at a local hospital.

A group of La Cueva High School students and their biology teacher
heard the man yelling Saturday morning from a marshy wetlands area in
the Oxbow Open Space Preserve, the Albuquerque Fire Department and
police officials said.

The students were in the area — about two miles north of Interstate
40 in Albuquerque — doing a school project. They called authorities and
told them that the man said he’d been stuck in the river for three days
and could not move, according to a police report.

lling for help, authorities said.