Blog Posts by Olivier Knox, Yahoo! News

President Barack Obama and Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu at the White House on March 5, 2012. (Jason Reed/Reuters)President Barack Obama arrives in Israel on Wednesday without Michelle Obama, without Vice President Joe Biden, without a specific plan to relaunch the Middle East peace process, but bearing a heavy agenda focused on Iran, Syria and regional unrest.

Obama has visited Israel before—he traveled there as a presidential candidate, midway through 2008—but this will be his first time since taking office. His trip will also feature talks with Palestinian leaders in the West Bank and with King Abdullah in Jordan.

The visit will be packed with symbolic stops, such as a return visit to the Yad Vashem Holocaust memorial and photo-op tour of an “Iron Dome” anti-missile battery. But Obama won’t address Israel’s parliament, the Knesset, and his official public schedule does not include a stop at the Western Wall. (Stay tuned on that one, though. Not being on the public schedule is not necessarily the same as not being on the itinerary—security precautions sometimes occasion strategy omissions.)

Below are key stops on his schedule, as provided to reporters in a conference call on Thursday with Deputy National Security Adviser Ben Rhodes and U.S. Ambassador to Israel Dan Shapiro. Much of it was disclosed days ago by the Israeli newspaper Haaretz.

Speaker of the House John Boehner at a meeting with the House Republican Conference members on Capitol Hill in Washington, March 13, 2013. (Larry Downing/Reuters)

Nope-a-pope? Republican House Speaker John Boehner, the highest-ranking Catholic in Congress, won't be joining Vice President Joe Biden, the highest-ranking Catholic in the U.S. government, on his trip to Rome for Pope Francis' inaugural Mass, he announced Thursday. Why? Too much work to do in Washington!

President Barack Obama had invited Boehner to join Biden, who is leading the American delegation to the pope's investiture.

"I am grateful for the invitation to attend the papal investiture in Rome with Vice President Biden, and would like to be able to join the trip," Boehner said in a statement provided by his office. "Unfortunately, my duties in the House next week—including hosting President Obama and the Prime Minister of Ireland at the Capitol on Tuesday, and the debate on the budget—make that impossible.

"I wish the Vice President all the best in his journey, and hope he communicates the prayers and warm regards of every American, especially Catholics, to the first pope from

Sen. John McCain, R-Ariz., at a foreign policy discussion at the American-Israeli Public Affairs Committee Policy Conference, March 4, 2013. (Susan Walsh/AP)Forty years to the day after an American military plane carried John McCain and his fellow newly released U.S. prisoners of war out of North Vietnam, the Republican senator from Arizona cheered improved relations on Thursday, but urged the former U.S. foe to embrace democratic reforms.

“When it comes to the values that Americans hold dear—freedom, human rights and the rule of law—our highest hopes for Vietnam still remain largely just hopes,” McCain wrote in an op-ed published in The Wall Street Journal. “The government in Hanoi still imprisons and mistreats peaceful dissidents, journalists, bloggers, and ethnic and religious minorities for political reasons.”

McCain welcomed recent talks between Vietnam’s government and human rights group Amnesty International, as well as suggestions that Hanoi “may finally reform its constitution to better protect civil and political rights for its citizens.”

“I sincerely hope so—for while great relationships can be built on the basis of common

Newly elected Pope Francis, Cardinal Jorge Mario Bergoglio of Argentina, appears at the Vatican, March 13, 2013. (Dylan Martinez/Reuters)President Barack Obama on Wednesday acclaimed the election of Pope Francis and vowed to work with him “to advance peace, security and dignity for our fellow human beings, regardless of their faith.”

Vice President Joe Biden, the top-ranking Catholic in the U.S. government, said he would travel to Rome to attend the pope's inaugural Mass and "relay my well wishes, and those of the American people."

Obama’s statement came shortly after the Vatican announced that Cardinal Jorge Mario Bergoglio of Argentina had been selected—a surprise choice to lead the world’s 1.2 billion Roman Catholics.

Here are the full statements from the president and the vice president, as released by the White House:

Obama:

On behalf of the American people, Michelle and I offer our warm wishes to His Holiness Pope Francis as he ascends to the Chair of Saint Peter and begins his papacy. As a champion of the poor and the most vulnerable among us, he carries forth the message of love and compassion that has inspired

Secretary of State John Kerry and Libyan Prime Minister Ali Zeidan speak to reporters during their joint news conference in Washington. (Jose Luis Magana/AP)Libyan Prime Minister Ali Zidan, making his first official trip to Washington six months after the deadly Sept. 11 attack in Benghazi, publicly promised Wednesday that his government would identify, capture and put on trial those behind it.

Libya and the United States will work together “in order to reach the truth—who are the perpetrators of the crimes that were committed,” Zeidan said during a joint press conference with Secretary of State John Kerry.

“They must be put to trial,” he said through an interpreter, citing the demands of “American public opinion” and “our Islamic heritage.”

Zeidan added, “We are keen on reaching the truth and to see that justice is achieved.”

President Barack Obama, who has drawn heavy fire from Republicans over his handling of the attack on the American compound in Benghazi, dropped in on Zeidan’s meeting at the White House with National Security Adviser Tom Donilon.

“The president expressed the United States’ support for the Libyan people and their government as they continue their democratic transition,” National Security Council spokeswoman Caitlin Hayden said in a statement. “The president reaffirmed his commitment to ensuring that the perpetrators of the September 11 attacks against the U.S. mission in Benghazi are brought to justice, and stressed the importance of Libya’s cooperation with the ongoing investigation.”

Two days past the six-month mark since the attack, which claimed the lives of four Americans, including Ambassador Chris Stevens, officials have yet to announce significant captures in the case or even conclusively pinpoint the identities of those responsible.

Zipolite, Mexico (Jody Kurash/AP)OK, it’s not actually personal advice from Secretary of State John Kerry. But the U.S. State Department on Wednesday unveiled what it describes as “scary, but true” warnings to American students planning to head overseas for the annual debauchery that is spring break.

“Students are not invincible when they go abroad. Every year, there are incidents of travelers being arrested, injured, sexually assaulted, and even killed,” the department warns on one of several webpages.

In a triumph of optimism over experience, the department urges revelers to “avoid underage and excessive alcohol consumption.”

“'Overdoing it’ leads to the majority of arrests, accidents, violent crimes, rapes, and deaths suffered by American students on spring break,” it says. “As in the U.S., disturbing the peace, lewd behavior, littering, driving under the influence, drinking on the street or on public transportation may all be considered criminal activities by local authorities—is it worth it?”

No hard drugs. No weapons, especially guns. Be cautious about where and when you swim. Don’t take part in political demonstrations: “You can ‘stick it to the man,’" the department says, "but on your own soil.” If you keep making that face, it’ll freeze that way forever. OK, that last one is fake.

A U.S. Predator drone above Kandahar Air Field in Afghanistan. (Kirsty Wigglesworth/AP)The ongoing battle over President Barack Obama's expanded use of unmanned aerial vehicles is far from over.

The Senate Judiciary Committee announced on Wednesday that it will hold hearings starting next week on the use of drones at home and abroad, studying the privacy implications and debating the constitutional repercussions of Obama’s targeted assassination program.

The first hearing, set for March 20, is called “The Future of Drones in America: Law Enforcement and Privacy Considerations.” The second hearing, scheduled for April 16, is called “Drone Wars: The Constitutional and Counterterrorism Implications of Targeted Killing.”

“Drones have the potential to assist law enforcement and other first responders, but they could also pose a significant threat to the privacy and civil liberties of millions of Americans,” Sen. Patrick Leahy, D-Vt., said in a statement announcing the hearings.

“This is another example of a fast-changing policy area on which we need to focus to make sure that modern technology is not used to erode Americans’ right to privacy,” said Leahy, who will chair the first hearing.

No. 2 Senate Democrat Dick Durbin of Illinois will chair the second session, which will take up questions about who can legitimately be targeted for killing and under what circumstances, as well as consider “establishing a transparent legal framework for the use of drones.”

President Barack Obama (Chip Somodevilla/Getty Images)

(CLARIFICATION added at 2:58 p.m. Wednesday.)

President Barack Obama took questions about the economy, his budget, drone policy, immigration and other issues on Tuesday as he met behind closed doors for more than an hour with Senate Democrats. It's a divided group that he aims to unite behind key second-term goals like immigration reform, battling gun violence and reining in deficits and the nation's debt.

Obama heard from Democrats up for re-election in 2014 who worry that his yet-to-be-released budget could leave them open to GOP campaign attacks over government spending, as well as from liberals who strongly urged him not to make "whacking away" at entitlement benefits a part of any "grand bargain" with the GOP.

"We're trying to stay united," Democratic Sen. Claire McCaskill of Missouri told reporters. Are Democrats united now? "We're getting pretty united." What issues still divide Democrats? "I’m not going to talk about that, because I want us to get united first," she said. "And then we’ll be united."

Obama's unusual visit launched a weeklong campaign of outreach to Congress that includes a Wednesday meeting with House Republicans, and then separate Thursday talks with Senate Republicans and House Democrats.

The outreach, which inside-the-Beltway tradition seemingly requires reporters to dub a “charm offensive,” comes after the president treated Republican senators to dinner at a swank D.C. hotel last week. He also hosted the top House Republican and Democratic budget-writers at the White House. Through it all, he’s also been working the phones, calling lawmakers from both parties and both chambers.

So why was this meeting necessary, reporters asked Democratic Senate Finance Committee Chairman Max Baucus of Montana. "It's always good to talk," he said. But Obama hasn't made a lot of these trips, a reporter pointed out. "Better late than never," Baucus replied. What was the president's message? "Work together. Teamwork. History’s on our side. All that kind of thing," he said.