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The Obama administration is plugging its health care plan by saying that half of young, single people can buy health coverage for $50 a month or less. A closer look at the claim finds that it's more like a third of single, uninsured, young adults who would get a deal that good.

Mexico is considering relaxing its law prohibiting foreigners from owning land within 30 miles of the coast or about 60 miles from an international border. Real estate developers say the change would lead to a boom along Mexico's coasts. But opponents fear it could launch a modern-day foreign land grab.

Faced with harsh criticism over its vast surveillance operation, the NSA and its allies are pushing back. They say their intelligence collection is being done in response to demands from the executive branch of the U.S. government and not on its own. The NSA says it is currently working on 36,000 pages of what it calls "requirements" — intel speak for intelligence assignments it gets from branches of the U.S. government.

Over the five months since Edward Snowden began leaking secret documents to the media about American spying, President Obama has adjusted his response to the disclosures. At first, he suggested the concern was misplaced, but more recently, his message has been that something needs to change.

As technical problems with the government's new health insurance marketplace slow the pace of sign-up, a variety of "fixes" have been proposed. But some of these would create their own challenges. In rough order from least to most disruptive, here are some of the ideas.

The Obama administration says just about 100,000 people managed to choose health plans through the federal and state health exchanges during their first month of the program. Critics say that shows the law is failing. But most analysts say the first month's numbers wouldn't have meant very much, even if the federal website had been working properly.

Stories of survival are still emerging from the Philippines following the devastation caused by Typhoon Haiyan. The U.S. military has been playing a major role helping the area recover. Survivors say if not for U.S. Marine transport planes, they would be trapped in Tacloban.

The Canadian province has proposed a "secularism charter" that would ban government workers from wearing religious symbols. Supporters say it would preserve gender equality and the separation of church and state. Critics say the measure curbs religious freedom. The issue has echoes of a debate that's played out in France twice in the past decade.

The bungled rollout of the federal health care website appears to already be taking a toll on Democratic senators up for re-election in 2014, but some have managed to stay ahead of the bad news.

It's too blue for most news organizations to repeat. But on live TV, Mayor Rob Ford addressed some of the latest allegations against him with some very crude comments.