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Out of Cairo on Monday came new indications that Egypt's military chief, General Abdel Fattah al-Sisi, will run for president in an election expected within the next three months. The Supreme Council of the Armed Forces, Egypt's highest military body, disseminated a message praising Sisi and endorsing him for a presidential bid.

At the Syrian peace talks, government and opposition representatives held their first face-to-face discussion about a political transition — but by the end of the day, UN mediator Lakhdar Brahimi had no progress to report. He urged both sides to focus on the desperate humanitarian situation facing Syrians in several besieged cities.

In a community overrun with stray animals, one woman in Macon, Ga., has taken it upon herself to spay every single female dog at her own expense. The stray dog problem is acute in the South and has gotten worse since 2008. Kerri Fickling decided she would never really solve the problem piecemeal; the only solution was to stop overpopulation at the source, and if no one else would do it, she would. Adam Ragusea, of Georgia Public Broadcasting, reports on her quest.

The X Games have changed the lineup and atmosphere of the Winter Olympics with the introduction of snowboarding, half-pipe and now slopestyle. But when a youth-lifestyle, punk-rock sport makes it to the Olympics, some things inevitably change.

Three years after a $200 million program was started, 50 percent of recruits are illiterate. Teaching all 352,000 recruits to read and write at a first-grade level, said some officials, may be "unrealistic."

The Obama administration is flooding just about every major social media platform in its major digital push before — and during — the State of the Union address.

Punishments, which were chosen by spinning a roulette wheel, included a "20 second Manny Pacquiao" in which suspects were punched for 20 seconds, according to Amnesty International. The practice allegedly was used on more than 40 detainees, mostly suspected drug traffickers.

The development comes despite objections from Vice President Joe Biden, who has urged senior officials in Beijing not to punish U.S. journalists with de facto expulsion. China has not granted a request for a new visa that was made last summer.

On Tuesday night, President Obama will lay out his priorities before Congress and, more importantly, the country at large. NPR's national political correspondent, Mara Liasson, speaks with Audie Cornish about what the president hopes to accomplish with this year's State of the Union.

Palestinian Ala'a Miqbel thought he was going for a brief interview with Israeli security for a permit for work travel to the West Bank. Instead, he was arrested and taken to prison. There, he met Palestinian informants known as "sparrows," who masquerade as fellow prisoners and elicit information for the Israelis.