Here's what's happening across the United States and around the world today.
Tens of millions of Northeast residents hunker down for storms not quite as bad as predicted
NEW YORK (AP) — Tens of millions of people along the East Coast hunkered down for a storm that for most failed to live up to predictions that it would be one of the worst they'd ever seen.
Forecasters originally said the storm could bring 1 to 3 feet of snow and punishing hurricane-force winds. But early Tuesday, they downgraded most of those numbers, saying New England would fare the worst, but even then not as bad as expected.
Bruce Sullivan of the National Weather Service said Boston and Providence, Rhode Island, could get the most snow, about 2 feet. New York could see 10 inches to 20 inches, Hartford, Connecticut, 1 to 2 feet, and Philadelphia and central New Jersey about 6 inches.
The National Weather Service over the weekend had issued a blizzard warning for a 250-mile swath of the region, meaning heavy, blowing snow and potential whiteout conditions.
On Monday, life abruptly stopped across the region as officials ordered workers to go home early, banned travel, closed bridges and tunnels, and assembled their biggest plowing crews.
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Stories that affect your life across the U.S. and around the world.
Japanese envoy to Jordan voices hopes for release of Islamic State group hostage and pilot
TOKYO (AP) — A Japanese envoy in Jordan expressed hope that both Japanese hostage Kenji Goto and a Jordanian pilot held by Islamic militants will return home "with a smile on their faces," as questions rose Tuesday over the government's handling of the crisis.
In the Jordanian capital, Amman, Deputy Foreign Minister Yasuhide Nakayama seemed determined, saying he believed there were "firm ties" between Japan and Jordan.
"I hope we can all firmly work hard and join hands to cooperate, and for the two countries (Japan and Jordan) to cooperate, in order for us to see the day when the Jordanian pilot and our Japanese national Mr. Goto, can both safely return to their own countries with a smile on their faces," Nakayama, a lawmaker send to coordinate efforts in Amman to save two Japanese hostages of the Islamic State group, said late Monday night.
It was the first mention by a Japanese official of Jordanian pilot 1st Lt. Mu'ath al-Kaseasbeh, who has been held by the extremist Islamic State group after crashing in December. It wasn't clear when the pilot's possible release had entered the picture.
The issue of a prisoner swap is sensitive, given Jordanian concern over the pilot, and Nakayama emerged from the Japanese Embassy on Tuesday with no new updates.
Libyan security official says gunmen at luxury Tripoli hotel take hostages; 3 guards killed.
TRIPOLI, Libya (AP) — Gunmen stormed a luxury Libyan hotel popular with foreigners Tuesday, killing at least three guards and taking hostages, a security official said.
Essam Al-Naas, a spokesman for a Tripoli security agency, said a standoff continued Tuesday afternoon at the Corinthia Hotel, which sits along the Mediterranean Sea.
A hotel staffer said five masked attackers wearing bulletproof vests stormed the hotel after security at the gates tried to stop them. He said they entered the hotel and fired randomly at the staff in the lobby.
The staffer said the gunmen fired in his direction when he opened his door to look out. He said he joined the rest of the staff and foreign guests fleeing out the hotel's back doors into the parking lot.
When they got there, he said a car bomb exploded in the parking lot, only a hundred meters (yards) away. He said this came after a protection force entered the lobby and opened fire on the attackers. He said two guards were immediately killed. The staffer spoke on condition of anonymity because he feared retribution.
Obama draws on experience as a minority while touting gender and religious equality in India
NEW DELHI (AP) — President Barack Obama gently nudged India Tuesday to fulfill its constitution's pledge to uphold the "dignity of the individual," drawing on his own experience as a minority in the United States as he closed out a three-day visit to New Delhi.
Obama said that while he has had extraordinary opportunities, "there were moments in my life where I've been treated differently because of the color of my skin." As he touted the importance of religious tolerance, he noted the persistent false rumors that he is a Muslim, not a Christian.
"There have been times where my faith has at times been questioned by people who don't know me, or they've said that I adhere to a different religion, as if that were somehow a bad thing," Obama said.
Equality is enshrined in India's constitution, but religious minorities and women have experienced harassment and violence. A horrific gang rape on a moving bus in the heart of New Delhi in 2012 sparked public protests, which prompted more stringent laws. But critics say more progress is needed and Obama gave voice to their cause.
"Every woman should be able to go about her day — to walk the street or ride the bus — and be safe and be treated with the respect and dignity that she deserves," Obama said to applause from the audience of 1,500 at the Siri Fort Auditorium, a government-run event center.
US-backed project collapsed amid questionable due diligence, worker harm, environmental cost
BUCHANAN, Liberia (AP) — A failed U.S. government-backed plan to produce environmentally friendly energy in one of Africa's poorest countries was marred by insider connections and questionable planning, an Associated Press investigation found. The federal agency at the center of the deal is one of the government's biggest secrets and routinely escapes public scrutiny.
That agency, the Overseas Private Investment Corporation, approved three loans totaling $217 million to help a company, Buchanan Renewables, convert nonproducing rubber trees into biomass chips that would help power Liberia.
The agency approves more than $3 billion a year in global financing, but its internal watchdog, the Office of Accountability, has issued reports on just five deals since 2005, a period when OPIC approved more than 530 projects. OPIC's profile is so low it regularly cancels annual public hearings because no one signs up to speak.
In early 2013, Buchanan Renewables shuttered its Liberian operations and dismissed 600 workers. It never built a promised power plant, so instead of powering a nation in need, it shipped biomass chips to Europe. It repaid the U.S. government loans, but left Liberia with fields of depleted rubber farms and allegations of sexual abuse and workplace hazards.
From the start, the AP found, OPIC's support for the power project in this western African country was marked by questionable due diligence and deep political links. Even for ostensibly philanthropic projects meant to aid the world's poorest, profit and corporate opportunities can intersect with family and business ties among Washington's political elite.
Facebook, Instagram suffer self-inflicted hour long outage affecting users worldwide
SEOUL, South Korea (AP) — Facebook said it suffered a self-inflicted outage lasting an hour on Tuesday that made its site inaccessible to users worldwide.
The glitch reported in Asia, the United States, Australia and the U.K. affected access from PCs and Facebook's mobile app. The social media giant's Instagram service was also inaccessible.
A Facebook statement said the disruption was caused by a technical change it made to the site and wasn't a cyberattack. Lizard Squad, a group notorious for attention seeking antics online, claimed responsibility on Twitter for the outages.
"This was not the result of a third party attack but instead occurred after we introduced a change that affected our configuration systems," Facebook said.
The temporary loss of service may be Facebook's biggest outage since Sept. 24, 2010 when it was down for about 2.5 hours.
Leaders, survivors mark 70th anniversary of Auschwitz liberation by Soviets, but without Putin
OSWIECIM, Poland (AP) — When the Soviet army entered Auschwitz exactly 70 years ago, finding piles of corpses and prisoners close to death, a Russian soldier took a small and hungry 11-year-old girl into his arms and rocked her tenderly, tears coming to his eyes.
That girl, today the 81-year-old Paula Lebovics, doesn't know who that soldier was, but still feels enormous gratitude to him and the other Soviet soldiers who liberated the camp on Jan. 27, 1945.
To her, it is a shame that Russian President Vladimir Putin won't be among other European leaders Tuesday on the anniversary of the death camp's liberation, his absence coming amid a deep chill between Russia and the West over the Kremlin's actions in Ukraine.
"He should be there," said Lebovics, who traveled from her home in Encino, California, back to the land of her birth for the ceremonies. "They were our liberators."
Another survivor, Eva Mozes Kor, said she will not miss Putin "but I do believe that from a moral and historical perspective he should be here." Kor compared Putin to Adolf Hitler, "grabbing land here and grabbing land there to see what he can get away with."
US announces charges in Russian spy ring case, say 3 defendants tried to recruit New Yorkers
NEW YORK (AP) — Three Russian citizens were charged Monday in connection with a Cold War-style Russian spy ring that spoke in code, passed messages concealed in bags and magazines, and tried to recruit people with ties to an unnamed New York City university, authorities said.
The defendants were directed by Russian authorities to gather sensitive economic intelligence on potential U.S. sanctions against Russian banks and efforts here to develop alternative energy resources, according to a complaint filed in federal court in Manhattan.
Prosecutors say one defendant, Yevgeny Buryakov, posed as an employee in the Manhattan branch of a Russian bank. He was arrested on Monday in the Bronx, where he lived with his Russian wife and two children.
At an initial court appearance, Assistant U.S. Attorney Adam Fee portrayed Buryakov as a professional spy skilled at duplicity.
"His life here, your honor, really is a deception," the prosecutor said.
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