Anchored by Jake Tapper, The Lead airs at 4 p.m. ET on CNN.
Sen. Chris Murphy weighs on the ongoing crisis in Ukraine, and the latest on missing Flight 370.
world lead
(CNN) – Police in Sochi, Russia, have handed out fliers to hotels warning of a woman they believe could be a terrorist and who may currently be in the city, which is set to host the Winter Olympic Games.
One flier asks workers to be on the lookout for Ruzanna Ibragimova, described as the widow of a member of a militant group from the Caucuses.
world lead
(CNN) - After taking a chopper tour of the carnage in the Philippines, an American general said there were bodies everywhere.
The Marines have now touched down in the nation, to help the more than four million people affected by what could be the biggest storm ever known to man.
CNN Pentagon correspondent Barbara Starr has more on America's humanitarian effort in the aftermath of the typhoon.
world lead
(CNN) - Armed men stormed a boat off Nigeria's coast and took hostage two mariners believed to be U.S. citizens, a U.S. official said Thursday.
Pirates kidnapped the captain and chief engineer from a U.S.-flagged oil platform supply vessel in the Gulf of Guinea on Wednesday, the official said.
Details about the crew members' conditions and the condition of their ship, the C-Retriever, were not immediately available.
Louisiana-based Edison Chouest Offshore, which owns the vessel, did not immediately respond to requests for comment.
Travel by sea can be perilous in the region where the attack occurred, one analyst said Thursday.
"The danger there is extreme," said Capt. Don Marcus, president of the International Organization of Masters, Mates & Pilots.
national lead
Washington (CNN) – The FBI has identified the dead suspect in Monday's shooting rampage at the Washington Navy Yard as Aaron Alexis, 34, a military contractor from Texas.
The suspect was positively identified using fingerprints and ID, the Washington FBI Field Office said, asking members of the public for assistance tracking down information about Alexis.
"No piece of information is too small," said Valerie Parlave, assistant director in charge of the office. "We are looking to learn everything we can about his recent movements, his contacts and associates."
world lead
President Barack Obama said the United States does not plan to send troops to Syria. That leaves airstrikes as the most likely response to Syrian President Bashar al-Assad regime's use of chemical weapons.
The military, especially the U.S. Navy which already has five warships in position in the Mediterranean, are ready to go – all they are waiting for is the president's order.
CNN's Pentagon correspondent Barbara Starr reports.
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