Politics: The who and what of politics

It's official: Katy Perry to headline Super Bowl halftime

 Get ready to hear that voice, hear that sound -- like thunder gonna shake the ground. Confirming rumors that had been around at least since last month, the NFL said Sun-day that Katy Perry will headline the next Super Bowl halftime show. Following in the show-stopping dance steps of Bruno Mars from this year might be a tall order. But Perry says she's already planning her own fireworks.. 

 

 Cleveland police say slain youth held air gun 'indistinguishable from a real gun'

 The 12-year-old boy shot by Cleveland police over the weekend was wielding an air gun that is "indistinguishable from a real gun," Cleveland Police Chief Calvin Williams told reporters Monday. [Previous story, posted at 10:41 a.m. ET] Cleveland authorities have surveillance video showing the weekend shooting by po-lice of a 12-year-old boy who was brandishing an ultrarealistic air gun, a department spokesman said Monday.

 

 Exclusive: Why TV anchors met secretly with Ferguson officer who shot Michael Brown

 In the pursuit of that interview, several high-profile television anchors have secretly met with Wilson, according to sources at several TV networks. All of the meetings were off the record, meaning the anchors could not describe what was said. These meetings are a normal part of the TV guest booking process, but they're signifi-cant in this case because Wilson has not been seen in public since Brown's death in Ferguson, Missouri on August 9. Among the anchors who have met with Wilson are Matt Lauer of NBC, George Steph-anopoulos of ABC, Scott Pelley of CBS, and Anderson Cooper and Don Lemon of CNN.

 

  Suicide bomber kills 45 at Afghanistan volleyball game

At least 45 people were killed and 60 others wounded Sunday when a suicide bomber attacked a crowd watching a volleyball match in the Yahyakhil district of Afghanistan's southeastern Paktika province, according to a spokesman for the provincial governor. In 2010, a suicide car bomb exploded in the middle of a group of men playing volleyball, a popular sport in the region, in northwest Pakistan. That attack left 30 people dead and 52 wounded. Sunday's attack comes the same day the nation's parliament agreed to allow U.S. and NATO forc-es to remain in Afghanistan after 2014. It's unusual for an attack in Afghanistan to kill so many people.