In other news, the vacant Senate seat in Massachusetts was up for grabs on Tuesday, and in Afghanistan, two U.S. troops were killed by a roadside bomb in the south.

President Obama traveled to Massachusetts on Sunday to stump for Democratic candidate Martha Coakley in the increasingly tight race to fill the Senate seat of the late Edward M. Kennedy.

Columnists Mark Shields and David Brooks sort through the week's news, including the tight Senate race in Massachusetts and the American response to the devastating earthquake in Haiti.