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An already tense standoff between Japan and China grew even more so Tuesday. Japanese officials said a Chinese naval frigate aimed radar used for targeting weapons at a Japanese destroyer last week. The announcement comes as the Asian giants continue to send warships and military planes toward islands both claim as their own.

President Obama told a friendly audience in Las Vegas Tuesday that the prospects are bright for an overhaul of immigration laws, now that bipartisan congressional leaders are on board. The new sense of urgency comes after Latinos turned out in large numbers last fall to help re-elect the president.

Labor organizations say the Family and Medical Leave Act is too restrictive and that workers often have to choose between their family and their livelihood. Now, there are calls for Congress to expand the law and provide paid leave.

The placebo effect, in which patients perceive an effect from a fake drug, is even stronger than once believed. Host Laura Sullivan talks to Ted Kaptchuk, professor of medicine at Harvard Medical School, about his research on how sham treatments affect the way we feel.

Violence has spiked in Iraq in recent weeks. Separate attacks over the last three days have killed more than three dozen people. The violence comes amid fresh political upheaval in the country. For more, Renee Montagne talks to Jane Arraf, a reporter for Al Jazeera and The Christian Science Monitor based in Baghdad.

President Obama is expected focus on middle-class job growth and the economy in his State of the Union address Tuesday night. And while the president has fought to make the tax code more progressive, broader efforts to address income inequality could be an uphill battle at a time when the government seems bent on tightening its belt.

Another new consequence of Greece's economic crisis is that the skies of Athens and other cities are filled with smoke due to the increase in the use of wood burning stoves. The cost of heating oil has gone up 40 percent — a tax increase imposed by the troika. The Greek Environment ministry has issued a warning that the increase in pollutants in the air is posing public health risk.

Aydan Özoguz, Germany's federal commissioner for migration and refugees, is the highest-ranking Muslim in the German government. She says she is frustrated by the way terrorist incidents drive wedges between different groups in Germany.

Organic farmers say they need crop varieties that were bred specifically for conditions on their farms. Clif Bar & Company decided to back their cause with up to $10 million in grants.

Passed in 2001, the education law established more standardized testing and education data collection than at any time in U.S. history. Congress is looking to reauthorize it, but roadblocks remain.