One to two feet of snow might blanket the northeast from New York City to Boston and even farther north. The blizzard is predicted to strike Friday, and can potentially reach historic proportions. Airlines have canceled more than 500 flights and people from Pennsylvania to Maine rushed to stock up on food and supplies. (Read full story here.)

An asteroid measuring 150 feet will pass by Earth next Friday. The large rock will come within 17,000 miles of the planet, which is the closest an object of that size has ever been. However, NASA said Thursday there is no reason to worry about it hitting Earth or a satellite. It’ll fly by at a speed of 17,400 mph, but it can be seen with binoculars or telescopes.

Tunisia’s political turmoil reached a new high Thursday as the ruling Islamist party rejected its prime minister’s decision to replace the government. This decision comes after the assassination of Chokri Belaid, a politician from an opposing party, Wednesday. The politician’s death led to protests, which police had to use teargas to break up. Tunisia’s economy has been struggling for months and the new wave of political violence is causing unrest in the African nation. (Read full story here.)

The New Mexico Medical Board decided Thursday the Albuquerque doctor was not guilty of gross negligence for her handling of a late-term abortion. This case posed questions about whether politics are more important than patient privacy when it first began in 2011. The doctor, Shelley Sella, performed the abortion for a New York woman who found out the fetus had severe brain abnormalities.

Contact Maura Zurick at [email protected].