Nation News

Searchers combed dark and snowy forests near the crest of the Cascade Range in southern Oregon on Wednesday night for a couple who told their kids they were off to cut down a special Christmas tree but did not return. Read More

An 89-year-old woman has died from injuries suffered in a weekend shooting in northeast Kansas that also left her granddaughter and two great-granddaughters dead, prosecutors said Wednesday. Read More

New York lawmakers on Wednesday rejected a bill that would have made their state the sixth to allow gay marriage, stunning advocates who suffered a similar decision by Maine voters just last month. Read More

An attorney for the fiancee of a Yale University lab technician charged with killing a graduate student said Wednesday he's been told authorities are seeking a sample of her DNA. Read More

An Andrew Wyeth painting of his teenage son standing on a bluff overlooking the St. George River in Maine has set the second-highest auction price for the artist's work. Read More

Former President Bill Clinton on Wednesday said he supports President Barack Obama's plan to sent an additional 30,000 troops to Afghanistan. Read More

Officials at a historic black cemetery in suburban Chicago where former workers allegedly dug up graves in a scheme to resell burial plots are again finding human remains in the ground when they try to bury someone else. Read More

Immigrants who have been arrested in zero-tolerance zones along the Mexican border must not be tried at mass criminal immigration hearings because the proceedings violate federal rules, an appeals court ruled Wednesday. Read More

An Army psychiatrist who may face the death penalty after the mass shooting at Fort Hood was charged Wednesday with 32 counts of attempted premeditated murder relating to the scores of soldiers and two civilian police officers injured in the attack, military officials said. Read More

A federal judge in New Jersey has denied a request by the Republican National Committee to dissolve a 27-year-old court order aimed at preventing intimidation of minority voters. Read More

As of Wednesday, Dec. 2, 2009, at least 851 members of the U.S. military had died in Afghanistan, Pakistan and Uzbekistan as a result of the U.S. invasion of Afghanistan in late 2001, according to the Defense Department. The department last updated its figures Wednesday at 10 a.m. EST. Read More

As of Wednesday, Dec. 2, 2009, at least 4,367 members of the U.S. military had died in the Iraq war since it began in March 2003, according to an Associated Press count. Read More

Mayor Michael Bloomberg has lit the Rockefeller Center Christmas tree, ushering in tourist season in one of New York's busiest holiday shopping districts. Read More

A New Mexico man is in custody after authorities say he fatally shot his 9-month-old daughter after an argument with the infant's mother. Read More

Richard Phillips, the ship captain toasted as a hero after he was taken captive by Somali pirates, ignored repeated warnings last spring to keep his freighter at least 600 miles off the African coast because of the heightened risk of attack, some members of his crew now allege. Read More

A former Army contract officer has been sentenced to 17 1/2 years in federal prison for taking more than $9 million in bribes for supply contracts in Kuwait. Read More

Federal prosecutors in Colorado say they had no choice but to dismiss 2002 charges against a Muslim cleric who later had contact with the Army psychiatrist accused in the Fort Hood shootings. Read More

Seventy-four bison from Yellowstone National Park would go to billionaire Ted Turner's private ranch under a plan given preliminary approval Wednesday by the head of Montana's wildlife agency. Read More

The convicted murderer who drove Maurice Clemmons away from the coffee shop where he massacred four suburban police officers waited with a newly purchased cigar in the getaway truck while Clemmons committed the crimes, prosecutors said Wednesday. Read More

A juvenile humpback whale entangled in hundreds of feet of heavy rope off the Hawaii coast was being tracked by marine experts Wednesday. Read More