While emphasizing President Barack Obama hasn't made any final decisions yet, administration officials tell The Associated Press that he is moving closer to sending tens of thousands of more forces to Afghanistan. The number would be just under the 40,000 sought by his top general there, Gen. Stanley McChrystal.

South Korean officials say one of their ships exchanged fire with a North Korean vessel along the countries' disputed western coast. Both sides blame the other for violating the sea border. The skirmish comes as the U.S. said a special envoy was going to Pyongyang for rare talks on the communist nation's nuclear activities.

The Army psychiatrist accused of the Fort Hood massacre apparently acted alone, despite repeated contact with a radical Muslim cleric overseas, investigators say. Maj. Nidal Malik Hasan, who allegedly killed 13 people at the Army base in Texas on Nov. 5 before being shot himself, is now awake and talking to doctors.

As if Democrats didn't have enough to worry about in overhauling health care, the weighty issue of abortion has suddenly rocketed to the forefront of the debate, dividing lawmakers and threatening the party's ability to pass reform legislation. Abortion rights supporters object to some restrictions in the version of the bill recently passed by House.

As a weakened Tropical Storm Ida makes landfall on the U.S. Gulf Coast, many residents there long used to the fury of Mother Nature refuse to leave the area.

The three Florida teens accused of pouring rubbing alcohol on a 15-year-old before setting him on fire are charged as adults with attempted second-degree murder. The victim is in critical condition with burns covering 65 percent of his body.

John Allen Muhammad, the mastermind in the sniper attacks that gripped the nation's capital with fear for three weeks in 2002, is set to die by lethal injection in Virginia tonight, unless the state's governor steps in.

The Large Hadron Collider is shorted out when a bird drops part of a baguette into its external machinery. The $10 billion atom smasher has already been beset by various technical glitches, but the baguette-toting bird took the LHC staff by surprise. Luckily the massive gizmo was powered down at the time of the incident, and suffered no major damage.