Obama to unveil plan to add troops in Afghanistan
WASHINGTON (AP) - War-weary Americans will support more fighting in Afghanistan once they understand the perils of losing, President Barack Obama declared Tuesday, announcing he was ready to spell out war plans virtually sure to include tens of thousands more U.S. troops. He is expected to make his case to the nation in a speech next Tuesday night, even as the military completes plans to begin sending in reinforcements in the spring. More »
SPIN METER: 'War and Peace' in 209 pages?
WASHINGTON (AP) - Republicans are using everything short of forklifts to show Americans that Democratic health care legislation is an unwieldy mountain of paper. They pile it high on desks, hoist it on a shoulder trussed in sturdy rope and tell people it's longer than ``War and Peace,'' which it isn't. Although they complain they don't have time to read all of it, they found the time to tape it together, page by page, so they could roll it up the steps of the Capitol like super-sized toilet paper and show how very long it is. More »
Police: Ky. census worker staged death as homicide
FRANKFORT, Ky. (AP) - On the surface it all seemed like a gruesome hate crime in a rural part of Kentucky with a history of disdain for the government: a census worker found bound with duct tape and hanging from a tree, the word ``fed'' scrawled across his chest. But investigators noticed the foot-tall letters scrawled in black felt-tip pen looked like they could have been written by the victim himself, and they soon found out that he believed he had cancer, had two insurance policies worth $600,000, and had an adult son in need of money. More »
Comatose for 23 years, Belgian feels reborn
BRUSSELS (AP) - Helped by a therapist, Rom Houben's outstretched finger tapped with surprising speed on a computer touchscreen, spelling out how he felt ``alone, lonely, frustrated'' in the 23 years he was trapped inside a paralyzed body. After a doctor found he was wrongly diagnosed as being in a vegetative state, and worked out a way for him to communicate, Houben said he now feels reborn. More »
UNAIDS: Sex main cause for HIV spreading in China
SHANGHAI (AP) - The virus that causes AIDS is now spreading fastest in China through heterosexual sex, a trend demanding new strategies to stave off a rebound in the epidemic after years of progress in containing it, a United Nations report said. Data show that 40 percent of new HIV infections diagnosed in China were acquired through heterosexual contact, with homosexual sex accounting for 32 percent and most of the remainder related to drug abuse, which was previously the main source of infections and the government's main focus for prevention. More »
Police: Dad leaves boy and goes into strip club
INDIANAPOLIS (AP) - A man was arrested after police said he left his 5-year-old son in a tractor-trailer while he ducked into an Indianapolis strip club to drink. The 39-year-old was arrested at 1:15 a.m. Tuesday on child neglect and public intoxication charges after calling police to report his truck stolen and his child missing. Police said the man was too drunk to remember where he had parked. They found the boy inside watching cartoons on a television inside the cab. The keys were in the ignition, and the doors were unlocked. More »
Albert Pujols wins 2nd straight NL MVP award
NEW YORK (AP) - Albert Pujols' third National League MVP award put him in select company. Only Barry Bonds has more. ``I'm just humbled,'' Pujols said. Pujols won unanimously Tuesday, becoming the first player to repeat since Bonds won four in a row from 2001-04. Pujols, who also won in 2005, received all 32 first-place votes and 448 points in balloting announced by the Baseball Writers' Association of America. He became the first unanimous MVP since Bonds in 2002. A big part of the Cardinals' success this year was the acquisition of Matt Holliday in July. Holliday, who hit cleanup behind Pujols, helped St. Louis win the NL Central and then became a free agent. More »