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AP - U.S. Defense Secretary Robert Gates raised the possibility Wednesday that some of the U.S. forces involved in the Afghanistan surge could leave the country before President Barack Obama's announced July 2011 date to begin withdrawal.

AP - U.S. Defense Secretary Robert Gates raised the possibility Wednesday that some of the U.S. forces involved in the Afghanistan surge could leave the country before President Barack Obama's announced July 2011 date to begin withdrawal.

AFP - First Lady Michelle Obama bowed to tradition Tuesday and donated the dazzling ball gown she wore for her husband's presidential inauguration last January to the Smithsonian museum institution.

AP - Marie Osmond told a Las Vegas Strip audience as she returned to the stage less than two weeks after her son's apparent suicide that she has relied on her spirituality to cope with his death

AP - U.S. Defense Secretary Robert Gates was keeping up the pressure on Iran on Wednesday, consulting with the United States' closest and most influential ally in the Persian Gulf about how to respond to Iran's disputed nuclear program.

AFP - Iran's outspoken president on Wednesday criticised Western troops as an obstacle to peace in Afghanistan and mocked the US defence secretary during their overlapping visits to the war-torn country.

AP - Legislation blending help for the jobless with popular tax breaks for businesses and individuals is slated to pass the Senate Wednesday over protests from conservatives who say it adds too much to the $12.5 trillion national debt.

AP - Israel apologized Wednesday for disrupting the visit of Vice President Joe Biden with its announcement of 1,600 new homes in disputed east Jerusalem, but made clear it had no intention of reversing the order that has cast a shadow over the latest U.S. push for Mideast peace.

Police near Los Angeles say officers have fatally shot a man who chased his estranged wife down the street and fired a gun at her multiple times, riddling her with bullets.

Rodney Alcala gave his own closing arguments Tuesday in the penalty phase of his trial for raping and murdering a 12-year-old Huntington Beach girl and four women in the 1970s.

A second ex-New Orleans officer charged in an alleged conspiracy to cover up a deadly police shooting of unarmed residents after Hurricane Katrina is expected to plead guilty, a person familiar with the case said Tuesday.

Authorities say a man was stabbed in the neck with a meat thermometer after asking a woman to silence her cell phone during a screening of the film "Shutter Island" at a Southern California movie theater.

Relatives of the victim sobbed and held each other as a judge in Ohio handed down a life prison term for a doctor convicted of killing his wife with cyanide.

Officials say an Ohio inmate who intentionally overdosed on pills hours before his scheduled execution has returned to prison and is on suicide watch.

A student from China has pleaded guilty to a misdemeanor in a Newark, N.J., airport security breach that led to worldwide flight delays.

A convicted sex offender charged with murdering one teen and suspected in the disappearance of another appeared in court Tuesday as a judge issued a gag order and delayed a key hearing in the case.

Reuters - Prime Minister Gordon Brown said Wednesday he believed Britain would maintain its coveted top credit rating and announced a pay freeze for senior civil servants and military officers to help tame a record deficit.

Reuters - Preliminary results of Iraq's parliamentary election, a vote seen as a litmus test of its young democracy, are likely to be released by Thursday, a United Nations official said Wednesday.

Reuters - Palestinians told U.S. Vice President Joe Biden on Wednesday that Israel's new plan to build 1,600 homes for Jewish settlers challenged Washington's efforts to get indirect peace talks underway.

AP - Suspected militants armed with grenades attacked the offices of a Christian aid group helping earthquake survivors in northwestern Pakistan on Wednesday, killing six employees and wounding several others, police and the organization said.