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The country's spiraling unemployment rate continues to take a particular toll on men. The "he-cession," as it's sometimes called, has hit African-American men especially hard, increasing their unemployment rate to more than 17 percent last month.

Flood victims argued the widening of a navigation channel maintained by the Army Corps of Engineers and subsequent loss of protective wetlands turned the channel into a speedway for the hurricane's storm surge. A federal judge in New Orleans agreed and awarded damages of about $720,000 to four people and a business.

The State Ethics Commission said probable cause exists on several allegations tied to a three-month investigation into Mark Sanford's travel and campaign finances. Details of the charges — which should include whether the accusations involve civil or criminal allegations — were expected to be released next week.

Hershey, hoping to expand its overseas presence, has lined up a potential partner, Italian candymaker Ferrero International SA, in a possible bidding war for British candy maker Cadbury PLC. The combination could have the financial firepower to top a $16.4 billion hostile bid by Kraft Foods Inc.

Attorney General Eric Holder's decision to try the alleged Sept. 11 conspirators in federal courts has elicited sharply divided responses from Capitol Hill, the American public and victims' families. Holder says his decision is driven by evidence, not politics.

Setting up a historic year-end debate, the Senate Democratic leader introduced long-awaited legislation to reshape the nation's health care system. The measure aims to cover 31 million uninsured Americans over 10 years.

Attorney General Eric Holder told senators Wednesday "failure is not an option" in the prosecution of Sept. 11 mastermind Khalid Sheikh Mohammed. Holder explained his rationale to bring Mohammed and four other terrorism suspects to the U.S. for a civilian trial.

Conservationists worried about overfishing on the Pacific island of Kiribati persuaded fishermen to pick coconuts instead. The strategy backfired: Coconut oil production increased, but so did fishing. It turns out, fishermen who earned more money in coconut agriculture had more leisure time — which they spent fishing.

Cuban leader Raul Castro has maintained an abusive system that his brother put in place to repress dissent, according to Human Rights Watch. The report also calls for a change in U.S. policy, lifting the longtime trade embargo in favor of more targeted sanctions.

The International Olympic Committee has stripped Bahrain's Rashid Ramzi of his gold medal from the Beijing Games. In taking his medal for the 1,500 meters, the IOC said Ramzi committed anti-doping violations. Four other athletes were also sanctioned for doping.

Some say moving kids from the Children's Health Insurance Program to health exchanges would add stability, but others fear they could lose benefits and their families could face higher co-payments for coverage.

Two instruments from the Hubble Space Telescope, including the camera that corrected an early flaw in the telescope, are now on exhibit at the Smithsonian. The camera, about the size of a baby grand piano, is responsible for some of Hubble's most astounding photos.

Under the deal, Iran would send low-enriched uranium to Russia for further enriching and then to France to be converted into fuel rods, which would be returned to Iran. This would reduce the stockpile of material that Iran could enrich to a higher level and possibly use to make nuclear weapons.

The U.S. economic downturn and tighter border security has not deterred migrants from Central America seeking to enter the United States. But they are being abused in new and alarming ways. Tens of thousands of them are robbed, kidnapped and even killed attempting to cross Mexico.

A top Iraqi official vetoed the country's election law Wednesday, throwing plans to hold parliamentary elections in January into disarray. The move could unravel hard-won compromises, and it could complicate U.S. efforts to withdraw U.S. combat troops next year.

Attorney General Eric Holder appeared before the Senate Judiciary Committee on Wednesday to defend his decision to put alleged Sept. 11 terrorists on trial in New York. He says the public and the nation's intelligence secrets can be protected during a public trial in civilian court.

Investigators are still trying to determine whether alleged Fort Hood gunman Nidal Hasan was a radical Islamist ideologue or an alienated loner. The U.S. has focused significant intelligence resources on the question of radicalization in recent years, but they admit the dynamics are still not well understood.

Iraq's Sunni Arab vice president vetoed part of a key election law, a move that could delay national polls slated for January even as the top U.S. commander in Iraq said the timetable for American troop drawdown is on track.

Construction of new homes plunged last month as builders waited to see whether lawmakers would extend a tax credit for homebuyers. Building permits, an indicator of future housing activity, fell 4 percent. In a separate report, consumer prices edged up 0.3 percent in October as energy and new car prices both advanced.

The secretary of state will attend Thursday's ceremony for Afghan leader Hamid Karzai in Kabul and meet with top U.S. commander Gen. Stanley McChystal. Security is being tightened in the capital for the inauguration, which could be a target for militants.

The attempt marked the second time in seven months that Somali pirates have targeted the U.S.-flagged cargo ship. In April, pirates took the ship's captain hostage, holding him at gunpoint in a lifeboat for five days before he was freed by Navy SEAL sharpshooters.

South Africa has one of the highest crime rates in the world. But what is widely being called the government's "shoot-to-kill" policy is being blamed for the recent murders of innocent bystanders, including the shooting death of a 3-year-old boy.

Sarah Palin, the former governor of Alaska and Republican vice presidential candidate, is now a best-selling author. Palin's book, Going Rogue, made the best-seller list before it was released. She's planning a book tour that will only stoke her meteoric political celebrity. But to what end?

Pakistan's army says it has captured most major Taliban bases in South Waziristan. It plans to fan out across the area's rugged countryside to hunt down militants. The tribal area along the Afghan border has been a command center for extremists. The army flew a group of journalists to the area to see two Taliban strongholds that were captured in the offensive.

You may not ever take a flight to a place like Hot Springs, Ark. — but you're paying part of the cost for people who do. Under a decades-old government program, federal money is used to subsidize commercial air service for small communities that can't support it on their own.

Most doctors fully support the H1N1 vaccine, but there are a few who won't back it. Because patients trust their doctors the most for medical decisions, the FDA is trying to assure these doctors of the vaccine's safety.

The professed Sept. 11 mastermind's North Carolina college years are recalled by a chemistry professor and a former classmate. The CIA claims those college years helped propel Mohammed on a path to terrorism. Though described as jovial, he also maintained a self-imposed isolation.

In a letter obtained by NPR, Nidal Hasan's top supervisor at Walter Reed outlined "serious concerns" about Hasan's "pattern of poor judgment" and "lack of professionalism." The memo says he proselytized to patients, mistreated a homicidal patient and hardly did any work.

The 70-29 vote limited debate over the qualifications of U.S. District Judge David Hamilton of Indiana, and assured his elevation to the Chicago-based appeals court. Sixty votes were needed to end the filibuster, but confirmation requires only a simple majority of the 100-member Senate.

A condemned killer who prosecutors said had been faking mental illness to avoid execution won a reprieve from a federal judge less than two hours before he could have been taken to the Texas death chamber Tuesday evening.

Worried that the Army may have missed red flags about the alleged shooter in the Nov. 5 massacre, the Pentagon will likely launch an inquiry into how all the military services keep watch on volatile soldiers hidden in their ranks, officials said Tuesday. It was undecided how far-reaching the inquiry would be or who would lead it.

X-ray scans of the arteries of Egyptian mummies show that hardening of the arteries wasn't uncommon among the upper classes in ancient times.

Dr. Richard "Buz" Cooper doesn't mince words as he challenges highly-respected research that asserts hospitals and doctors waste up to $700 billion a year on unnecessary testing and treatment. He says the Dartmouth Atlas of Health Care doesn't adequately account for the health care needs of poor people.

Under the plan, 900 more housing units would be built in a Jewish neighborhood in the part of Jerusalem that Palestinians claim. White House spokesman Robert Gibbs said the steps "could unilaterally pre-empt, or appear to pre-empt, negotiations" and that the issue of Jerusalem "must be resolved through negotiations between the parties."

Iran began a mass trial in August of more than 100 prominent opposition figures and activists, accusing them of a range of charges from rioting to spying and plotting what Iran's clerical rulers have depicted as a foreign-backed plot to oust them from power.

The New Oxford American Dictionary's 2009 Word of the Year can trace its origins back to the 17th century. The word: "unfriend." Christine Lindberg, senior lexicographer at Oxford University Press, says the Oxford English Dictionary provides a citation for "unfriend" from 1659.

President Obama met with his Chinese counterpart, Hu Jintao, for wide-ranging talks on the challenges facing their two countries. The two discussed how they can pursue a more balanced economic strategy, cooperate on curbing greenhouse gas emissions and the spread of nuclear weapons.

The government released figures Monday showing that a record number of Americans faced food insecurity in 2008. The U.S. Department of Agriculture said 49 million people lack the access to food that they need.

The Federal Reserve could have paid less to banks that made risky deals with insurance giant AIG, a government watchdog reports. Treasury officials say the Fed was acting to avert a crisis and that it needs better financial regulatory tools.