Trade deficit on course for surplus

While Washington wrestles with the nation's burgeoning budget deficits, some good news has emerged on the other deficit front: The nation's bloated trade deficit appears to be turning the corner, with at least one prominent economist predicting it will disappear altogether within a decade.

For Obama, veto isn't overriding concern

That yawn you heard was Congress reacting to another veto threat from President Obama.

Fathers disappear from households across America

Nicole Hawkins' three daughters have matching glittery boots, but none has the same father. Each has uniquely colored ties in her hair, but none has a dad present in her life.

Old Christmas trees: The gift that keeps on recycling

Mulching is often the fate for post-Christmas trees. The firs, spruces, pines and cedars that have brightened homes during the holiday season are ground into pieces for homeowners to feed their springtime gardens. An increasing number of government agencies and clever businesses are using leftover trees for more than compost.

Glitch imperils swath of encrypted records

A widely used method of computer encryption has a little-noticed problem that could allow confidential data stored by almost all Fortune 500 companies and everything stored on U.S. government classified computers to be "fairly easily" stolen or destroyed.

Newtown marks Christmas amid signs of mourning

Newtown, Conn., observed Christmas amid snow-covered teddy bears, stockings, flowers and candles left in memory of the 20 children and six educators gunned down at an elementary school just 11 days before the holiday.

HURT: Gun grabbers won't heed NRA's sensible advice

What an irony it was to watch the National Rifle Association's Wayne LaPierre finally emerge after a self-imposed and highly publicized week of silence after the incomprehensible killings of 20 elementary school children.

Christmas Day storms blamed for 3 deaths

Twisters hopscotched across the Deep South, and, along with brutal, straight-line winds, knocked down countless trees, blew the roofs off homes and left many Christmas celebrations in the dark. Holiday travelers in the nation's much colder midsection battled treacherous driving conditions from freezing rain and blizzard conditions from the same fast-moving storms.

Netanyahu's challengers focus on social ills, not Palestinians

Peacemaking with the Palestinians, once the main issue by far in Israeli politics, has been strikingly absent from the campaign for next month's general election.

Securities industry ban asked for executive

A Washington-area executive accused in a lawsuitof bilking millions of dollars from a charity founded more than 200 years ago by Dolley Madison is facing a lifetime ban from the securities industry.

First marijuana growers in D.C. clear regulatory hurdles

Fifteen years after voters gave the green-light to a medical marijuana program in the nation's capital, a pair of locations approved to grow or sell the drug have cleared regulatory hurdles and will set up shop a few months into the new year, according to city officials.

Afghanistan: Policewoman who killed American adviser is Iranian

The policewoman who killed an American contractor in Kabul is a native Iranian who came to Afghanistan and displayed "unstable behavior" but no known links to militants, an Interior Ministry spokesman said.

Israel to build 942 more homes in east Jerusalem

Israel has advanced the process of building 942 more settler homes in east Jerusalem under a new fast-track plan to tighten its grip on the territory, which the Palestinians claim as the capital of a future state.

At Christmas, pope wishes worldwide peace

Pope Benedict XVI wished the world Christmas peace Tuesday, decrying the killing of the "defenseless" in Syria and urging Palestinians and Israelis to find the "courage" to negotiate.

Egypt constitution passes, economic crunch looms

The official approval of Egypt's disputed, Islamist-backed constitution Tuesday held out little hope of stabilizing the country after two years of turmoil and Islamist President Mohammed Morsi may now face a more immediate crisis with the economy falling deeper into distress.