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The newspaper said it would close bureaus in New York, Los Angeles and Chicago at the end of the year to save money and will focus news efforts on covering the nation's capital. Six correspondents are being offered jobs in Washington, while three news aides will be let go Dec. 31.

Pollin, who brought an NBA championship to the nation's capital, was the NBA's longest-tenured owner. He considered his greatest accomplishment the construction of an arena in a neglected neighborhood, which has spearheaded a revitalization of downtown Washington since its opening in 1997.

NPR has reconstructed what officials did or didn't do over the past year with regard to Maj. Nidal Hasan, the alleged Fort Hood shooter. Sources say it's likely that the FBI, which looked into Hasan last winter, may have missed clues about his character because it got information from the wrong Army file.

A deal for General Motors Co. to sell Saab to the specialty carmaker Koenigsegg Group has collapsed, leaving the storied Swedish brand born from jets in 1947 close to extinction.

It really and truly is over in New York 23 — Conservative Party candidate Doug Hoffman has conceded, once again, only this time he means it.

Almost a year after Israel's offensive against Hamas militants in the Gaza Strip, the coastal enclave is still struggling to recover. Most animals at the Gaza Zoo died during the fighting. Now, with the help of animal smugglers, the zoo is trying to rebuild.

President Obama said Tuesday he intends to finish the job in Afghanistan, adding he would soon announce his strategy for the country. The comments came in a joint news conference with Indian Prime Minister Manmohan Singh, who is on a state visit to the U.S.

Families gather at Camp Lejeune in North Carolina to welcome back the Marines of the 2nd Battalion, 8th Regiment — known as "America's Battalion" — after months deployed in Afghanistan. But not every family is going to see their Marine: Thirteen of the Marines died in Afghanistan.

A long-awaited public inquiry into Britain's role in the Iraq war opened Tuesday with former civil servants questioned by a panel of investigators. But critics say the panel lacks the powers to get to the heart of the issues surrounding Britain's involvement in the war.

Much of the recent discussion about a health care overhaul has focused on the differences between the House and Senate bills. The bills actually have much in common, however: big ideas that may have once seemed controversial but are now overshadowed by talk of a public option and abortion.

South Carolina lawmakers began impeachment hearings Tuesday against Gov. Mark Sanford. The legislators began a hearing on the governor's five-day absence in June when he went to Argentina to meet his lover and left no one in charge of the state. Cindi Scoppe, associate editor of The Slate newspaper, says Sanford and the legislature had been at odds even before the scandal.

The town council in Tiburon, Calif., voted to spend $200,000 to install security cameras to screen every car that comes into the affluent, low-crime town. But some say the recordings could open the town up to lawsuits or be used against the residents themselves.

The central bank predicted the jobless rate could hover between 8.6 and 10.2 percent next year. Most Fed policymakers said it could take "five or six years" for the economy and the labor market to get back on a path of full health.

June O'Neill says the national debt would grow and the elderly on Medicare would suffer, but her successors at the Congressional Budget Office disagree.

A Kentucky census worker found naked, bound with duct tape and hanging from a tree with "fed" scrawled on his chest killed himself but staged his death to make it look like a homicide, authorities said Tuesday.

President Obama said Tuesday that he will be making an announcement "shortly" on his new strategy for the war in Afghanistan, which is expected to involve deploying thousands of extra U.S. soldiers. Sources tell NPR's Tom Bowman that the White House is tentatively planning a Dec. 1 announcement.

The Department of Transportation levies $175,000 in fines against three airlines for their role in the stranding of passengers overnight in a plane at Rochester, Minn., in August even though it was only 50 yards from a terminal.

The decision to host the Indian prime minister as President Obama's first state visitor was designed as a deliberate signal of India's prominence in Washington. Obama and Manmohan Singh announced a wide range of new agreements in energy and agriculture as they tried to cement a relationship between the two countries.

A University of Florida study predicts that within 15 years, 1 in 4 drivers in the U.S. will be age 65 and older. As they get older, seniors may be less safe on the roads, so state and university officials and the AARP are putting together programs to help seniors drive better — and in some cases, get them off the roads.

Car-crash victim Rom Houben says in Belgium that years of being unable to move or communicate left him feeling "alone, lonely, frustrated, but also blessed with my family." An expert using a specialized type of brain scan provided him with the equipment to communicate.

Food banks are looking for innovative ways to make sure they have enough of the right kinds of food at the right times. Virtual food drives allow donors to choose items that the food bank needs. And because food banks buy in bulk, they can get more bang for the donated buck.

Documents unsealed Monday in a Minnesota investigation allege a broad and effective recruitment campaign to persuade Somali-Americans to join an Islamist insurgency in Somalia.

Desert ants have a nifty way of finding their way back home after a foray out of the nest to find food — they count their steps. To prove it, some scientists devised a creative experiment that showed just how the little guys do it.

An inquiry investigating Britain's role in the Iraq war kicked off Tuesday with top government advisers testifying that some Bush administration officials were calling for Saddam Hussein's ouster as early as 2001 — long before sanctions were exhausted and two years before the U.S.-led invasion.

Banks earned $2.8 billion in the third quarter, but loan balances plummeted and the fund that insures their deposits had a negative balance of $8.2 billion. Souring loans continued to hurt bank balance sheets, but they were buoyed by higher operating revenues and a revived market for securities, the FDIC said.

It will be another week before senators begin floor debate on the Democrats' health care overhaul bill, but many in Washington are already predicting the demise of its current provision for a modest government-run insurance program.

The economy grew at a 2.8 percent pace last quarter, as the recovery got off to a slower start than first thought. The government's new reading on gross domestic product wasn't as energetic as the 3.5 percent growth rate for the July-September period estimated a month ago. A separate report said confidence in the economy improved slightly in November.

President Obama and his top military and national security advisers gathered once again at the White House Monday night. The subject was troop levels and strategies for the war in Afghanistan, and there was also the question of how to deal with neighboring Pakistan. Sources say plans are underway for a possible announcement in a prime-time speech by the president next week.

New York state has a tough new law on drunk driving that includes serious jail time for people convicted of driving drunk with a passenger under the age of 15. If a child is injured, the driver could get up to 15 years in prison, and if a child is killed, that penalty rises to 25 years. The law is aimed at catching parents and other relatives who get behind the wheel of the family car when they've had one too many.

The White House hosts India's Prime Minister Manmohan Singh in the first formal state visit of Barack Obama's presidency. There are talks between the two leaders Tuesday, and later a state dinner. India is becoming a major player in global affairs — one that the U.S. needs on its side when it comes to issues like climate change, trade and countering extremism in South Asia.

China executed two people Tuesday for their roles in a tainted milk powder scandal in which at least six children died and more than 300,000 became sick. Zhang Yujun was executed for endangering public safety and Geng Jinping was executed for producing and selling toxic food, according to the official Xinhua News Agency.

The "diverging diamond" highway interchange is being put to the test in Missouri. Fans of the new design say it improves traffic flow by eliminating problematic left turns. There's just one catch: It briefly sends cars over to the left side of the road.

The Obamas host Indian Prime Minister Manmohan Singh on Tuesday night at the most formal of all dinners. First lady Michelle Obama said she and the president will be like swans, gliding with poise and serenity — while paddling furiously to get things right.

Better-designed highways played a role in reducing road fatalities to a 40-year low last year. But safety advocates say the road is still a dangerous place, especially once drivers leave the Interstate Highway System.

On Nov. 24, 1859, a book that changed the world first appeared in print. On the Origin of Species proposed a radical new theory about how all life on Earth evolved. In many respects, the book sparks greater controversy today than when it first appeared.

One reason for the shortage of the new H1N1 flu vaccine this year is the way flu vaccines are made. A modified form of the virus is grown inside chicken eggs, but the process takes months. Now, scientists are working to create new flu vaccines that can be made much faster, using the virus' DNA.

On Nov. 24, 1859, Darwin's On the Origin of Species first appeared in print and had a tremendous impact on society and science alike. Despite having more media access today, science has gotten so complex that it's hard for people to keep up, let alone evaluate the significance behind science stories.

The debate in Washington over how much the health care overhaul bills will cost has largely centered on the bottom line for the federal government. But polls repeatedly show Americans are much more concerned about how a reshaped health care system will affect their own family's financial situation.

Huang Qi, founder of a human rights Web site, had been charged with illegally possessing state secrets. The veteran dissident cast a spotlight on poorly built schools that collapsed and killed thousands of children during China's massive earthquake last year.