As they prepare for the final exit from the war in Iraq, US troops aim to avoid any spectacular attack – and take stock of a conflict that gave the Middle East its worst violence in recent decades.

Some Black Friday shoppers have been cutting in line, grabbing carts, coming to blows, and wielding pepper spray. What the Black Friday hunt for the perfect Christmas present says about the shopper within.

Zookeepers don't believe the death of a nine-day-old western lowland gorilla infant at Chicago's Lincoln Park Zoo was intentional, but mystery still surrounds gorilla behavior both in zoos and in the wild.

AP - Pakistan on Saturday blocked vital supply routes for U.S.-led troops in Afghanistan and demanded Washington vacate a base used by American drones after coalition aircraft allegedly killed 24 Pakistani troops at two posts along a mountainous frontier that serves as a safe haven for militants.

AP - U.S. Marines will march out of Afghanistan by the thousands next year, winding down combat in the Taliban heartland and testing the U.S. view that Afghan forces are capable of leading the fight against a battered but not yet beaten insurgency in the country's southwestern reaches, American military officers say.

AP - The world's biggest extraterrestrial explorer, NASA's Curiosity rover, rocketed toward Mars on Saturday on a search for evidence that the red planet might once have been home to itsy-bitsy life.