Top Stories - AP

WASHINGTON - Traditional evening gowns and vibrantly colored saris mixed with banded-collar dinner jackets and tuxedos at President Barack Obama's first state dinner.

WASHINGTON - The economy is not growing as fast as the government first thought and the recovery still faces significant obstacles, including households nervous about spending and rising unemployment.

WASHINGTON - Republicans are using everything short of forklifts to show Americans that Democratic health care legislation is an unwieldy mountain of paper. They pile it high on desks, hoist it on a shoulder trussed in sturdy rope and tell people it's longer than "War and Peace," which it isn't.

COLUMBIA, S.C. - Gov. Mark Sanford's tearful confession that he quietly disappeared from the state for five days to rendezvous with his lover in Argentina has shattered his marriage and dimmed his once-bright political future.

FRANKFORT, Ky. - When an eastern Kentucky census worker was found naked, bound with duct tape and hanging from a tree with "fed" scrawled on his chest, suspicion fell on the hardscrabble Appalachian area where bad news seems like a way of life.

BRUSSELS - Helped by a therapist, Rom Houben's outstretched finger tapped with surprising speed on a computer touchscreen, spelling out how he felt "alone, lonely, frustrated" in the 23 years he was trapped inside a paralyzed body.

SHANGHAI - The virus that causes AIDS is now spreading fastest in China through heterosexual sex, a trend demanding new strategies to stave off a rebound in the epidemic after years of progress in containing it, a United Nations report said.

NEW YORK - Donny Osmond was declared the new champion of "Dancing with Stars" on Tuesday night, taking home the show's mirror ball trophy in the season finale of the ABC contest reality program.

WASHINGTON - Antawn Jamison had 32 points and 14 rebounds to lead Washington past the Philadelphia 76ers 108-107 on Tuesday night, hours after the death of Wizards owner Abe Pollin.

INDIANAPOLIS - A man was arrested after police said he left his 5-year-old son in a tractor-trailer while he ducked into an Indianapolis strip club to drink. The 39-year-old was arrested at 1:15 a.m. Tuesday on child neglect and public intoxication charges after calling police to report his truck stolen and his child missing. Police said the man was too drunk to remember where he had parked.

DALLAS - Monta Ellis scored a season-high 37 points, Anthony Morrow added a season-best 27 and the short-handed Golden State Warriors ended Dallas' five-game winning streak with a 111-103 victory over the injury-depleted Mavericks on Tuesday night.

NEW YORK - Albert Pujols' third National League MVP award put him in select company.

WASHINGTON - The head of the Consumer Product Safety Commission on Tuesday promised swift action to get dangerous products off the market, acknowledging that the agency didn't move quickly enough on a record recall of more than 2 million cribs linked to four deaths.

CAPE TOWN, South Africa - Visitors to South Africa's premier holiday destination who are worried about becoming victims of the country's high crime rate could find themselves instead robbed by a more furry kind of felon: baboons.

PROVIDENCE, R.I. - Clergy sex abuse victims and their supporters said Tuesday that Rhode Island's Roman Catholic bishop is not doing enough to protect children from pedophile priests even as he's taken on Democratic Rep. Patrick Kennedy for his stance on abortion rights.

THE VILLAGES, Fla. - Sarah Palin, who says the 2012 presidential election isn't on her radar, took her "Going Rogue" book tour to the biggest of the battleground states Tuesday, including a stop in the retirement community where tens of thousands of people gave her star treatment in the 2008 presidential election.

NEW YORK - The U.S. State Department announced Tuesday that it is now offering a reward of up to $5 million for a Palestinian bomb-maker suspected of once targeting commercial airliners and of aiding the Iraq insurgency.

WASHINGTON - Seeking firmer footing for U.S.-India relations, President Barack Obama tried Tuesday to calm India's fears about Asian rival China, salving bruised feelings in the world's largest democracy with an elaborate state visit and assurances of India's "rightful place as a global leader."

NEW YORK - Adam Lambert's racy American Music Awards performance cost him a gig on "Good Morning America," but he will perform live instead on ABC's morning rivals at CBS.

WASHINGTON - The Federal Reserve doesn't expect the recovery will be strong enough to quickly drive down the jobless rate, and acknowledged its efforts to keep the rebound going could feed a new speculative bubble.

BARIYAPUR, Nepal - The ceremony began with prayers in a temple by tens of thousands of Hindus before dawn Tuesday. Then it shifted to a nearby corral, where in the cold morning mist, scores of butchers wielding curved swords began slaughtering buffalo calves by hacking off their heads.

HOUSTON - Rob Bironas kicked a 53-yard field goal with less than a minute remaining and the Tennessee Titans beat the Houston Texans 20-17 Monday night for their fourth straight victory after an 0-6 start.

WASHINGTON - The summer's trend of rising home prices faded at the end of the traditional home shopping season, two reports Tuesday showed.

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

BEIJING - China executed a dairy farmer and a milk salesman Tuesday for their roles in the sale of contaminated baby formula — severe punishments that Beijing hopes will assuage public anger, reassure importers and put to rest one of the country's worst food safety crises.

AMPATUAN, Philippines - A few miles off the main highway, on a remote hilltop covered with waist-high grass, bodies lay with twisted hands reaching in the air. They had been shot point-blank.

MOUNT LAUREL, N.J. - The state-to-state march to legalize gay marriage across the left-leaning Northeast lost some of its momentum this month.

CAPE CANAVERAL, Fla. - It's time for Atlantis and its seven astronauts to leave the International Space Station.