Top Stories - AP

BRUSSELS - With a caretaker holding his hand, a Belgian man who was diagnosed as comatose for 23 years typed out a message Tuesday that he felt reborn after decades of loneliness and frustration.

WASHINGTON - The economy is growing modestly, with consumers too wary about spending to invigorate the recovery.

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

WASHINGTON - President Barack Obama declared Tuesday that U.S. ties with India will be "one of the defining relationships" of the 21st century as he welcomed India's prime minister for the first state visit of his administration.

COLUMBIA, S.C. - South Carolina legislators upset with Gov. Mark Sanford's summer disappearance to see his lover in Argentina on Tuesday began debating a measure that ultimately would remove him from office.

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.

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.

NEW YORK - ABC's "Good Morning America" is saying "no thanks" to Adam Lambert.

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.

DETROIT - A Swedish specialty automaker has backed out of a deal to buy Saab from General Motors Co., casting serious doubt on the future of the troubled brand.

BEIJING - China executed a dairy farmer and a milk salesman Tuesday, the only two people sentenced to death in a scheme to water down infant formula with an industrial chemical that left at least six children dead and sickened more than 300,000.

AMPATUAN, Philippines - The Philippine president placed two southern provinces under emergency rule Tuesday as security forces unearthed more bodies, pushing the death toll to 46 in some of the deadliest election violence in the nation's history.

LOS ANGELES - Mya is poised to take the "Dancing With the Stars" title after finishing three points away from perfect during the final night of competition Monday.

NUKU'ALOFA, Tonga - A 6.8-magnitude earthquake struck off the Pacific island nation of Tonga, sending panicked residents into the streets at night, but there were no immediate reports of damage or injuries.

LOS ANGELES - Dogs across the country can expect some bone-shaped presents under the Christmas tree this year.

WASHINGTON - A day after the recall of 2.1 million cribs linked to four suffocations, the head of the Consumer Product Safety Commission conceded the agency "hasn't been acting as quickly as it should."

GENEVA - The world's largest atom smasher used its accelerator Tuesday to speed up proton beams for the first time as scientists moved ahead in efforts to learn more about the universe.

PESHAWAR, Pakistan - Pakistani troops killed 18 militants in a fresh offensive Tuesday against insurgents blamed for a wave of recent bombings in the main northwestern city of Peshawar.

WASHINGTON - Republicans love to get their hands on the Democrats' health care legislation. They show it to the cameras at every opportunity, even piling one version on top of another to make a big pile look even bigger.

GIBSON, La. - A real estate agent showing a house got to the basement and found about 100 human bones in a corner.

WASHINGTON - Big banks are roaring back. At crisis' edge last year, they are repaying billions of dollars dumped into their vaults to rescue them. Dividend checks are accumulating at the Treasury. Taxpayers won't recoup the full sum of the government's unprecedented infusion to the financial sector, but the returns are ahead of schedule.

MINNEAPOLIS - At the ripe old age of 26, Joe Mauer now has an AL Most Valuable Player award to add to a jam-packed trophy case that already holds three batting titles, three Silver Sluggers and two Gold Gloves.

WASHINGTON - Failure is not an option on health care, a leading Democratic senator said Monday, even as Republicans turned up the heat on moderates who hold the fate of the legislation in their hands.

FORT WORTH, Texas - An Army psychiatrist accused of killing 13 people during an attack on his Texas post will likely plead not guilty to the charges against him and may use an insanity defense at his military trial, his attorney said Monday.

FRANKFORT, Ky. - Authorities are saying a Kentucky census worker found hanging from a tree with "fed" scrawled on his chest committed suicide and staged his death to look like a homicide.

AMSTERDAM - Next month's climate summit in Copenhagen seeks to transform the way we run the planet, from the generation of energy, to the building of homes and cities, to the shaping of the landscape. It would also shift wealth from rich to poor countries in the process.

ST. PETERSBURG, Fla. - Bill Golden survived more than 20 years in the Army and another 30 in law enforcement. He fell sick with colon cancer, and at 86, he has an artificial hip and arthritis in his knees.

NEWARK, N.J. - The captain of a charter jet that crashed on takeoff at a New Jersey airport in 2005 has been indicted on charges of fraud and lying to investigators.