Is the end of the Afghanistan war near? While another story is the top topic of political conversation — Romney’s “I’m not concerned about the very poor” — there’s a more impactful story that’s in the news today: Defense Secretary Leon Panetta’s announcement that the U.S. will end its combat operations in Afghanistan by the middle of next year. The Washington Post: “The United States hopes to end its combat mission in Afghanistan by the middle of next year, more than a year earlier than scheduled, Defense Secretary Leon E. Panetta said Wednesday. His remarks reflected a growing sentiment within the Obama administration that its approach to Iraq, where the official end of U.S. combat operations came 16 months before the final U.S. troop withdrawal in December, may provide a useful model for winding down operations in Afghanistan.”

WASHINGTON — In a daring nighttime raid Tuesday, U.S. Navy SEALs rescued two hostages, including one American, who were being held by kidnappers in Somalia, U.S. officials tell NBC News.

American Jessica Buchanan, 32, and a 60-year-old Dane, Poul Thisted, were working for a Danish relief organization in northern Somalia when they were kidnapped last October. U.S. officials described their kidnappers as heavily armed common criminals with no known ties to any organized militant group.
According to the U.S. officials, two teams of Navy SEALs landed by helicopter near the compound where the two hostages were being held. As the SEALS approached the compound on foot gunfire broke out, the U.S. officials said, and several of the militants were reportedly killed. There is no word that any of the Americans were wounded.

Americans honored Martin Luther King Jr. on Monday with a traditional day of service as well as a new wave of economic injustice protests by Occupy Wall Street.

On the first King holiday since the now-global Occupy movement launched in New York City in September, the reignited debate over inequality drew hundreds of protestors to march in wintry temperatures in Manhattan, stopping at a Bank of America branch to shout, “The banks got bailed out, we got sold out.”

WASHINGTON — U.S. healthcare spending barely rose in 2010 from record-low recession levels, as high unemployment and the loss of private health insurance forced many Americans to delay or forego medical treatment, government officials said on Monday.

Spending edged up 3.9 percent, bringing the total size of the U.S.
healthcare system to $2.6 trillion, or $8,402 per person, according to a
report released by the U.S. Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services,
or CMS, and published in the journal Health Affairs.

Growth in 2010 was only a slim 0.1 percentage point higher than the
3.8 percent recorded in 2009, which was the lowest rate recorded in half
a century. Per capita health spending in the United States is still the
highest worldwide.

ANCHORAGE, Alaska — A Russian tanker carrying fuel for an iced-in Alaska city that without a delivery could run out of crucial supplies before winter’s end encountered ice early Friday in the eastern Bering Sea.

The ice was not a surprise. The 370-foot tanker Renda will have to go through more than 300 miles of sea ice to get to Nome, a city of about 3,500 people on the western Alaska coastline that did not get its last pre-winter fuel delivery because of a massive storm.

If the delivery of diesel fuel and unleaded gasoline is not made, the city likely will run short of fuel supplies before another barge delivery can be made in spring.

NEW YORK (AP) — Revelers erupted in cheers amid a confetti-filled celebration in New York’s Times Square to welcome in the new year, part of star-studded festivities and glittering fireworks displays around the world to usher in 2012.

From New Zealand to New York, the world eagerly welcomed a new year Sunday and hoped for a better future, saying goodbye to a year of hurricanes, tsunamis and economic turmoil that many would rather forget.

In New York, hundreds of thousands gathered at the crossroads of the world to witness a crystal ball with more than 30,000 lights that descended at midnight. Lady Gaga and Mayor Michael Bloomberg led the crowd in the final-minute countdown of the famed crystal-paneled ball drop.

LEOGANE, Haiti – If there really is something called “helper’s high” – that feel-good sensation that comes from extending a helping hand to others – Rachel Wheeler is soaring.

The 12-year-old Florida resident has done more to aid others than many grown-ups do in a lifetime.

Three years ago, when she was only nine, Rachel tagged along with her mother to a very adult meeting about charity work in Haiti. She listened as Robin Mahfood, from the aid agency Food For The Poor, describe children so hungry that they eat cookies made of mud, so poor that they sleep in houses made of cardboard.

At the time, Julie Wheeler wasn’t even sure her young daughter understood much of what was being discussed— “until Rachel stood on a chair in front of all those adults and pledged to help Food For The Poor,” Wheeler said.

Then a fourth grader, Rachel promised to raise money to build a dozen homes in Haiti.

The holiday spirit is alive and well in Miami after an anonymous donor dropped a diamond ring into a Salvation Army kettle Friday.

Miami-Dade Salvation Army Capt. Linda Payton said her office received a call around 1 p.m. from a woman who wanted to remain anonymous.

“She said that she had just left something in the kettle in front of Kmart and that it was something special,” Payton said.

(CNN) — The American general who oversaw the withdrawal of tens of thousands of troops from Iraq returns to the United States on Tuesday, carrying the military flag that flew over the Iraqi capital.

The simple act is a long-standing military tradition that signifies the end of a mission.

There is little simple, though, about this act.

When Army Gen. Lloyd J. Austin III returns the United States Forces-Iraq command flag to U.S. soil, it will mark the formal conclusion of the military mission in Iraq.

Austin, who lowered the command flag in Baghdad last week, will be met at Andrews Air Force Base by President Barack Obama, according to White House and Pentagon officials.

READING, Mass. — A surprising discovery was made during a demolition which led to an emotional meeting in Reading.

“We went through the house pretty good and we thought we found it all,” said Janice Perry, former homeowner.

But, they hadn’t. Hidden inside the Ash Street house the sisters sold was $2,500 in cash.

The new owner, Dr. Fred Ravens, found the money while crews were tearing down the building to expand his neighboring dental practice.

“I was looking out the window in between patients and the fellow was pulling the wall apart and the next thing I knew I saw a flutter of money,” Dr. Fred Ravens.

Fifty and 100 dollar bills flew out of the rubble.