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President Obama and Defense Secretary Leon Panetta both talked this week about bringing the Afghan War to a close. But the U.S. will maintain at least several thousand troops in the country once combat comes to an end at the end of 2014. The U.S. will spend billions of dollars financing the Afghan security forces.

Vowing to stop smoking, curb spending or exercise more this January 1? Nearly half of U.S. adults will make year-end resolutions to change for the better in the coming year. Clinical psychologist John Norcross talks about how to increase the odds of success.

Chef and author Bryant Terry is on a quest to popularize the plant-based, vegan diet. Inspired by his own family's roots, his latest project involves blending African- and Asian-American cuisines.

Spain's economic crisis has helped drive the nation's unemployment rate above 25 percent. Many of the jobless resent the relatively high pay and job security public sector workers enjoy.

British bank HSBC has agreed to pay a record fine of $1.9 billion to settle an investigation by U.S. prosecutors. HSBC faced charges of laundering money for Mexican drug cartels and facilitating prohibited transactions with nations like Iran and Cuba. For more, Robert Siegel talks with Jimmy Gurule, law professor at the University of Notre Dame.

Najaf in southern Iraq is beginning to feel the pain of neighboring Iran's economic woes. Business around Shiite sites, which usually draw scores of Iranians for the holy days of Ashura, is way down.

Author Hortense Calisher once called the short story "an apocalypse in a teacup." Critic Jane Ciabattari presents her favorite mini-apocalypses of 2012, from veteran authors like Sherman Alexie to newcomer Claire Vaye Watkins, who combines a unique voice and a shadowed family history in her debut collection.

For the first time in eight years of doing surveys of Afghans, the Asia Foundations reports that more than half say the country is headed in the right direction. But some respondents might have been saying what they thought pollsters wanted to hear.

Vaccination campaigns have erased polio in almost every country in the world, but the disease persists in Afghanistan, Pakistan, and Nigeria. Obstacles in each country, including religious extremism, difficult terrain and transient populations, make eradication efforts difficult.

Processed wild rice dominates grocery store shelves, but around the Great Lakes, Native Americans still harvest it the same way their ancestors did centuries ago. This weekend, the Wild Rice Festival in Rosemont, Minn., celebrates the tradition.