I've missed more than 9000 shots in my career. I've lost almost 300 games. 26 times, I've been trusted to take the game winning shot and missed. I've failed over and over and over again in my life. And that is why I succeed. ~ Michael Jordan

NATO halts work with Afghan allies to stem insider attacks

NATO ordered a cutback on Tuesday on operations with Afghan forces in response to a surge of so-called insider attacks on foreign servicemen, but said the restriction was temporary and would not derail a 2014 handover of security to Afghan forces.

The order indefinitely suspending most mentoring operations was issued by the second most senior U.S. commander in Afghanistan, Lieutenant-General James Terry, and applies to all front-line missions involving units smaller than an 800-strong battalion.

But a senior NATO spokesman, U.S. Colonel Tom Collins, said the order was only a "temporary and prudent response" to current threats of insider attacks and a week of mounting anger across the Muslim world over a film mocking the Prophet Mohammad.

U.S., China file dueling complaints as trade tensions heat up

The United States and China have filed international trade complaints against each other, escalating trade tensions amid a weakening global economy and a heated U.S. presidential race.

The Obama administration launched a new enforcement action Monday with the World Trade Organization, alleging that China was illegally subsidizing exports of automobiles and auto parts.

Beijing filed its own WTO complaint earlier Monday, challenging anti-dumping duties that Washington had levied on $7.2 billion in goods from China — including steel, tires and kitchen appliances — that the U.S. said were sold here below cost.

China-Japan row over disputed islands threatens to escalate

Anti-Japanese protests are continuing across China as the countries' competing claims to a group of islands threatened to escalate. There were reports that a large flotilla of Chinese fishing boats was due to arrive in the area later on Tuesday.

Hundreds of Japanese firms closed their businesses, as demonstrators took to the streets to mark the anniversary of the start of Japan's 14-year occupation of northern China in 1931.

As the region braced for the possible arrival of up to 1,000 fishing boats in waters near the disputed Senkaku islands – known as the Diaoyu in China – Beijing reacted angrily to reports that two Japanese activists had briefly landed on one of the three islands that the Japanese government bought from their private Japanese owners last week.

Video shows Libyans trying to rescue US ambassador

Libyans tried to rescue Ambassador Chris Stevens, cheering "God is great" and rushing him to a hospital after they discovered him still clinging to life inside the U.S. Consulate, according to witnesses and a new video that emerged Monday from last week's attack in the city of Benghazi.

The group of Libyans had stumbled across Stevens' seemingly lifeless form inside a dark room and didn't know who he was, only that he was a foreigner, the man who shot the video and two other witnesses told The Associated Press.

The account underlines the confusion that reigned during the assault by protesters and heavily armed gunmen that overwhelmed the consulate in Benghazi last Tuesday night, killing four Americans, including Stevens, who died from smoke inhalation soon after he was found. U.S. officials are still trying to piece together how the top American diplomat in Libya got separated from others as staffers were evacuated, suffocating in what is believed to be a consulate safe-room.

RI school district bans dad-daughter, mother-son activities as violation of discrimination law

School officials in the Rhode Island city of Cranston have ended their traditional father-daughter dances and mother-son ballgames, saying the activities are a violation of state gender discrimination law.

School Superintendent Judith Lundsten tells the Providence Journal (http://bit.ly/Pv6SzE ) the move came in response to a complaint from a single mother, who brought her case to the American Civil Liberties Union after her daughter wasn’t allowed to attend a father-daughter dance.

Lawyers: Obese Ohio inmate faces 'torturous' death

A condemned Ohio inmate who weighs 480 pounds and has a history of difficulty losing weight argues he would face a ‘‘torturous and lingering death’’ if executed in January.

Ronald Post, who shot and killed a hotel clerk in northern Ohio almost 30 years ago, said his weight, vein access, scar tissue, depression and other medical problems raise the likelihood his executioners would encounter severe problems. He’s also so big that the execution gurney might not hold him, lawyers for Post said in federal court papers filed Friday.

‘‘Indeed, given his unique physical and medical condition there is a substantial risk that any attempt to execute him will result in serious physical and psychological pain to him, as well as an execution involving a torturous and lingering death,’’ the filing said.

Doctors billing Medicare patients at higher rates, report finds

Thousands of doctors and other medical professionals have added $11 billion or more to fees for elderly Medicare patients over the last decade by choosing to use more expensive billing codes and ignoring cheaper ones, a new study says.

The report "Cracking the Codes" from the non-profit investigative journalism organization Center on Public Integrity analyzed Medicare claims for a year and found thousands of providers "upcoding," which is "the practice of charging for more extensive and costly services than delivered, according to Medicare experts, analysis of the data and a review of government audits."

Peregrine CEO Wasendorf pleads guilty in $100 million embezzlement scheme

Peregrine Financial Group's former Chief Executive Russell Wasendorf Sr. pleaded guilty on Monday to embezzling more than $100 million from customers of his futures brokerage, lying to regulators to cover his tracks, and mail fraud.

Previously expected to be set free from jail pending his sentencing, Wasendorf was told he will remain behind bars while a judge determines whether he is a flight risk.

Wasendorf, 64, agreed earlier this month to plead guilty after confessing in July to stealing from his customers for nearly 20 years.

Orbiter spots 'dry ice' snowflakes falling on Red Planet

A spacecraft orbiting Mars has detected carbon dioxide snow falling on the Red Planet, making Mars the only body in the solar system known to host this weird weather phenomenon.

The snow on Mars fell from clouds around the planet's south pole during the Martian winter spanning 2006 and 2007, with scientists discovering it only after sifting through observations by NASA's Mars Reconnaissance Orbiter (MRO). The Martian south pole hosts a frozen carbon dioxide — or "dry ice" — cap year-round, and the new discovery may help explain how it formed and persists, researchers said.

"These are the first definitive detections of carbon-dioxide snow clouds," lead author Paul Hayne, of NASA's Jet Propulsion Laboratory (JPL) in Pasadena, Calif., said in a statement. "We firmly establish the clouds are composed of carbon dioxide — flakes of Martian air — and they are thick enough to result in snowfall accumulation at the surface."

Here's a weight loss tip for you: Get some sleep!

In common weight-loss advice, "get more sleep," should figure just as prominently as "eat less" and "move more," two researchers in Canada argue.

There is strong evidence that lack of sleep is contributing to the obesity epidemic, they said, and factors that contribute to obesity that have been given less attention than diet and exercise may at least partly explain why weight-loss efforts fail, according to the researchers.

"Among the behavioural factors that have been shown to impede weight loss, insufficient sleep is gaining attention and recognition," the researchers write in their editorial published today (Sept. 17) in the Canadian Medical Association Journal.