As the world waits and watches for an expected North Korean ballistic missile test, the U.S. and its allies are prepared to respond. U.S. officials are conceding that North Korea may be increasing its nuclear capabilities, but they don't expect a nuclear strike. They suggest that other military moves by Pyongyang involving artillery attacks or shelling of nearby South Korean islands could actually present a more serious threat in triggering a conflict.

WASHINGTON (AP) — A bipartisan Senate proposal to expand background checks for gun buyers gained the backing of one Republican and the potential support of a second Sunday as sponsors said the vote expected this week was too close to call.

CARACAS, Venezuela (AP) — Hugo Chavez's hand-picked successor, Nicolas Maduro, won a razor-thin victory in Sunday's special presidential election, edging the opposition's leader by only about 300,000 votes, electoral officials announced.

WASHINGTON (AP) — DNA may be the building block of life, but can something taken from it also be the building block of a multimillion-dollar medical monopoly?

PHILADELPHIA (AP) — Dr. Hilary Koprowski, a pioneering virologist who developed the first successful oral vaccination for polio, died this week at his suburban Philadelphia home. He was 96.

SARATOGA, Calif. (AP) — The parents of a 15-year-old California girl who took her own life after she was sexually abused and an explicit photo of the assault circulated among her classmates want the three boys who have been arrested in the case prosecuted as adults, a lawyer for the family says.

SAN FRANCISCO (AP) — Looking for a career change, Ken Shimizu decided he wanted to be a software developer, but he didn't want to go back to college to study computer science.