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The U.S. Senate Finance Committee rejected a provision to include a government-run public insurance option as part of the effort to overhaul the health care system. The vote was 15-to-8 against the measure.

Although the Pulitzer Prize-winning novelist says working in an office is his idea of hell, he admits loving fictional portrayals of the workplace. He talks with Steve Inskeep about some of his favorite literary takes on office life.

Most people think of the Cold War as a long, glacial period, but in the beginning it was dangerously unstable. Neil Sheehan, author of A Bright Shining Lie, says there might well have been nuclear war — had it not been for one man: the subject of his latest book, A Fiery Peace in a Cold War: Bernard Schriever and the Ultimate Weapon.

G-20 leaders will likely leave Pittsburgh with an agreement to have banks build up their capital reserves while cutting back on bonuses and other forms of compensation. The new capital rules will be phased in and banks would have until the end of 2012 to meet the new requirements.

President Obama challenged leaders gathered at the U.N. General Assembly on Wednesday to join the U.S. in solving the world's problems rather than waiting for America to do it on its own. Obama used his first address to the U.N. General Assembly to calls for a "new era of engagement."

In New York for his first visit to the U.N. since becoming president, Barack Obama spent time meeting with other world leaders. He also addressed the U.N. Summit on Climate Change. With progress stalled on Middle East peace talks as well as climate change, it was a day that underscored the challenges Obama faces.

Rusty Lovell was diagnosed with leukemia eight years ago. Luckily, through his wife's plan he has "gold-plated" insurance that has paid millions of dollars for his care since then, at a low monthly cost to them.

An official assessment by Gen. Stanley McChrystal, the top U.S. commander in Afghanistan, concludes that after eight years, the U.S. and its allies have failed to focus on and win over the Afghan people. He also calls for more troops to ensure victory over the Taliban and al-Qaida.

The top U.S. and NATO commander in Afghanistan warns in a report that the U.S. could lose in Afghanistan without more troops. Democratic Sen. Carl Levin of Michigan, who chairs the Senate Armed Services Committee, says the report also says that focusing on force requirements misses the point entirely.

Six months after Bernard Madoff pleaded guilty to running a multibillion-dollar Ponzi scheme, six books have already been published about the scandal. Four came out just last month. They cover much of the same ground — with some exceptions.