The Associated Press has learned that the Obama administration is weighing sharp new cuts to the U.S. nuclear force, including a possible 80 percent reduction in the number of deployed weapons.

Treasury Secretary Timothy Geithner told Congress Tuesday that the president's new $3.8 trillion spending plan would impose new taxes on only 2 percent of the nation's wealthiest families and the alternative would be to seek more painful cuts in other government programs such as defense, Social Secrity and Medicare.

A wounded Iranian fleeing an unintended explosion at a house threw a grenade at Bangkok police that instead blew off one of his legs in a series of blasts Tuesday that Israel's defense minister called an "attempted terrorist attack" by Iran. The violence came a day after Israel blamed Tehran for tageting its diplomats with bombs in India and Georgia.

Minnesota's largest school district has abandoned a much-criticized policy that required teachers to remain neutral when issues of sexual identity arose in the classroom, replacing it with a policy designed to create respectful discussion about controversial topics.

President Barack Obama said Tuesday he's hopeful Congress will renew a 2-percentage-point cut in the payroll tax before it lapses at the end of the month, but said it's important to also renew jobless benefits for millions of the long-term unemployed as well.

China's heir apparent leader is defending his county's widely criticized human rights record but acknowledging there is room for improvement.

Scavenging scrap metal to sell enables 28-year-old Milissa Scarberry and family of seven to get by. She advertises on Craigslist offering free pickup, knocks on doors when she sees piles of metal outside, or helps herself to junked metal left on the curb for trash removal.

California and four other states are considering whether to object to a proposed class-action settlement between Honda and car owners over inflated fuel-efficiency claims on the automaker's hybrid vehicles.

Whitney Houston's family is asking that any donations in her memory be sent to the arts-focused public school in New Jersey that she attended as a child and that is now named after her.

Mormon church leaders have apologized to the family of Holocaust survivor and Jewish rights advocate Simon Wiesenthal after his parents were posthumously baptized in a Mormon temple ritual last month.