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While President Obama weighs his options on Afghanistan, one thing is clear: The U.S. is beefing up its civilian presence there. The aid effort has been hobbled from the start, and many experts consider it a weak link in the struggle to build a stable society in the conflicted country. Deputy Secretary of State Jack Lew insists that the U.S. is now recruiting the right kind of people, but before those people head to Afghanistan, they get trained to work with the military at a base in Indiana.

For the second time in a week, a panel of medical experts has recommended that younger women be tested less frequently for cancer. The latest advice is that women can wait until 21 to have their first Pap test for cervical cancer. Many women can skip annual Pap smears after that. The guidance comes after another recommendation earlier this week that routine mammograms needn't start until age 50. NPR digital health correspondent Scott Hensley has been following the changes and joins host Scott Simon to talk about it.

The Web site Recovery.gov lists the jobs the Obama administration claims to have saved or created. In one company the government certainly did helped save a jobs, but it wasn't in manufacturing or technology.

The administration has made $45 billion available for doctors and hospital across the country to digitize medical records. This money, part of the government's stimulus plan, promises what amounts to a gold rush for major technology firms, who have begun competing to win those accounts. But Fred Schulte, senior reporter for the Huffington Post Investigative Fund, says some health care professionals wonder if the promise of electronic medical records has been exaggerated. Host Scott Simon talks to Schulte about the potential pitfalls.

Dozens of demonstrators who barricaded themselves inside a campus building at the University of California, Berkeley in a protest over fee hikes and budget cuts were removed late Friday, bringing the daylong occupation to an end, university officials said.

Wide-eyed children around the world will be hearing from Santa's "elves" at the North Pole after all.

Evan Ratliff eschewed his identity and picked up a new one, challenging Wired readers to find him in 30 days in a contest sponsored by the magazine. Lured by a cash prize, readers mobilized online in a mad dash to locate Ratliff — who got a little too cocksure for his own good.

Its alluring crimson fruit makes it an enduring star of the Thanksgiving centerpiece, but Asiatic bittersweet is strangling trees across New England. In many states, it's illegal to collect or move the invasive vine.

The massive reservoir behind China's Three Gorges Dam was supposed to be filled to capacity this month. But landslides on the reservoir and water shortages downstream have delayed the process. Questions have been raised about the dam, which is the world's largest hydropower project, and what it might mean for the Yangtze River.

Repeated deployments of troops to Iraq and Afghanistan are taking an increasing toll on military families, especially those with young children. But for Ken and Kristie Halander, it came down to a difficult choice: another long deployment to Iraq for Ken or access to medical care for their children.