WASHINGTON (AP) — President Barack Obama says he's "very confident" that the American people will support the path he chooses in Afghanistan, once they hear his explanation for it. That opportunity is expected to come next week in a national address. Obama said today he wants to "finish the job" while he's president, and destroy terrorist networks in the region.

COLUMBIA, S.C. (AP) — South Carolina legislators have begun debating a measure that ultimately would remove Gov. Mark Sanford from office. They're looking at Sanford's five-day absence in June and his failure to put someone in charge of the state while he was in Argentina visiting his mistress.

CAPE CANAVERAL, Fla. (AP) — After a week together, the crews of shuttle Atlantis and the International Space Station have said goodbye and closed the hatches between them. Atlantis will undock from the space station before dawn tomorrow.

BRUSSELS (AP) — You may have heard about a man in Belgium who was diagnosed as being in a coma for 23 years, but who now says he was conscious and unable to communicate. He now communicates with the help of a therapist who moves his finger along a keyboard. But a noted bioethicist is skeptical. Arthur Caplan says that's "ouija board stuff" that's "been descredited." He doubts the man is really the one doing the communicating.

WASHINGTON (AP) — Interior Secretary Ken Salazar says the government has scheduled 38 oil and natural gas lease sales for public lands next year, including one in Alaska's National Petroleum Reserve. The proposed Alaska sale would be the first in two years in the Alaska reserve, where environmentalists are seeking permanent protection from oil and gas drilling.