FORT HOOD, Texas -- The man accused of killing 13 people and wounding 29 at Fort Hood is able to talk, a hospital spokesman said Monday, but it's unknown when investigators might take advantage of his improving health to press forward with their probe into the shooting spree.

BERLIN -- With prayers, music and pomp, Germany on Monday remembered the 20th anniversary of the day the Berlin Wall fell, sending East Germans flooding west and setting in motion events that soon led to the country's reunification.

With a days-old law in place that has weakened Cook County President Todd Stroger’s veto power, county commissioners called a special board meeting for next Monday to vote on rolling back the county’s controversial sales tax by a half-penny.

Chicago Department of Public Health officials say they've vaccinated almost 51,000 people against the swine flu in seven days.

The Chicago public schools will expand its Arabic-language program to three more high schools, thanks to a three-year, $888,000 federal grant announced this morning.