TOP NEWS STORIES (nov 29, 2011)

1. With just under a year before Election Day, President Obama has launched his first television ads of the 2012 campaign.

2. Herman Cain's polling numbers have been falling. The allegations of sexual harassment have taken a toll.

3. It seems to have become an established pattern of U.S.-Pakistan relations over this past year: just when things look as if they can't get much worse, they do.