SAN RAMON, California (Reuters) - A day before a special election that could influence his re-election chances, Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger campaigned across California on Monday for four ballot initiatives lagging in recent polls.

RICHMOND, Virginia (Reuters) - President George W. Bush took a detour to Virginia on his way back from Latin America on Monday to try to give Republican Jerry Kilgore an election-eve boost in his deadlocked race for governor.

WASHINGTON (Reuters) - The U.S. House of Representatives this week will try to approve nearly $54 billion in spending cuts, and Republican leaders on Monday were still looking at ways to fine-tune the measure to avert defeat.

NEW YORK (Reuters) - New York City Mayor Michael Bloomberg and New York Gov. George Pataki said on Monday they had earmarked $1.0 billion to spend over 10 years on housing for the homeless.

AP - Mayor Michael Bloomberg and his Democratic challenger spent their final campaign hours in a last-minute push for turnout on Election Day, as yet another poll showed the Republican incumbent crushing the underdog.

AP - A harsh gubernatorial campaign in the Garden State, a race that featured more personal attacks than actual talk about the issues, is finally coming to a close as polls opened Tuesday morning.

Reuters - Syrian Foreign Minister Farouq al-Shara said on Monday that Damascus was keen to cooperate with a United Nations probe into the killing of former Lebanese Prime Minister Rafik al-Hariri.

HARARE (Reuters) - President Robert Mugabe told the U.S. ambassador to Zimbabwe to 'go to hell' on Tuesday, after the envoy blamed the country's economic and political crisis on mismanagement and corrupt rule.

NEW YORK (Reuters) - He pioneered mock television news 30 years ago and wrote a satirical book about becoming the 44th president of the United States.

AP - White House staff members began attending mandatory briefings Tuesday about ethical conduct and the handling of classified information in the wake of the CIA leak investigation and the indictment and resignation of Vice President Dick Cheney's chief of staff.

USATODAY.com - The Supreme Court agreed Monday to decide whether the Bush administration may use military tribunals to try foreign terrorism suspects, setting up a major test of the president's legal strategy against terrorism.

AP - Saudi Arabia's ambassador prodded the Bush administration Tuesday to step up its Mideast diplomacy, saying the Arab-Israeli conflict was an 'open wound' that is the biggest cause for the hatred that leads to terrorism.

AP - Senate Majority Leader Bill Frist and House Speaker Dennis Hastert are circulating a draft letter calling for a congressional leak investigation into the disclosure of secret U.S. interrogation centers abroad.

Reuters - Indian Foreign Minister Natwar Singh resigned his post on Monday, becoming the first political casualty of an independent report into irregularities in the United Nations' oil-for-food program for Iraq.

LOS ANGELES (Reuters) - California voters went to the polls on Tuesday in a special election called by Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger, who has put his reputation as a winning reformer on the line in a bid to reshape the state's political landscape.

WASHINGTON (Reuters) - President George W. Bush's failure to win support for individual Social Security investment accounts means the U.S. Congress is unlikely to address the retirement program's long-term financial problems before 2009, a senior senator said on Tuesday.

UNITED NATIONS (Reuters) - Nearly every country in the U.N. General Assembly told the United States on Tuesday to lift its four-decade old economic embargo against Cuba in a record vote of 182 to 4 with 1 abstention.

WASHINGTON (Reuters) - U.S. Senate Commerce Committee Chairman Ted Stevens said on Tuesday he is seeking another candidate for the Bush administration to consider for a Republican vacancy on the Federal Communications Commission.

WASHINGTON (Reuters) - President George W. Bush's chief of staff Andrew Card and other top White House officials started attending classes on ethics and the handling of classified information on Tuesday in response to the indictment of a top aide in the CIA leak investigation.

AP - The recent indictment of Vice President Cheney's top aide has struck a nerve with the American public.

AP - Philadelphians, who have endured a string of city corruption cases, were voting Tuesday on an ethics reform measure that would limit campaign contributions from people seeking no-bid contracts with the city.

AP - Senate Majority Leader Bill Frist and House Speaker Dennis Hastert are circulating a letter calling for a congressional leak investigation into the disclosure of secret U.S. interrogation centers abroad.

AP - The Senate's top Democrats challenged President Bush on Tuesday to rule out a pardon for I. Lewis Libby, a former top White House aide who faces trial on charges of obstruction of justice and perjury in the CIA leak case.

AP - White House workers, from presidential advisers to low-ranking aides, began attending mandatory lectures on ethical behavior and the handling of classified documents Tuesday after the recent indictment of a high-level official in the CIA leak case.

AP - Rep. Bob Ney of Ohio, recently subpoenaed in an investigation of lobbyist Jack Abramoff, has created a legal defense fund.

AP - The national intelligence director is opening a center that will elevate a brand of information that's long been a stepchild in the U.S. spy community: secrets that don't have to be stolen.

AP - The Supreme Court considered whether police may search a home when one resident says to come in but another objects, in an unusually spirited debate Tuesday that drew out even the usually silent Justice Clarence Thomas.

AP - Philadelphians, who have endured a string of city corruption cases, were voting Tuesday on an ethics reform measure that would limit campaign contributions from people seeking no-bid contracts with the city.

AFP - The US Senate rejected draft legislation that would have created a blue ribbon commission to examine whether torture was used at Iraq's Abu Ghraib prison and other US-run overseas prisons.

AP - The government has allowed 283 species identified as possibly facing extinction to languish without protection under the Endangered Species Act, a coalition of environmental groups contends in a lawsuit against the Interior Department.

AP - Supreme Court nominee Samuel Alito expressed "great respect" for the precedent established by the landmark Roe v. Wade abortion decision but didn't commit to upholding it, senators said Tuesday as Alito began a second week courting their support.

AP - As a Christian missionary in Honduras during his early 20s, Tim Kaine was devastated by the poverty surrounding him and vowed to spend the rest of his life serving others.

AP - Detroit Mayor Kwame Kilpatrick faced a tough challenge Tuesday from career bureaucrat Freman Hendrix as the FBI announced an investigation into voter irregularities, including claims of absentee ballots cast by the dead.

AP - Texas voters Tuesday overwhelmingly approved a constitutional ban on same-sex marriage, making their state the 19th to take that step. In Maine, however, a proposal to repeal a new gay-rights law was trailing in early returns.

AP - The Senate's top tax writer revealed plans Tuesday to aid businesses recovering from Hurricane Katrina and extend tax cuts for capital gains and dividends an extra year.

WASHINGTON (Reuters) - U.S. Supreme Court nominee Samuel Alito said on Tuesday that the 1973 Supreme Court decision that legalized abortion 'deserved great respect' but did not say how he would rule on it, a Democratic senator said.

WASHINGTON (Reuters) - The U.S. House of Representatives may vote on Thursday on a controversial bill to cut $54 billion in government spending that minority groups and some economists are criticizing as harmful to the poor.

WASHINGTON (Reuters) - Ben Bernanke is expected to win easy confirmation as the next chairman of the U.S. Federal Reserve, but whether a Senate vote on the nomination comes this year or next is still under consideration, sources say.

AP - Republican Mayor Michael Bloomberg won a second term in a blowout Tuesday, easily defeating former Bronx Borough President Fernando Ferrer by drawing a wide majority of Democrats away from his opponent in this strongly left-leaning city.

AP - Detroit Mayor Kwame Kilpatrick was trailing challenger Freman Hendrix on Tuesday, as the FBI announced an investigation into vote irregularities, including claims of absentee ballots cast by the dead.

AP - Some notable measures on the Nov. 8 election ballots in various states and municipalities: