DOVER, Pennsylvania (Reuters) - Voters on Tuesday ousted a Pennsylvania local school board that promoted an 'intelligent-design' alternative to teaching evolution, and elected a new slate of candidates who promised to remove the concept from science classes.

AP - Four years after riots tore this city apart, Cincinnati voters elected a black mayor for the first time.

AFP - Being a woman and a Coptic Christian in Muslim-majority Egypt, the odds are against Mona Makram Ebeid, but the feisty politician has embarked on a campaign to win a seat in parliament and break the back of "sectarianism and sexism."

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

AP - 'The victories were a greater margin than anybody expected. They showed not only are people tired of Republican polices but there's a real openness to giving Democrats a chance. This is going to be a real shot in the arm for Democratic chances to take back the House and the Senate.' — U.S. Sen. Chuck Schumer, chairman of the Democratic Senatorial Campaign Committee.

AP - A U.S. scientist who visited North Korea shortly before the communist-led country agreed to abandon its nuclear program said he believes Pyongyang is aggressively pursuing nuclear weapons and is working on a reactor that could produce 10 bombs a year.

AP - Iraq, Katrina, CIA leak, Harriet Miers. Things couldn't possibly get any worse for President Bush. Wait, they just did.

AFP - US Senator Jim Bunning, a Major League Baseball Hall of Fame pitcher, is "positive" his bill to toughen US sport anti-doping rules and punishments will pass the Senate this week, he told USA Today.

AP - In a stinging rebuke from voters who elected him two years ago, Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger's efforts to reshape state government were rejected during a special election that darkened his prospects for a second term.

AP - Mayor Kwame Kilpatrick overcame a scandal-plagued first term to fend off a challenge from a career bureaucrat, while the FBI announced an investigation into the handling of absentee ballots, including claims of ballots cast in the names of dead people.

Reuters - The United Nations on Monday elected five judges -- from the United States, Morocco, Mexico, New Zealand and Russia -- to the prestigious World Court, the highest judicial authority of the world body.

AP - Four years after riots tore this city apart, Cincinnati voters elected a black mayor for the first time.

AP - Voters approved ballot measures to ban handguns in San Francisco and urge the city's public high schools and college campuses to keep out military recruiters.

AP - President Bush made it the keystone of his domestic agenda, but he'll probably be gone before lawmakers turn their attention to Social Security again, a key lawmaker says.

USATODAY.com - The media battle among conservative and liberal interest groups over Judge Samuel Alito's nomination to the U.S. Supreme Court has begun, but it will be a quiet rumble until January.

AP - Huge oil company profits at a time when motorists paid $3-plus for gasoline have sent shivers through a Congress worried about the political fallout.

AP - California voters rejected a complex initiative Tuesday that would have increased state oversight of utilities and limited customers' ability to choose electricity providers.

NEW DELHI (Reuters) - U.S. Treasury Secretary John Snow said on Wednesday the United States was making progress toward reducing its budget deficit and was committed to cutting it substantially in the future. Speaking at a news conference with Indian Finance Minister Palaniappan Chidambaram, Snow said the U.S. deficit in its financial year that ended on September 30 amounted to 2.6 percent of U.S. total national output, only slightly above an average over the last 40 years of 2.4 percent.

USATODAY.com - New York's billionaire mayor, Michael Bloomberg, served hot dogs and popcorn at a re-election party that marked the end of the most expensive campaign of 2005. Bloomberg spent at least $68 million to defeat Democrat Fernando Ferrer on Tuesday.

AP - Mayor Kwame Kilpatrick overcame a scandal-plagued first term to fend off a challenge from a career bureaucrat, while the FBI announced an investigation into the handling of absentee ballots, including claims of ballots cast in the names of dead people.

AP - A key House panel on Wednesday takes up legislation to protect worker pensions, possibly the most important retirement issue Congress will address this year as Social Security reform fades into the background.

AP - In a stinging rebuke from voters who elected him two years ago, Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger's efforts to reshape state government were rejected during a special election that darkened his prospects for a second term. Voters also strongly rejected an initiative that would have required parents to be notified when minors seek abortions

AP - WASHINGTON — Former boxer Muhammad Ali, retiring Federal Reserve Chairman Alan Greenspan and singer Aretha Franklin are among 14 people being honored Wednesday with the Presidential Medal of Freedom, the country's highest civilian award.

AP - Voters apparently got the hint: a mayor who said he would refuse to serve if re-elected lost by four votes.

AP - Amtrak's board of directors on Wednesday fired President David Gunn, saying the debt-laden rail carrier needs "a leader with vision and experience."

AP - The Supreme Court considered Wednesday whether states can be forced to pay damages for not accommodating disabled prisoners, a states rights case that might turn on the vote of Justice Sandra Day O'Connor's successor.

AP - In a stinging rebuke from voters who elected him two years ago, Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger's efforts to reshape state government were rejected during a special election that darkened his prospects for a second term. Voters also strongly rejected an initiative that would have required parents to be notified when minors seek abortions.

AP - Billionaire Republican Mayor Michael Bloomberg, ebullient from his steamroller second term win over his underfunded Democratic challenger, savored the victory at a bakery and was congratulated by country singer Lee Ann Rimes.

AP - The United States said Thursday it may have to suspend food aid deliveries to North Korea for the remainder of the year.

AP - The Republican chairman of a House panel investigating the response to Hurricane Katrina threatened Wednesday to issue subpoenas for documents if the White House and other agencies don't provide them by Nov. 18.

AP - President Bush urged Americans on Wednesday to help earthquake victims in Pakistan, just as people from around the world assisted the United States when Hurricane Katrina devastated the Gulf Coast.

AP - Supreme Court nominee Samuel Alito favored equal treatment for men and women in adultery cases in his analysis of the Italian court system in his senior thesis at Princeton University.

WASHINGTON (Reuters) - President George W. Bush condemned Wednesday's suicide bombings in Jordan as 'barbaric acts' and pledged U.S. support in the hunt for those responsible.

WASHINGTON (Reuters) - Senate Democrats on Wednesday stepped up their scrutiny of Supreme Court nominee Samuel Alito's role in a 2002 case that they say could pose a possible conflict of interest.

NEW YORK (Reuters) - Republican New York Mayor Michael Bloomberg ruled out running for higher office on Wednesday, a day after a city of mostly registered Democratic voters handed him a landslide victory.

WASHINGTON (Reuters) - Gulf coast state insurance commissioners urged lawmakers on Wednesday to create a national catastrophe insurance fund, saying it was needed to backstop insurers against future devastating losses and preserve coverage.

WASHINGTON (Reuters) - U.S. companies would get another year, until 2007, before they have to start following stricter pension funding rules under legislation approved on Wednesday by a U.S. House panel.

WASHINGTON (Reuters) - Saddled at home by questions about foreign detainees and secret prisons, U.S. Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice heads for Bahrain on Thursday for a conference aimed at spreading democracy in the Middle East.

SAN FRANCISCO (Reuters) - Voters in famously liberal San Francisco overwhelmingly approved measures banning handguns and encouraging schools to keep military recruiters off campus, according to election results on Wednesday.

AP - President Bush pledged that the U.S. will do all it can to help pursue those responsible for bombings Wednesday at three hotels in Jordan, a Middle East ally in the fight against terrorism.

AP - Former FEMA chief Michael Brown is no longer on the agency's payroll, the Homeland Security Department said Wednesday, ending nearly two months of compensation after he resigned under fire.

AP - The strong man of California politics is looking awfully weak. California voters Tuesday rejected all four government overhaul measures that Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger had put on the ballot, a resounding defeat for the Republican in his bold attempt to go over lawmakers' heads and take his agenda straight to the people.

AP - President Bush intends to nominate a Republican regulator from Tennessee and to renominate Democrat Michael Copps to serve on the Federal Communications Commission, moves that may only briefly give the GOP a majority on the five-member commission.

Reuters - A suspected leader of Rwanda's 1994 genocide surrendered on Tuesday to the international court trying the architects of the slaughter, the tribunal said.

WASHINGTON (Reuters) - The U.S. House of Representatives approved a bill on Wednesday to increase penalties for crimes against judges, lawyers and other courthouse personnel and help state and local governments improve court security.

WASHINGTON (Reuters) - Republican leaders in the U.S. House of Representatives abandoned, at least temporarily, a drive to open Alaska's National Wildlife Refuge to oil drilling after concluding on Wednesday the initiative was threatening passage of a huge bill to cut spending.

NEW YORK (Reuters) - A treasure-trove of John F. Kennedy memorabilia will be auctioned next month ranging from the watch he wore to his 1961 presidential inauguration to his doodles during talks on the Cuban missile crisis.

AP - In a stinging rebuke from voters who elected him two years ago, Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger's efforts to reshape state government were rejected during a special election that darkened his prospects for a second term. Voters also decisively rejected an initiative that would have required parents to be notified when minors seek abortions.

AP - A Texas district judge stepped aside Wednesday from the cases of two of U.S. Rep. Tom DeLay's co-defendants, a week after he was removed from the trial of the former House majority leader.

AP - The attorney who won the landmark 1973 Roe v. Wade decision that established abortion rights says she will likely oppose Samuel Alito's nomination to the Supreme Court, but is still studying his writings and opinions before taking a formal position.

AFP - About 500 Ethiopians staged a noisy but peaceful demonstration in front of the US State Department, demanding that Washington step up its efforts to end post-election violence in the African state.