AP - Vice President Dick Cheney is joining President Bush and other Republicans in accusing Democrats of foul play for asserting that the administration misrepresented intelligence to build support for taking the nation to war in Iraq.

AP - President Bush's already embattled policy to shape postwar Iraq as an ethnically balanced democratic state faces a new hurdle after the discovery of a secret jail in which Sunni prisoners may have been tortured.

AP - Liberal advocacy group Public Citizen has asked for new inquiries into Senate Majority Leader Bill Frist's finances.

AP - A vital injection of new funds will sustain United Nations food drops to victims of South Asia's earthquake for at least two more months in one of the largest helicopter airlifts of aid, U.N. officials said Tuesday.

Reuters - The United Nations on Tuesday reversed its dismissal of the only person fired over the scandal-ridden oil-for-food plan for Iraq but refused to apologize, insisting the employee broke procurement rules.

AP - An influential House Democrat who voted for the Iraq war called Thursday for the immediate withdrawal of U.S. troops from Iraq, another sign of growing unease in Congress about the conflict.

AP - House Republican leaders on Thursday eased their planned cuts to health and nutrition programs for the poor, seeking votes from reluctant moderates for a contentious $50 billion budget-cutting bill.

AP - A bipartisan group of senators told congressional leaders Thursday they will try to block reauthorization of the Patriot Act to protest the elimination of Senate-pushed protections against "unnecessary and intrusive government surveillance" in a House-Senate compromise.

USATODAY.com - Battered by sinking polls and signs of GOP rebellion over the Iraq war, the Bush administration is fighting back by intensifying attacks on Democratic critics and reaching out to Republicans in Congress.

AP - The 33 lawmakers who wrote letters urging the Bush administration to reject a Louisiana Indian casino as they collected political money from rival tribes, their lobbyist Jack Abramoff and his associates between 2001 and 2004.

AP - Legislation to fund many of the nation's health, education and social programs went down to a startling defeat in the House Thursday, led by Democrats who said cuts in the bill hurt some of America's neediest people.

AP - Republicans suffered a startling setback in the House on Thursday, losing a vote on cutting spending for education and health care programs. A broader budget-cutting blueprint targeting the poor, college students and farmers also was in danger.

AP - A low-budget ad skirmish popped up over Samuel Alito's nomination to the Supreme Court on Thursday, liberal groups depicting him as an agent of the right wing and conservatives claiming his critics "want to take God out of the Pledge of Allegiance."

AP - The Texas Republican Party agreed Thursday to stop spending corporate donations as it sometimes did during 2002 state campaigns, and prosecutors agreed not to pursue charges under state election laws.

AFP - Republicans suffered a major setback when the House of Representatives -- including several lawmakers from their own party -- voted down a compromise spending bill, the first such legislative defeat in a decade.

AP - U.S. occupation officials gave a man with a federal fraud conviction control of millions of dollars for Iraqi reconstruction. Now the man is charged with accepting kickbacks to steer contracts to a businessman.

AFP - The UN war crimes court for the former Yugoslavia has acquitted the ex-chief of staff of the Muslim-dominated Bosnian army over his alleged role in the 1993 killings of Bosnian Croat civilians.

WASHINGTON (Reuters) - A Democratic congressional leader on defense called for an immediate withdrawal of U.S. troops from Iraq, as he rejected on Thursday Bush administration attacks on war critics and raised bipartisan pressure for a new policy.

WASHINGTON (Reuters) - A bipartisan group of six senators vowed on Thursday to oppose renewal of the anti-terror Patriot Act unless a tentative accord drafted by Republican-led negotiators was changed to provide greater protections of civil liberties.

WASHINGTON (Reuters) - The U.S. House of Representatives on Thursday delivered a surprise blow to Republican spending-cut initiatives by defeating a huge health, education and labor funding bill that aimed to trim $1.4 billion in spending on the programs this year.

WASHINGTON (Reuters) - The Corporation for Public Broadcasting's former chief e-mailed White House strategist Karl Rove, 'bragging' about a push for conservative programming on U.S. public television, the CPB's inspector general said on Thursday.

WASHINGTON (Reuters) - A tax relief bill now under consideration by the U.S. Senate would provide $2 billion in tax credits to New York City and New York state to be used to help fund a rail link from John F. Kennedy International Airport to lower Manhattan, lawmakers said on Thursday.

WASHINGTON (Reuters) - Drug maker Wyeth tried to discredit a Food and Drug Administration scientist who linked the company's withdrawn heartworm treatment to the deaths of hundreds of dogs, a U.S. Republican senator charged on Thursday.

WASHINGTON (Reuters) - A proposal that would require industry to add an ingredient to automobile antifreeze to make it less tasty to animals cleared a key Senate committee on Thursday.

WASHINGTON (Reuters) - The Pentagon's inspector general has agreed to review the prewar intelligence activities of former U.S. defense undersecretary Douglas Feith, a main architect of the Iraq war, congressional officials said on Thursday.

WASHINGTON (Reuters) - A study that said a proposed $140 billion asbestos victims' compensation fund would quickly run out of money came in for criticism at a U.S. Senate hearing on Thursday.

AP - Vice President Dick Cheney is not the unidentified source who told Washington Post reporter Bob Woodward about the CIA status of the wife of Bush administration critic Joseph Wilson, a person familiar with the investigation said Thursday.

AP - Legislation reauthorizing the Patriot Act stalled Thursday as lawmakers worked to satisfy senators upset by the elimination of some civil liberties protections.

AP - Hopeful signs have emerged that after five years and $4 billion the United States is starting to see a payoff for its efforts to stem the flow of cocaine out of Colombia.

AP - A Houston lawyer formally announced Thursday that she will run for the U.S. Senate seat held by Republican Kay Bailey Hutchison.

AP - Senate Republicans beat back Democratic attempts Thursday to use a $60 billion tax bill to pinch oil and energy companies that have been reporting record profits while consumers pay high gasoline prices.

AP - U.S. occupation officials gave a man with a federal fraud conviction control of millions of dollars for Iraqi reconstruction. Now the man is charged with accepting kickbacks to steer contracts to a businessman.

AP - The Senate neared passage Thursday of a $60 billion bill that would prevent roughly 14 million families from paying higher taxes through the alternative minimum tax. It drew a presidential veto threat for raising taxes on oil companies.