AP - New evidence is emerging that the top Democrat on the Senate committee currently investigating Jack Abramoff got political money arranged by the lobbyist back in 2002 shortly after the lawmaker took action favorable to Abramoff's tribal clients.

AP - The Supreme Court under new Chief Justice John Roberts has issued opinions in two death row cases, and both went against the inmates. Starting next week, the court will tackle more significant capital punishment appeals.

NEW YORK (Reuters) - The United States needs to set milestones for progress, not a firm withdrawal date, before it can leave Iraq, Virginia governor and prospective Democratic presidential candidate Mark Warner said on Monday.

WASHINGTON (Reuters) -- U.S. President George W. Bush has authorized the U.S. ambassador in Baghdad to meet Iranian officials to help secure Iraq after the Pentagon starts withdrawing troops, Newsweek reported on Monday.

CARACAS, Venezuela (Reuters) - A group of U.S. congressmen was forced to abandon an official visit to Venezuela on Monday after local authorities refused to allow them to leave their aircraft in Caracas, U.S. officials said.

WASHINGTON (Reuters) - The Bush administration would oppose any legislation emerging from Congress that would mark a step toward trade protectionism, a senior U.S. Treasury official said on Monday.

WASHINGTON (Reuters) - The United States on Monday condemned Myanmar's decision to extend for a further 12 months the period of house arrest for opposition leader and Nobel Peace Prize laureate Aung San Suu Kyi.

AP - New evidence is emerging that the top Democrat on the Senate committee currently investigating Jack Abramoff got political money arranged by the lobbyist back in 2002 shortly after the lawmaker took action favorable to Abramoff's tribal clients.

AP - CIA Director Porter Goss, saying his agency struggles to penetrate terrorist sanctuaries overseas, insists that "we know more than we're able to say publicly" about Osama bin Laden and Abu Musab al-Zarqawi.

AFP - A Senegal court disqualified itself from ruling on an extradition request from Belgium for Chad's ex-dictator Hissene Habre to face war crimes charges, which could mean a return to luxurious exile for the man known as "Africa's Pinochet."

USATODAY.com - Rep. Randy 'Duke' Cunningham, R-Calif., tearfully resigned from Congress on Monday after pleading guilty to charges that he took at least $2.4 million in bribes from defense contractors and others. Cunningham, 63, pleaded guilty to felony charges of conspiracy and tax evasion and explained.

AP - Mayor Michael Coleman will drop out of the Democratic race for governor, beset by family problems and the challenge of running Ohio's largest city, a spokesman said Tuesday.

AFP - The US Senate will debate in February a bill aimed at making US borders more secure, US Senate Republican Majority Leader Bill Frist said.

AP - Former national security adviser Sandy Berger pleaded guilty Tuesday to reckless driving after an officer clocked him at 88 mph in a 55-mph zone. A judge fined him $250.

AP - The Supreme Court ruled Tuesday against Virginia renters who claimed they were sickened by toxic mold in their apartment building, in a decision that clarifies where personal injury cases should be heard.

AP - Democratic Mayor Michael Coleman dropped out of the governor's race Tuesday, saying his family needs him and he mistakenly thought he could manage Ohio's largest city while campaigning.

AP - So far this year, the civil rights and women's groups opposed to President Bush's conservative court nominees have been rebuffed, rebuked and rejected.

AP - The Bush administration acknowledged Tuesday that reports of secret U.S.-run prisons for terror suspects have raised an outcry among European allies and said the U.S. will account for its actions.

AP - 20 Highest, Lowest Incomes by County

AFP - The US Supreme Court prepared to take up an abortion case for the first time in five years on Wednesday, in a test of new chief justice John Roberts on a hotly contested issue.

WASHINGTON (Reuters) - U.S. Defense Secretary Donald Rumsfeld argued on Tuesday that the guerrillas fighting U.S.-led foreign forces and the American-backed government in Iraq do not deserve to be called an 'insurgency.'

WASHINGTON (Reuters) - Alan Greenspan, the maestro of monetary policy, may be ready to pass on his baton but not before taking a final bow as the best-known member of the rich nations' club when Group of Seven finance chiefs gather in London this weekend.

KINNIYA, Sri Lanka (Reuters) - Unspent donations given to help victims of the Asian tsunami could be redirected to crises in Africa after rebuilding is complete, former U.S. President Bill Clinton, now a U.N. enoy, said on Tuesday.

AP - A year after tangling with the Bush campaign over the use of a pop tune he penned in the 1970's, Democrat John Hall now wants to take on Rep. Sue Kelly.

AP - New Hampshire Democrats promised a fierce fight if the national party fails to back their plan to preserve the state's presidential primary and Iowa's caucuses as the first such contests of the 2008 presidential election season.

AP - Trains carrying poisonous gases should be required to go slowly through populated areas, say safety officials who investigated a crash that killed nine people when it released chlorine gas on Graniteville, S.C.

AP - Sen. Hillary Rodham Clinton on Tuesday defended her vote to authorize war in Iraq amid growing unease among liberal Democrats who could determine the potential 2008 presidential candidate's future.

AP - President Bush on Tuesday watched border patrol techniques ranging from men on horseback to infrared cameras that help keep watch in the dark, and he said the country needs more of both to keep out illegal immigrants.

AP - If it's a spruce tree adorned with 10,000 lights and 5,000 ornaments displayed on the Capitol grounds in December, it's a Christmas tree and that's what it should be called, says House Speaker Dennis Hastert.

AP - The Federal Aviation Administration has imposed flight restrictions over Dick Cheney's new Maryland home, angering private pilots who say they can't fly overhead even when the vice president isn't around.

AP - A top Republican state lawmaker said Tuesday that a GOP prosecutor should give up her quest to unseat Sen. Hillary Rodham Clinton and run for another office instead.

AP - More cocaine is likely to come into the United States from South America as the U.S. diverts resources from its drug-control strategy to hurricane relief and the war on terror, congressional investigators say.

AP - About 300 people blew whistles, pounded on pots and pans and chanted "Impeach Bush" in a noisy but largely peaceful protest before President Bush arrived Tuesday for a fund-raiser.

AP - Republican George Pataki, eyeing a run for the White House in 2008, has snared a major fundraiser for the first President Bush to head the New York governor's national political action committee.