AP - President Bush sought to reverse an impression of U.S. neglect as he opened a weeklong tour of Latin America on Thursday. Police clashed with protesters in Brazil and across the region.

AP - President Bush, in a bitter showdown with Congress over Iraq, has crept up a speck from an all-time low in his job approval rating. But his standing is the weakest of any second-term president at this point in 56 years.

AP - House Speaker Nancy Pelosi, her party deeply divided and holding only a narrow majority, faces long odds in passing legislation that would bring troops home from Iraq before the 2008 presidential election.

AP - Stung by Gov. Bill Ritter's veto of a bill that would make it easier for unions to organize, the AFL-CIO threatened to recommend the Democratic Party move its 2008 convention from Denver.

Reuters - Republican Newt Gingrich, who led the U.S. House of Representatives as it prepared to impeach Bill Clinton in a sex-and-perjury scandal, acknowledged in an interview released on Friday that he was having an affair at the time.

AP - Serbia now has a legal obligation to arrest one of the top Bosnian war crimes suspect still at large because it risks United Nations Security Council sanctions after a World Court ruling, the lawyer who led Serbia's defense said Tuesday.

AP - One of the nation's largest firefighters' union has accused Republican presidential contender Rudy Giuliani, the former New York City mayor, of committing 'egregious acts' against firefighters who died in the Sept. 11 terrorist attacks.

Rasmussen Reports - The first Rasmussen Reports telephone survey gauging general-election support for Republican Senator Sam Brownback shows him trailing Democratic Senator Hillary Clinton among likely voters by the narrow margin of just five percentage points. It's Clinton 46% Brownback 41%.

AP - The government of Chad has refused to allow the United Nations to send an advance mission to prepare for the possible deployment of U.N. peacekeepers, a setback to plans to help thousands of civilians caught in the spillover of the Darfur conflict in neighboring Sudan.

AP - Union construction workers would gain a hiring advantage for more projects under legislation the House passed Thursday, the latest in a series of pro-labor measures by Democrats that President Bush has promised to veto.

AP - The 303-108 roll call Friday by which the House passed the Water Quality Financing Act of 2007.

AP - A Texas justice who fended off judicial admonishment over his support for former U.S. Supreme Court nominee Harriet Miers wants the state to cover his $340,000 legal tab.

AP - The U.S. began a series of secret hearings Friday to determine whether 14 alleged terrorist leaders at its prison in Guantanamo Bay, Cuba, should be declared 'enemy combatants' who can be held indefinitely and prosecuted by military tribunals.

AP - Union construction workers would gain a hiring advantage for more projects under legislation the House passed Friday, the latest in a series of pro-labor measures by Democrats that President Bush has promised to veto.

AP - THE POLL: Quinnipiac University Ohio telephone survey Feb. 25-March 4

AP - In a March 7 story about congressional Democrats trying to pressure Pakistan to step up its efforts against terrorism, The Associated Press reported erroneously that Senate Democrats had proposed a resolution threatening to block delivery of U.S. jet fighters to that country.

AP - Democrats seeking votes for their Iraq-withdrawal plan have stuffed the bill it's in with billions of dollars for farms, flu preparedness, New Orleans levees, home heating and other causes.

AP - Republican presidential candidate John McCain, who remarried one month after his 1980 divorce, said Friday that the personal lives of White House hopefuls shouldn't become an issue in the 2008 campaign.

AP - President Bush on Friday named seven more members to the commission investigating the treatment of wounded veterans.

AP - THE POLL: Quinnipiac University Florida telephone survey Feb. 25-March 4

CQPolitics.com - The Federal Election Commission on Wednesday released a useful chart that details spending activity in the 2006 Senate campaign — which Democrats concluded with a net gain of the six seats they needed to garner a 51-49 working majority in the current 110th Congress.

AP - The State Department has hired a major military contractor to help equip and provide logistical support to international peacekeepers in Somalia, giving the United States a significant role in the critical mission without assigning combat forces.

AP - President Bush on Friday named seven more members to the commission investigating the treatment of wounded veterans. Bush has ordered a comprehensive review of conditions at military and veterans hospitals, which have been overwhelmed by injured troops from the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan.

AP - The Bush administration will allow some construction of homes, shops, schools, prisons, hospitals and other buildings in flood plains without formal environmental reviews, despite the lessons of Hurricane Katrina.