AFP - A spectacular firework display in Berlin closed the European Union's 50th anniversary celebrations Sunday, as EU leaders differed over how quickly to push for fresh institutional reform.

AP - The voices are growing louder asking the question: Is Barack Obama all style and little substance?

AP - The attorney general is struggling to keep his job in a standoff with Congress over the purging of U.S. prosecutors. The war spending bill is stuck over whether troops should stay in Iraq, another bit of brinksmanship with lawmakers.

AP - A Senate panel wants to know if the Patriot Act needs to be revised to keep the FBI from illegally or improperly gathering telephone, e-mail and financial records of Americans and foreigners while pursuing terrorists.

AFP - The European Union and the United States are headed for a dogfight over transatlantic air travel, with Britain determined to ensure that an "open skies" agreement will not leave Europe grounded.

Rasmussen Reports - New York Senator Hillary Clinton (D) remains atop the field for the Democratic Presidential nomination as she has since the race began. The latest Rasmussen Reports national telephone poll finds Clinton with 37% support this week. That's up two from a week ago. In fact, ever since Al Gore was dropped from the list of contenders, Clinton's support has remained remarkably steady, ranging from 34% to 38% over a five week period.

AP - Senate conservatives and the Bush administration are taking aim at billions of dollars of non-war spending added to President Bush's $100 billion funding request for Afghanistan and Iraq.

Reuters - The United States backs a plan giving supervised independence to Serbia's breakaway Kosovo province and expects a United Nations Security Council vote on the proposal by summer, a senior U.S. official said on Monday.

AP - THE RACE: The presidential race for Democrats, Republicans in New York.

AP - The Supreme Court made it harder Tuesday for whistle-blowers to share in the proceeds from fraud lawsuits against government contractors.

CQPolitics.com - Given the hyper-accelerated nature of the 2008 presidential nominating season, it makes a perverse kind of sense that some important players are already in party-planning mode for the Republican convention in Minneapolis-St. Paul.

AP - Sen. John Kerry urged Major League Baseball on Tuesday to hold off on a deal to put the sport's 'Extra Innings' package of out-of-market games exclusively on DirecTV. A top baseball official declined to agree, with opening day less than a week away.

AP - A research firm that has studied tire failures on Ford Motor Co. sport utility vehicles sued the Transportation Department on Tuesday for access to roadway death and injury data.

AP - The Supreme Court left an 81-year-old retired engineer without a penny to show for his role in exposing fraud at a former nuclear weapons plant in a ruling that makes it harder for whistle-blowers to claim cash rewards.

Reuters - The U.N. mediator for Kosovo recommended on Monday supervised independence for the breakaway Serbian province, a move fiercely opposed by Belgrade but strongly backed by the United States and European Union.

AP - The Army's new acting surgeon general said Tuesday she is concerned about long-term morale because the military lacks money to hire enough nurses and mental health specialists to treat thousands of troops coming home from Iraq and Afghanistan.

CQPolitics.com - Many political analysts and party officials have bemoaned the recent trend of states advancing the dates of their presidential primaries and caucuses earlier than ever on the nomination calendar. California and New York are among the states that are planning 2008 nomination contests for Feb. 5 — which could be a de facto national primary election nine months before the Nov. 4 general election.

Reuters - Democrats in the House of Representatives on Tuesday called for changes in trade policy aimed at breaking the logjam that has blocked approval of free trade pacts with Peru, Colombia and Panama.

AP - Former Defense Secretary Donald H. Rumsfeld cannot be tried on allegations of torture in overseas military prisons, a federal judge said Tuesday in a case he described as 'lamentable.'

AP - Emergency camps to host Iraqis fleeing their country could be built if their numbers increase beyond the point where neighboring nations can cope, the U.N. refugee agency said Monday.

AP - Presidential spokesman Tony Snow's cancer has returned and spread to his liver and elsewhere in his body, shaken White House colleagues announced Tuesday. They said he told them he planned to fight the disease and return to work.

AP - Attorney General Alberto Gonzales' allies on Capitol Hill grew scarce Tuesday as he left it largely to aides to carry out President Bush's order to straighten out the story behind the firing of eight federal prosecutors.

AP - Republican presidential front-runner Rudy Giuliani's campaign hurriedly fixed its official Web site late Monday to remove a dangerous design flaw that could have allowed hackers to expose personal information submitted by volunteers.

AP - A senior aide to U.S. Sen. Jim Webb pleaded not guilty to weapons charges Tuesday after he allegedly entered a Senate office building with a loaded pistol.

AP - Democrats are raising concerns about President Bush's nominee for ambassador to Belgium because he gave money to the group that impugned Sen. John Kerry's war record during the 2004 presidential campaign.

AP - Attorney General Alberto Gonzales' allies on Capitol Hill grew scarce Tuesday as he left it largely to aides to carry out President Bush's order to straighten out the story behind the firing of eight federal prosecutors.

AP - A liberal group advocating the withdrawal of troops from Iraq will begin airing an ad Wednesday in Kentucky that criticizes Senate Republican Leader Mitch McConnell for supporting President Bush's war policies.

AP - The House on Tuesday approved a two-year extension of a program offering tax credits for construction of low-income housing in areas hit by Hurricane Katrina in 2005.

AP - Poorly written Justice Department documents cost the federal government more than $100 million in what was supposed to have been the crowning moment of the biggest tax prosecution ever.

AP - Democratic presidential contender Hillary Rodham Clinton has agreed to help one-time candidate Tom Vilsack, who endorsed her on Monday, as he seeks to retire a campaign debt of more than $400,000.

AFP - The chairman of Pakistan's national airline has resigned, officials said Tuesday, following a European Union safety ban imposed on most of its ageing fleet.

AFP - Clashes in the Democratic Republic of Congo capital last week left between 200 and 500 dead, the German ambassador said Tuesday as European Union envoys expressed concern at the "premature" use of force by government troops.