AP - Echoes of the 2002 business scandals reverberate through a case before the Supreme Court that could make it tougher for shareholders to win lawsuits against public companies.

AFP - Police in Belgium, France, Luxembourg and Italy launched simultaneous dawn raids in a corruption investigation involving European public servants, the Brussels prosecutors office said Tuesday.

Reuters - The U.N. Security Council approved a 12-month extension on Tuesday for an investigation into the assassination of former Lebanese Prime Minister Rafik al-Hariri and other political killings.

Reuters - Sudan's government and the United Nations are expected to announce an agreement on Wednesday that will give humanitarian groups better access to victims in the Darfur region, a foreign ministry spokesman said.

AP - President Bush on Wednesday withdrew the ambassadorial nomination of businessman Sam Fox after Democrats denounced Fox for giving money to a controversial conservative group that undermined Sen. John Kerry's 2004 presidential campaign.

AP - Democratic presidential candidate Bill Richardson said the United States needs to do more to prevent a 'nuclear 9-11,' a threat that he argues has been neglected because the Bush administration has been consumed with Iraq.

AP - The political arm of NOW, the National Organization for Women, will endorse Sen. Hillary Rodham Clinton's presidential bid on Wednesday, according to Democratic officials familiar with the plan.

AP - President Bush and Russian President Vladimir Putin on Wednesday discussed growing tensions about Iran's nuclear programs and Russia's concerns about U.S. plans for a missile defense system in Europe.

CQPolitics.com - A bill that would force members of the Senate to file campaign finance disclosure forms electronically has no public opposition, but its enactment is far from guaranteed.

AFP - European Union diplomats on Tuesday condemned the government's excessive use of force during last week's defeat of an opposition leader's militia in the Democratic Republic of Congo's capital.

AP - The Senate debated a war spending bill on Wednesday that would:

AP - Darth Vader and Obi-Wan Kenobi will do battle one more time — and the emperor, Han Solo, Princess Leia and others will join in the struggle. A set of 15 stamps commemorating the Star Wars movies will be released in May, the Postal Service said Wednesday.

AP - Lawmakers prodded the White House Wednesday for a new answer on whether President Bush's political adviser, Karl Rove, will testify about the firings of federal prosecutors.

AP - Republicans say the flap over firing U.S. attorneys is muddling their message and damaging President Bush.

AP - Presidential candidate Hillary Rodham Clinton declared Wednesday that if you look up the word 'feminist' in a dictionary, you'll find her.

AP - Lawmakers are uneasy with assurances they're getting that when old-style analog TV broadcasts go off the air in early 2009, consumers with non-digital televisions and traditional antennas won't be left in the dark.

AP - In an Iraq jobs program, the Pentagon has helped reopen three factories shuttered after the 2003 invasion, seeding the ground by buying uniforms and armored vehicles from two of them.

AP - The new U.N. humanitarian chief warned Tuesday that refugees fleeing the conflict in the Darfur region of Sudan could become an 'intolerable burden' on the resources of neighboring Chad.

AP - Reacting to shabby treatment of wounded soldiers at Walter Reed Army Medical Center, the House on Wednesday created a coterie of case managers, advocates and counselors for injured troops returning from Iraq and Afghanistan.

AP - Russian President Vladimir Putin registered his concerns Wednesday with President Bush about a planned U.S. missile defense system in Central Europe in a conversation that highlighted strains between the two nations.

AP - Government watchdogs have joked for years that senators must mail their campaign finance reports fourth-class from Alaska, it often takes so long for them to surface for public viewing.

AP - A Jewish leader who survived the Holocaust as a boy by hiding in basements and attics urged countries to speed the opening of vast files on Nazi concentration camps and their victims.

AP - Federal Reserve Chairman Ben Bernanke doesn't believe the nation will slip into a recession, rejecting the notion raised by predecessor Alan Greenspan that the economy's expansion could be in danger of fizzling out.

AP - Several Supreme Court justices challenged shareholder groups who were arguing Wednesday against standards that could make it tougher for investors' cases to go forward when they sue companies for fraud.

AP - House Democrats pressed ahead Wednesday with a budget plan predicting a sizable surplus in five years, but only if President Bush's tax cuts expire in 2010 as scheduled.

AP - China's ambassador to the United States urged Washington on Wednesday to continue sending a clear message condemning Taiwan independence and to stop selling weapons to the island's government.

Reuters - Twelve-year-old Suna Kacar was until recently one of nearly 2 million Turkish child laborers who mostly work in the streets selling cheap goods or shining shoes to add a trickle to their family's income.

AP - The Bush administration floated elements of an immigration plan on Wednesday that would make it harder for millions of illegal immigrants to gain citizenship than under legislation passed by the Senate last year, according to officials in both parties.

AP - A House panel on Wednesday approved legislation written by majority Democrats to give shareholders at public companies a formal say in executives' compensation packages.

AP - A federal appeals court on Wednesday blocked the Agriculture Department from providing horse meat inspections for a fee.

AP - Tell us, Mr. President, how have things changed since the last broadcasters' dinner?

AP - The U.N. Security Council voted unanimously Tuesday to extend the investigation into the assassination of former Lebanese prime minister Rafik Hariri until June 15, 2008.