AP - Jarred by new jobless alarms, Congress raced to approve legislation Thursday to keep unemployment checks flowing through the December holidays and into the new year for a million or more laid-off Americans whose benefits are running out.

AP - President George W. Bush, struggling to get ahead of a global financial crisis, hopes to win more converts for an action plan designed to demonstrate that governments have the will and the means to halt the turmoil.

AP - With the United States reevaluating strategy in Afghanistan, Defense Secretary Robert Gates is telling allies that additional U.S. forces planned for the war must be shared across the region taking the brunt of the fighting.

AP - Detroit's embattled automakers have two weeks to show a skeptical Congress how a multibillion-dollar lifeline will help them keep the industry from imploding.

Reuters - The U.N. Security Council voted on Thursday to impose sanctions on anyone contributing to violence and instability in Somalia, in a bid to curb fighting in the chaotic Horn of Africa nation.

Politico - ... now separate Sen. Norm Coleman (R-Minn.) and Democrat Al Franken, with 46 percent of the 2.9 million ballots recounted in the too-close-to-call Minnesota Senate race.  Franken so far has gained a net of 79 votes on Coleman.

AP - A recount watchdog for Norm Coleman flagged a ballot because the voter put a check next to Al Franken's name instead of blacking in the oval. A Franken monitor challenged an apparent vote for Coleman because Franken's name was also marked. And representatives of both men invoked challenges because of marks elsewhere on the ballot that could make them identifiable.

AFP - The United States is seeking support in the United Nations for a resolution to tighten international measures against Somali pirates, a US diplomat said Thursday.

AP - The White House says President Bush signed into law a bill that Congress approved to keep unemployment checks flowing to jobless Americans through the holiday season.

AP - The United States will soon send its first ambassador to Libya in 36 years, following a remarkable turnaround in U.S. relations with the once-pariah North African nation.

AP - It's Washington's favorite parlor game during a presidential transition: trying to figure out who'll land a top spot in the new administration. President-elect Barack Obama is weighing an array of Washington insiders and outsiders, including some Republicans, for Cabinet and other top positions, according to Democratic officials.

AFP - The US Senate will take up two sweeping global warming bills in January, in the latest sign that Barack Obama's election could quickly reverse years of US footdragging on climate change.

AFP - The US government has asked the Supreme Court to reimpose a half-million-dollar fine slapped on CBS television for a 2004 broadcast of live images of pop star Janet Jackson's breast, court documents obtained by AFP show.

Reuters - The United States raised doubts about the prospect of a fast return to normal ties between NATO and Russia after the Georgian war on Friday, despite a European Union move to restart partnership talks with Moscow.

Politico - As a presidential candidate, Barack Obama boasted of opposing the Iraq War from the start.

AFP - The Senate has confirmed the nomination of career diplomat Gene Cretz as the first US ambassador to Libya in 36 years, the State Department said Friday.

AP - Germany's Interior Ministry has banned Hezbollah's television station on grounds that it violates the country's constitution, a spokesman said Friday.

AP - One of the government's witnesses against convicted Sen. Ted Stevens of Alaska says he didn't tell the truth on the stand about an immunity deal with the Justice Department in exchange for his testimony.

AP - A senior Democratic official says New Mexico Gov. Bill Richardson has emerged as a serious contender for Commerce Secretary in President-elect Barack Obama's Cabinet.

AP - With briefcase in hand and a smile on his face, Attorney General Michael Mukasey returned to work Friday after collapsing during a speech the night before and spurring a 14-hour scare about his health.

AP - The Pentagon has banned, at least temporarily, the use of external computer flash drives because of a virus threat officials detected on Defense Department networks.

Politico - CHICAGO — President-elect Barack Obama made his first public appearance in ten days on Friday at a Chicago lunchtime institution.           Obama arrived at Manny’s Cafeteria and Deli around 12:30 p.m. and ordered three corned beef sandwiches. He was accompanied by his newly named senior advisor and close friend Valerie Jarrett.

AP - Democratic leaders began laying out conditions Friday that they say Detroit's Big Three automakers need to meet before Congress will consider giving them an emergency $25 billion lifeline.

Reuters - House of Representatives Speaker Nancy Pelosi pledged support for a U.S. stimulus package and aid for sputtering carmakers on Friday, stepping into a Washington power vacuum that analysts fear may be contributing to the global financial crisis.

Reuters - European Union foreign policy chief Javier Solana, who leads nuclear negotiations with Iran on behalf of major powers, said Friday he hoped an Obama administration would be more engaged in the talks.

AP - President-elect Barack Obama and his wife have chosen Sidwell Friends School for their two daughters, opting for a private institution that another White House child, Chelsea Clinton, attended a decade ago.

Politico - Top advisers to President-elect Barack Obama’s presidential campaign said Thursday that Sen. Joseph I. Lieberman (I-Conn.) would have been a powerful boost to the Republican ticket.

AP - Figures.

AP - A senior Syrian official on Friday all but ruled out new visits by U.N. inspectors probing allegations that his country had a covert program that could be used to make nuclear weapons.

AP - Defense Secretary Robert Gates said Friday he would like to add significant U.S. forces to the war in Afghanistan before national elections scheduled for next year, and that grim depictions of backsliding in the seven-year-old war are 'far too pessimistic.'

AP - One of the government's witnesses against convicted Sen. Ted Stevens of Alaska says he didn't tell the truth on the stand about an immunity deal with the Justice Department in exchange for his testimony. But federal prosecutors said Friday that his current story is the false one.

Politico - The Obamas have selected a private D.C. school for their two daughters, a spokeswoman for Michelle Obama said Friday.

AP - Why aren't the government bailouts working?

AP - President-elect Barack Obama and his wife have chosen Sidwell Friends School for their two daughters, opting for a private institution that another White House child, Chelsea Clinton, attended a decade ago.

Politico - Ask Andrew Rivera of the Democratic Latino Organization of Virginia about Latinos in the new administration and he'll rattle off some names.

AP - The party that Italian Premier Silvio Berlusconi created more than a decade ago moved ahead with a plan to abandon its name and dissolve into another conservative bloc.

AP - A former GOP lobbyist with ties to Jack Abramoff may be moving toward a plea agreement with the Justice Department in its wide-ranging corruption investigation, documents showed Friday.