AP - Secretary of State appointee Hillary Rodham Clinton intervened at least six times in government issues directly affecting companies and others that later contributed to her husband's foundation, an Associated Press review of her official correspondence found.

AP - Barack Obama's choice for education secretary, Arne Duncan, faces questions about his commitment to school reform at a Senate confirmation hearing.

AP - Steven Chu, the Nobel Prize-winning physicist chosen by President-elect Barack Obama to be his energy secretary, faces questioning Tuesday before a Senate committee that is expected to endorse his selection.

AP - One of Italy's most-wanted mafia fugitives eluded capture Monday by climbing through a trap door and into the sewer as police closed in on his hideout in southern Italy, authorities said.

Politico - Lincoln in the distance is poetry. Grant, on horseback at the foot of the Capitol lawn, grit. And from across the Tidal Basin, FDR, seated in his Navy cape and sheltered by a bank of holly trees, is a call for action.

AP - A French black group is parading a Barack Obama-lookalike at the lower house of parliament and in Paris in a campaign to highlight its concerns about alleged racial profiling by police in France.

Politico - Since George Washington stood on the balcony of New York City’s Federal Hall in 1789, all presidential terms have begun with one sentence enshrined in the Constitution: “I do solemnly swear [or affirm] that I will faithfully execute the office of the President of the United States and will, to the best of my ability, preserve, protect and defend the Constitution of the United States.”

AP - Picture Lincoln, in the throes of the Civil War, suddenly mocking his critics in a nyah-nyah voice. Imagine Theodore Roosevelt, leaving office, lamenting out loud about how hated he was by Standard Oil. Summon an image of FDR cracking wise about his wheelchair and grousing about the nasty things Hitler was saying about him.

AFP - Democratic leaders have endorsed the bid by Roland Burris to succeed president-elect Barack Obama in the US Senate, despite his controversial appointment by Rod Blagojevich, the impeached governor of Illinois.

AFP - Slovakia is keeping the European Union on tenterhooks with its plan to reactivate an outdated nuclear reactor in a bid to avert an energy crisis after gas pipelines from Russia dried up.

AP - Officials of the outgoing and incoming Bush and Obama administrations are teaming up for a rehearsal of how to handle a theoretical national emergency.

AP - Britain's Royal Society of Chemistry says it has perfected the recipe for Oliver Twist's most famous meal — workhouse gruel.

AP - Investigators say a former top Justice Department official made false statements to Congress and violated federal law in overseeing the agency's civil rights division.

AP - Senior officials in the Bush administration and members of President-elect Barack Obama's team were at the White House Tuesday teaming up for a rehearsal of how to handle a hypothetical terrorist attack on American cities.

AP - Nobel Prize-winning physicist Steven Chu promised Tuesday that if confirmed as energy secretary he will aggressively pursue policies aimed at addressing climate change and achieving greater energy independence by developing clean energy sources.

AP - A Democratic official says a law school classmate, fundraiser and campaign technology adviser to Barack Obama is the leading contender to become head of the Federal Communications Commission.

AP - The Supreme Court has ruled that a failure to report for prison does not count as a violent crime under a federal law intended to keep repeat criminals in prison longer.

AP - Turkey has in recent years been Israel's best friend in the Muslim world, forging close security ties and even seeking to develop a role as a mediator between the Jewish state and its Arab enemies.

AP - You've lost your job and your mortgage company is threatening foreclosure. Then, when it seems that things can't get any worse, the tax man comes calling. What's a person to do?

AP - The Internal Revenue Service is offering taxpayers some guidance on the tax implications of economic hardship because of the deepening recession. Among the 'What If' scenarios presented by the agency, and its response:

AP - President George W. Bush has given the United States' highest civilian award to three foreign leaders who have been among his most loyal partners on the world stage.

AP - A federal judge says the incoming administration of Barack Obama must be given copies of documents the Bush White House has been withholding from Congress on the firings of nine U.S. attorneys.

AP - Under proposals from the incoming Obama administration and Democratic legislation awaiting a vote in the House this week, the huge financial bailout for the financial sector would face tough new conditions and a more defined mission to expand lending and reduce foreclosures.

AP - The Supreme Court appeared unlikely Tuesday to favor a broad rule that rewards criminal defendants with dismissal of charges against them because of trial delays by their taxpayer-funded lawyers.

AFP - Secretary of state designate Hillary Clinton Tuesday promised a 'smart' blend of military and diplomatic power under Barack Obama, saying US global leadership would no longer be found wanting.

AP - Treasury secretary designee Timothy Geithner is meeting with senators to discuss why he failed to pay personal taxes and check the immigration status of a housekeeper.

AP - The United States is likely to have bruising budget deficits over the next decade, President-elect Barack Obama's nominee to head the White House budget office said Tuesday.

AP - As the Bush administration works in its final days to cement its legacy, one of the leading architects of the Iraq war acknowledged Tuesday that he'd change some of the military advice he gave at the time, if he could. Retired Gen. Peter Pace, who was President Bush's top military adviser from 2005-07, served as chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff during the most volatile and deadly years of the war.

AFP - Senate majority leader Harry Reid said Tuesday the Senate was likely to approve the release of a second 350-billion-dollar financial bailout package this week.

AP - Terror suspects who have been held but released from Guantanamo Bay are increasingly returning to the fight against the United States and its allies, the Pentagon said Tuesday.

AP - President-elect Barack Obama's choice to run the Treasury Department and lead the nation's economic rescue disclosed publicly Tuesday that he failed to pay $34,000 in taxes from 2001 to 2004, a last-minute complication that Senate Democrats tried to brush aside as a minor bump on an otherwise smooth path to confirmation.

AP - Hillary Rodham Clinton, President-elect Barack Obama's choice for secretary of state, rejected calls Tuesday for more details about donors to her husband's foundation, saying she has revealed enough to avoid even the hint of conflicts. An Associated Press review found that Clinton stepped in at least a half-dozen times on issues involving businesses and others who later gave to the charity.

Politico - Senators gathered Tuesday in an emergency meeting discussing the fate of Treasury nominee Timothy Geithner, who is under fire after a report that he neglected to pay payroll taxes for himself and employed a housekeeper whose immigration status had expired

AP - Scientists begin recruiting mothers-to-be in North Carolina and New York this week for the largest study of U.S. children — aiming eventually to track 100,000 around the country from conception to age 21.

Reuters - Moving quickly to try to give President-elect Barack Obama an early victory on an important healthcare issue, the U.S. House of Representatives is set to vote on Wednesday to expand a children's health program and increase cigarette taxes to pay for it.

AP - Slobodan Milosevic's secret police chief said Tuesday he had no knowledge of a massacre by Serbian troops of ethnic Albanian civilians during the Kosovo war.

AP - The international Red Cross said Tuesday that Israel has fired white phosphorus shells in its offensive in the Gaza Strip, but has no evidence to suggest it is being used improperly or illegally.

AP - An explosion ripped though a government building in Russia's Ingushetia province Tuesday, killing eight people and injuring 23, emergency and law enforcement officials said.