AP - President Barack Obama is turning from the star-studded, crowd-pleasing pomp of his inauguration to the workaday task of governing a hurting nation of 304 million and meeting the soaring expectations that he and others have put on his shoulders.

AP - President Barack Obama will begin to put his imprint on the nation's war strategy in his first full day in office, gathering his top military and national security advisers at the White House for what is expected to be the start of the new commander in chief's shift in emphasis from Iraq to Afghanistan.

AP - President Barack Obama and his wife Michelle capped their historic day with a speedy tour through 10 inaugural balls before retiring, at last, for their first night in the White House.

AP - The Senate is expected to consider several of President Barack Obama's Cabinet nominees Wednesday.

Politico - Barack Obama has always been about the words. And so it was on Tuesday. For all the grandeur of the setting and the breathtaking and seemingly endless crowd arrayed before him, it was still about the words.

Reuters - Rwandan troops crossed into eastern Congo on Tuesday in a joint military operation by the Great Lakes neighbors to disarm Rwandan Hutu rebels seen as a root cause of more than a decade of conflict.

AP - Michelle Obama is calling her new life as first lady 'a bit surreal' and says she's ready for such a high-profile role in politics.

AP - A Jewish man fighting to regain possession of thousands of rare posters seized from his father by the Nazis appeared to score a victory on Tuesday when a Berlin court indicated it believed his father was the owner in 1938 when they were taken.

AP - Newspapers are in trouble? Says who?

AP - A new poll shows that by a 3-1 margin, the American people feel more optimistic about the country's future now that Barack Obama has been inaugurated president.

Politico - Blog: Obama makes a more dramatic move on Guantanamo Bay than simply ordering it closed, calling an immediate halt to trials there. The con

AP - Doctors blamed fatigue for the seizure Sen. Edward M. Kennedy suffered during an inaugural luncheon after hours at events celebrating the swearing-in of President Barack Obama.

AP - Lawyers for a British man accused of hacking into U.S. military computers asked Britain's High Court Tuesday to block his extradition to the United States.

AP - The government lost its final attempt Wednesday to revive a federal law intended to protect children from sexual material and other objectionable content on the Internet.

Politico - Blog: I'm not going to be posting most White House press releases, but here's the first: At 8:35 AM, the President arrived in the Oval Offi

AP - The Supreme Court has unanimously upheld the right of a local public employees' union to force government workers who are not union members to pay a share of legal fees.

AP - Germany's health minister says the government has banned the production, sale or possession of a synthetic marijuana-like drug known as 'Spice.'

AP - President Barack Obama's first public act in office Wednesday was to institute new limits on lobbyists in his White House and to freeze the salaries of high-paid aides, in a nod to the country's economic turmoil.

AP - Sen. John McCain is imploring his Republican colleagues to drop partisan demands and let the popular president get to work.

AP - The biracial American kid with a Kenyan father who went from place to place, who struggled to put down roots and figure out where he fit in? He's Barack Obama.

Politico - Blog: The President signals swift engagement in his first round of calls: Obama called the leaders of Egypt, Israel, Jordan and the Palestinian Aut

AP - President Obama's request to suspend all war crimes trials at Guantanamo was promptly accepted by military judges Wednesday in what may be the beginning of the end for the Bush administration's system of trying alleged terrorists.

AP - A former Puerto Rican lawmaker has pleaded guilty to federal corruption charges that could send him to prison for more than a decade.

AP - The Supreme Court ruled Wednesday that police officers in Utah who searched a suspect's home without a warrant cannot be sued for violating his constitutional rights.

AP - Federal officials say more than 125 products have been recalled in a salmonella-and-peanuts investigation that keeps getting bigger.

AP - A prolific political fundraiser and grass-roots organizer, President Barack Obama is quickly putting his stamp on the Democratic Party in an attempt to build on the success of his groundbreaking campaign and Democrats' recent election results.

Politico - Blog: Taegan Goddard notes that Obama has already violated a Bush White House rule against anyone entering the Oval Office without a jacke

Politico - President Barack Obama on Wednesday ordered a pay freeze for top aides making $100,000 or more and signed a series of executive orders aimed at creating the open government he repeatedly promised on the campaign trail.

AP - It was an emotional time for some White House visitors who got the chance to meet President Barack Obama.

AP - A federal law intended to restrict children's access to Internet pornography died quietly Wednesday at the Supreme Court, more than 10 years after Congress overwhelmingly approved it.

AP - Kosovo armed forces took over security duties on Wednesday, less than a year after the territory declared independence and in the face of strong protests from Serbia.

AP - The Obama administration intends to close the Guantanamo Bay detention center within a year and halt military trials of terror suspects held there, according to a draft order obtained Wednesday.

Politico - Blog: The iconic Obama image is traced to its source. Hillary is confirmed. Coming tomorrow: Orders on Gitmo, interrogation,

AP - President Barack Obama invited the U.S. ambassador in Iraq to sit in on a war council session Wednesday, an opening step toward ending the nearly 6-year-old conflict.

AP - The House has approved legislation setting goals and limitations on the federal government's use of the remaining $350 billion in the financial bailout fund.

AP - The Senate Foreign Relations Committee is endorsing Susan Rice as the next ambassador to the United Nations.

Politico - BLOG: The New York Post reports that the frontrunner to replace Hillary in the Senate is out.

Politico - President Barack Obama got off to a quick start in his first full day in office, mixing ceremonial duties with his first official forays into domestic and foreign policy.

AP - George J. Mitchell, the former Senate Democratic leader, is expected to be named as incoming Secretary of State Hillary Rodham Clinton's special envoy for the Mideast, diplomatic officials said Wednesday.

AFP - US Senate Democratic Majority Leader Harry Reid said Wednesday that he would move to give a noted comic actor and writer a seat in the chamber despite an elections lawsuit by his Republican foe.

AP - Chief Justice John Roberts has administered the presidential oath of office to Barack Obama for a second time just to be on the safe side.

AP - Pope Benedict XVI has blessed two lambs whose wool will be shorn to make shawls for newly appointed archbishops to wear.

AP - President Barack Obama, in a meeting with his top national security advisers Wednesday, asked the Pentagon to do whatever additional planning is necessary to 'execute a responsible military drawdown from Iraq.'

Politico - Blog: Erring on the side of caution, Obama quietly retook his oath of office -- which both he and Chief Justice John Roberts collaborated to botch yesterd

Politico - President Barack Obama took the oath of office for a second time Wednesday night, a precautionary measure taken the day after Supreme Court Chief Justice John Roberts flubbed the oath on the Capitol steps.

AP - Facing Republican resistance to a massive economic stimulus plan, the Obama administration on Wednesday said $3 of every $4 in the package should be spent within 18 months to have maximum impact on jobs and taxpayers.

Politico - Blog: Barack Obama will formally turn the State Department over to Hillary Clinton tomorrow, a day after she was confirmed, a source familiar with the pla

Politico - Racing against time and a growing banking crisis, President Obama’s economic recovery plan cleared its first hurdle in the House Wednesday night even as Democrats struggled to forge a fragile bipartisan majority in the all important Senate Finance Committee.

AFP - Caroline Kennedy has withdrawn from consideration to occupy the US Senate seat vacated by newly sworn-in Secretary of State Hillary Clinton, The New York Times reported.

AP - Attorneys, activists and lawmakers Wednesday condemned the brazen shooting of a human-rights lawyer on a busy Moscow street and called for a thorough and honest investigation into a killing that spotlighted the risks faced by Russians who fight for justice.