AP - A federal appeals court Tuesday upheld ordinances barring the ownership of handguns in most cases in Chicago and suburban Oak Park, finding a Supreme Court ruling in a District of Columbia case doesn't apply.

McClatchy Newspapers - WASHINGTON � With Congress working on a sweeping health-care overhaul, questions abound for consumers, including whether people might have to change their insurance or buy coverage if they don't have it. Here's a guide to the top issues:

AP - President Barack Obama is beginning his latest bid to open a dialogue with the Muslim world by paying a call on Saudi King Abdullah, guardian of Islam's sacred sites in Mecca and Medina.

AP - Supreme Court nominee Sonia Sotomayor is racing through a crucial set of meetings with senators on Capitol Hill, working to reassure Republicans who worry she'd bring ethnic and gender bias to her decisions.

AP - Federal investigators are targeting a pair of British companies in a procurement fraud case that extends a long-running probe of corruption in Iraq to the shores of America's staunchest ally.

AP - Top executives from General Motors and Chrysler face tough questions from lawmakers about sweeping plans to close hundreds of car dealerships as the auto companies undergo government-led bankruptcies.

AP - Seven Indian tribes in North Carolina and Virginia are again asking Congress to grant them federal recognition.

AP - Rarely has a Cabinet agency seen such a dramatic change of style as the one that has occurred at the Treasury Department. Gone is Hank the hammer and in his place is Tim the mild bureaucrat.

AP - Prince Charles will attend this week's 65th-anniversary commemoration of the D-Day landings, royal officials said Tuesday, in an attempt to defuse a cross-Channel spat over France's alleged failure to invite his mother, Queen Elizabeth II.

AP - Members of President Barack Obama's administration are traveling to auto communities this week in Michigan, Ohio, Indiana and Wisconsin to talk about help for those areas. Here's who's coming and the states they're visiting.

Politico - Simon says Sotomayor told the truth in 2001 and now Washington is making her pay for it.

Politico - Call it a Sherman's March in reverse — an attempt by Obama to burn down any lines of escape for GOP-ers.

AP - A German student who threw his shoe at Chinese Premier Wen Jiabao during a lecture a Cambridge University earlier this year was cleared of any crime Tuesday.

Bloomberg - June 3 (Bloomberg) -- President Barack Obama called the next few months a “make-or-break period” for health-care legislation in Congress, ratcheting up pressure on lawmakers.

AP - Federal investigators are targeting a pair of British companies in a procurement fraud case that extends a long-running probe of corruption in Iraq to the shores of America's staunchest ally.

AP - Former Republican presidential candidate Mitt Romney on Wednesday accused President Barack Obama of failing to sufficiently highlight America's strengths in his travels and speeches around the world.

AP - President Barack Obama said Tuesday the American people love all things French and acknowledged his own penchant for Gallic food and wines.

AP - President Barack Obama reiterated that Iran may have some right to nuclear energy � provided it takes steps to prove its aspirations are peaceful.

AFP - Al-Qaeda chief Osama bin Laden has issued a new audiotape in which he takes aim at Barack Obama's policy towards the Islamic world, Al-Jazeera television announced shortly after the US president arrived in Saudi Arabia.

Bloomberg - June 3 (Bloomberg) -- President Barack Obama has a tall order this week: follow through on the vow he made in his Jan. 20 inaugural address to “seek a new way forward” with Muslims and show allies “we are ready to lead once more.”

AP - The man charged with the Arkansas military recruiter shooting might have considered other targets, according to law enforcement officials.

AP - The U.S. military's failure to follow tightened rules for aerial strikes likely caused civilian deaths in a May 4 American bombing in western Afghanistan, a defense official said Wednesday.

Politico - “Morning Joe”�host all but accuses managing editor Chrystia Freeland�of defending the Obama admin.

AFP - Nearly three-quarters of Americans would have voted against US Supreme Court nominee Sonia Sotomayor in a case in which mostly white firefighters alleged reverse discrimination, a poll showed Wednesday.

AP - Federal safety officials said a regional airliner and a smaller plane came within 10 feet of colliding on an airport runway in Charlotte, N.C.

AP - It began in Poland at the ballot box: A season of revolutions that toppled communist regimes from Berlin to Bucharest was set in motion 20 years ago this week by the first semi-free elections ever to take place in the Soviet-dominated eastern bloc.

AP - Federal Reserve Chairman Ben Bernanke is urging Congress and the Obama administration to start plotting a strategy to curb record-high U.S. budget deficits. Failing to do so could eventually erode investor confidence and endanger the economy's prospects for long-term health, he said.

Bloomberg - June 3 (Bloomberg) -- President Barack Obama has a tall order this week: follow through on the vow he made in his Jan. 20 inaugural address to “seek a new way forward” with Muslims and show allies “we are ready to lead once more.”

Politico - Says Bush didn’t want to be one who “pulled the plug.”

AP - The Senate Finance Committee has said it is considering raising federal taxes on alcohol and creating a new tax on sugar-sweetened drinks to help pay for revamping the nation's health care system, an overhaul that could cost $1.5 trillion over the next decade.

AP - Moldovan lawmakers failed for a second time Wednesday to elect a president, meaning the Parliament elected in April will be dissolved and a new election will be held this summer.

AFP - Prime Minister Gordon Brown lost his fourth minister within 24 hours on Wednesday as he faced taunts that his government was collapsing on the eve of polls which could seal his fate.

Reuters - Al Qaeda leader Osama bin Laden said U.S. President Barack Obama had planted the seeds of 'revenge and hatred' toward the United States in the Muslim world and warned Americans to prepare for the consequences.

CQPolitics.com - Rep. Peter J. Visclosky, the Indiana Democrat who is the subject of a grand jury investigation, said Tuesday that he will temporarily step aside and let the next-in-line congressman manage the fiscal 2010 Energy-Water spending bill.

AP - The Obama administration on Wednesday reversed a Bush administration rule that immigrants rights groups had criticized as unfair.

Politico - Obama�intends to nominate Jim Leach as chairman of the Nat'l Endowment for the Humanities.

Politico - Graham criticizes Sotomayor's temperament and�says he has little intention of voting for her.

AP - For all the smiling photos of Barack and Michelle Obama, the couple went through a tough time in their marriage in earlier years, according to a new book.

AP - The Internal Revenue Service has filed a $819,848 tax lien against Sen. John Kerry's 2004 presidential campaign, but Kerry on Wednesday blamed IRS clerical error for the claim and said his campaign owes no tax penalties.

U.S. News & World Report - The United States Supreme Court is expected to issue a decision soon on when public schools must reimburse the parents of special-education students for private school tuition, the New York Times reports. The case could have serious financial repercussions for families and school districts alike. The ruling hinges on the interpretation of an amendment to the Individuals with Disabilities Education Act (IDEA), which requires that disabled children receive a 'free appropriate public education.'

AP - Just weeks ago Silvio Berlusconi appeared to have an ironclad grip on power. Now the Italian premier is looking suddenly vulnerable, with the heat coming from something almost unheard of in freewheeling Italy: a sex scandal.

AP - The chiefs of General Motors and Chrysler told Congress on Wednesday they have too many dealers to support their slimmed down operations and sacrifices must be shared as they fight to overcome bankruptcy and survive. They acknowledged that slashing dealerships is causing pain in communities around the country.

Politico - Max Baucus�says that he made a mistake by not giving their proposals more consideration�in reform debate.

Politico - Wolffe could become a flashpoint in the larger debate over whether journalists are too enamored with Obama’s biography.

AP - The U.S. military's failure to follow tightened rules for aerial strikes likely caused civilian deaths in a May 4 American bombing in western Afghanistan, a defense official said Wednesday.

AP - Seven Indian tribes in North Carolina and Virginia would be federally recognized under legislation passed by the House on Wednesday, but they would not be allowed to build casinos.

AP - Indiana Gov. Mitch Daniels, a potential 2012 presidential candidate, said Wednesday that his fellow Republicans need to work harder to show 'empathy' if they want to emerge from the political doldrums.

AP - A German federal court ruled Wednesday that two Jews who were forced by the Nazis to work in ghettos have a right to a pension for their labor, setting the stage for thousands of others to receive payments.

Reuters - The United States should be more forthright about how many civilians die in its overseas wars, and exercise more caution with unmanned drone attacks, a United Nations human rights envoy said on Wednesday.

Politico - The Indiana Governor hammers Obama for failing to rein in 'terrifying' federal deficits.

Politico - Obama says�Americans should be able to choose.

AP - A lawmaker is urging the National Basketball Association to repeal its requirement that players be at least 19 years old and a year out of high school before entering the league.

AP - Israel does not intend to bomb Iran, Israel's foreign minister said Wednesday, stepping back from suggestions it might attack a major foe it says is bent on developing nuclear weapons.

McClatchy Newspapers - WASHINGTON � 'Ladies and gentlemen,' the unseen announcer said, 'the statute of Ronald Reagan.'

Politico - Sen. Ron Wyden�says�he is 'pleased' that Sotomayor has�'great respect' for precedent.

Politico - The Indiana governor hammers Obama for failing to rein in 'terrifying' federal deficits.

AP - President Barack Obama, providing the first real details on how he wants to reshape the nation's health care system, urged Congress on Wednesday toward a sweeping overhaul that would allow Americans to buy into a government insurance plan.

AP - Seven Indian tribes in North Carolina and Virginia would be federally recognized under legislation passed by the House on Wednesday, but they would not be allowed to build casinos.

AP - The Indian Health Service is continuing to lose equipment at an alarming rate despite efforts to better account for the agency's property, according to congressional investigators.

AP - First lady Michelle Obama used some high-profile examples � including Supreme Court nominee Sonia Sotomayor � to reassure high school graduates any doubts they have about how they will do in college and beyond are not unusual.

AFP - President Barack Obama on Wednesday said he was open to the idea of a public funding of health insurance, the latest twist in his ambitious and difficult goal to reform the country's health care system by year's end.

McClatchy Newspapers - WASHINGTON � Skeptical, frustrated senators Wednesday issued a warning to top executives of Chrysler and General Motors � and for that matter, the White House: Consumers, auto dealers and workers back home are increasingly nervous and angry about the bankrupt companies' operations.

CQPolitics.com - Rep. Carolyn B. Maloney plans to announce a primary challenge to Sen. Kirsten Gillibrand on her Web site Thursday morning, according to two sources including a member of New York's congressional delegation.

AP - A federal safety inspector assigned to the airline involved in an air crash that killed 50 people in upstate New York in February warned of safety problems at the airline a year before the accident.

AFP - On the eve of his major address to Muslims, President Barack Obama faced criticism at home Wednesday from some fellow Democrats who believe he has gone too far in pressuring Israel to freeze settlements.

AP - Al-Qaida terrorists have killed a Briton taken hostage in Mali, the British prime minister said Wednesday. The fate of a Swiss hostage taken at the same time was unknown.

CQPolitics.com - In a letter to the chairmen of two Senate committees with key roles in overhauling health care, President Obama expressed support Wednesday for some crucial details of the plan -- including a government-run insurance program that would compete with private insurers.