AP - Repairs for rural bridges, an under-highway safe crossing for turtles and efforts to protect the sage grouse population are among 100 projects a Republican senator pointed to Monday as questionable federal stimulus spending.

AP - A woman who admitted killing one of France's richest men during sex games told a Swiss court Monday she shot him dead because he called her a whore.

AP - Former U.S. President Bill Clinton said Monday that Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu's tough terms for a Palestinian peace deal are just the opening moves in a drama that will have a few more acts.

AP - Officials from Rocky Mountain states are urging Congress to help them avert a potential catastrophe this summer as they grapple with millions of acres of beetle-ravaged pines that are prone to fire.

AP - Italian and U.S. authorities have broken up an international group that hacked into long-distance phone lines and may have provided funds to terrorists in Southeast Asia, officials said Monday.

Politico - Earmarks? Perhaps not. But funding for FutureGen? Absolutely, to the tune of $1 billion.

AP - Russia welcomed Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad Tuesday on his first trip abroad since his bitterly disputed re-election, a show of support for a leader facing massive protests at home and questions from the West about the legitimacy of the vote count

AP - The United States urged Iran on Monday to agree to a meeting with the six key nations trying to ensure that its nuclear program is peaceful in which the U.S. will be 'a full participant.'

Politico - In an Ideas piece, Shroeder says after last night’s apology, Palin has little choice but to back down.

Politico - Room for one more on the wedding�guest list? How about the president?

AP - General Motors Corp. on Tuesday said it has signed a deal to sell its Saab unit to a consortium led by Swedish luxury sports carmaker Koenigsegg Automotive AB.

AP - Russia has brought to an end the nearly 16-year-old U.N. observer mission that monitored a cease-fire between Georgia and its breakaway Abkhazia region.

Reuters - President Barack Obama and South Korean President Lee Myung-bak are expected to show a united front against North Korea when they meet on Tuesday, but they may not make much progress on free trade pact that has been stalled for two years.

Bloomberg - June 16 (Bloomberg) -- President Barack Obama said the U.S. will continue a “tough, direct dialogue” with Iran amid the eruption of demonstrations in the country following its disputed presidential election.

AP - HHS Secretary Kathleen Sebelius says covering the uninsured will take several years, even if Congress passes a bill and President Barack Obama signs it into law this fall.

Politico - Alaska Gov. Sarah Palin has accepted David Letterman’s apology on making a bad joke about her 14-year-old daughter.

AP - Schoolchildren may be first in line for swine flu vaccine this fall � and might even be able to get the shot right at school.

AP - Officials from Rocky Mountain states urged Congress on Tuesday help them avert a potential catastrophe this summer as they grapple with millions of acres of beetle-ravaged pines that are prone to fire.

AP - The Vatican says Pope Benedict XVI has named a Vatican official, Monsignor Albert Malcolm Ranjith, to head the Colombo, Sri Lanka archdiocese.

AP - Schoolchildren may be first in line for swine flu vaccine this fall � and might even be able to get the shot right at school.

Politico - Heading into a critical vote, House Republicans are unified against the $106 billion war supplemental bill, saying because they don't trust President Barack Obama's promises to never let certain detainee abuse pictures see the light of day.

AP - A leading civil rights coalition says there has been an increase in white supremacist activity since the election of the first African-American president.

AFP - Britain's ambassador to the United Nations was on Tuesday named as the new head of the MI6 foreign intelligence service -- a figure who is traditionally known by his James Bond-style moniker 'C.'

Reuters - The Pentagon is expected to release a report on U.S. air strikes in western Afghanistan last month, following a debate within the Obama administration about whether to squelch the document, officials said on Tuesday.

AP - Supreme Court nominee Sonia Sotomayor is defending her membership in an elite all-women's club, telling senators the group doesn't discriminate unfairly by gender and involves men in many of its events.

AP - The Obama administration is declining to release documents that would identify visitors to the White House, embracing a legal position taken by the Bush administration, according to a watchdog group that filed a federal lawsuit over access to the records.

AP - President Barack Obama said Tuesday the disputed election in Iran revealed a change in expectations among voters and perhaps their leaders. He said he was deeply troubled by the election and its aftermath but stopped short of saying the re-election of hard-liner Mahmoud Ahmadinejad was rigged.

U.S. News & World Report - It began with a leak two weeks ago, a chunk of a bill circulating in Washington that offered the first real glimpse of a Democratic plan for healthcare reform. By early last week, the leak had given way to the real thing: a 615-page draft put out by Sen. Ted Kennedy, the ailing liberal from Massachusetts, and accompanied by the outline of a largely similar bill from House Democrats. [Read 10 Things You Didn't Know About Ted Kennedy]

AP - Supreme Court nominee Sonia Sotomayor (SOHN'-yuh soh-toh-my-YOR') says an elite all-women's club she belongs to doesn't discriminate unfairly by gender.

Reuters - The world is 'sleepwalking' toward preventable natural disasters whose effects could be cut significantly with a modest increase in spending on risk reduction, the United Nations aid chief said on Tuesday.

AP - House lawmakers are divided about how to supervise the insurance industry as Congress awaits the Obama administration's blueprint for a broad overhaul of the nation's financial rule book.

McClatchy Newspapers - WASHINGTON � President Barack Obama on Tuesday brushed aside any suggestion that the United States would accept North Korea's desire to become a nuclear power.

AP - Attorney General Eric Holder said Tuesday that recent killings show the need for a tougher hate crimes law to stop 'violence masquerading as political activism.'

Reuters - The powerful tax-writing House of Representatives Ways and Means Committee aims to have proposals to raise revenue by Friday to help pay the trillion dollar tab expected to be needed for broad health reform, Chairman Charles Rangel said on Tuesday.

AP - A government audit says the Federal Emergency Management Agency has failed to follow federal contracting rules.

AP - Supreme Court nominee Sonia Sotomayor is defending her membership in an elite all-women's club, telling senators the group doesn't discriminate unfairly by gender and involves men in many of its activities.

AP - The Obama administration on Tuesday expanded the U.S. watchlist of countries suspected of not doing enough to combat human trafficking, putting more than four dozen nations on notice that they might face sanctions unless their records improve.

AP - The Vatican's top envoy for China says the time has come for the Holy See to get tough with Beijing and not compromise over religious freedom, saying relations are taking a 'worrisome slide' for the worse.

AP - Syria's nuclear chief is suggesting the U.N. nuclear agency's discovery of new uranium traces in the country do not harden allegations that Damascus has a hidden nuclear program.

CQPolitics.com - The forthcoming House health-care bill may use the tax code to take a shot at advertising for prescription drugs, Ways and Means Chairman Charles B. Rangel, D-N.Y., said Tuesday.

AP - Republican Sen. John Ensign of Nevada admitted Tuesday he had an extramarital affair with a former member of his campaign staff.

Politico - Nevada GOP Sen. John Ensign has told colleagues that he plans to admit an extramarital affair.

Politico - Resolution would create special Intel subcommittee to investigate Pelosi's statements on torture briefings.

AP - Italian police say they have recovered an illegally excavated marble bas-relief depicting one ancient Rome's most popular gods, worshipped mainly by the empire's soldiers.

CQPolitics.com - The White House was on the verge of cutting a deal with Texas Democrats who were holding back their votes on the $106 billion war spending legislation, helping clear the way for adoption of the measure Tuesday.

AP - War-funding legislation survived a fierce partisan battle in the House on Tuesday, a major step in providing commanders in Iraq and Afghanistan the money they would need for military operations in the coming months.

Politico - Barack Obama orders a fly to 'get out of here' on CNBC.

Politico - Republicans put the brakes on a war supplemental bill.

AP - The Federal Emergency Management Agency failed to follow some federal contracting rules, making it impossible to know whether the agency got its money's worth during disasters, a government audit found.

AP - A Democratic senator on Tuesday joined several Republicans in questioning President Barack Obama's firing of the internal watchdog for the federal AmeriCorps program.

AP - Arizona Republican Gov. Jan Brewer sued the GOP-controlled Legislature on Tuesday, asking the state Supreme Court to order top leaders to immediately send her budget bills that lawmakers approved nearly two weeks ago.

AP - Health and Human Services Secretary Kathleen Sebelius acknowledged on Tuesday that government health care for American Indians has been a 'historic failure' for more than a century and pledged to launch an extended effort to improve it.

McClatchy Newspapers - WASHINGTON � The Obama administration is proposing the broadest changes in financial regulation since the Great Depression, calling for the elimination of some bank regulators and giving the Treasury Department and Federal Reserve vast new authority.

McClatchy Newspapers - WASHINGTON � A divided House of Representatives Tuesday approved by 226 to 202 a $105.9 billion emergency spending bill to fund the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan and help curb flu outbreaks.

AP - The human rights situation in Sudan is 'critical,' an independent U.N. expert said Tuesday, accusing the nation's government of cracking down on its critics and shielding those responsible for gross violations such as rape, torture and murder.

Politico - The�CBO estimates that an earlier version of the Finance Committee bill would top $1.5 trillion.

AFP - Nevada Senator John Ensign, a rising star of the Republican Party regarded as a possible contender in the 2012 presidential election, admitted an extra-marital affair here.

AP - Germany vowed Tuesday to do everything in its power to find and safely return a German family missing in Yemen, where three women who disappeared with them have been found dead.