AP - An influential Catholic newspaper urged Italian Premier Silvio Berlusconi on Friday to respond to allegations that women were paid to attend his parties.

Reuters - South American left-wing firebrands Hugo Chavez and Evo Morales are among the few heads of state attending next week's U.N. meeting on the global financial crisis, a U.N. spokesman said on Friday.

AP - A U.N. commission will begin a six-month investigation on July 1 into the assassination of former Pakistani Prime Minister Benazir Bhutto, the U.N. announced Friday.

Politico - It wasn't too long ago that Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid (D-Nev.) seemed headed for the fight of his political life and Sen. John Ensign (R-Nev.) seemed poised to emerge as a credible presidential contender in 2012.

Reuters - Cocaine production is growing fastest in Bolivia while Peru is on its way to matching output from Colombia, the top global producer of the drug, U.N. officials said on Friday.

AP - President Barack Obama is seeing the downside of his light touch on revamping the nation's health care system.

AP - One contributor to global warming — bigger than coal mines, landfills and sewage treatment plants — is being left out of efforts by the Obama administration and House Democrats to limit greenhouse gas emissions.

AP - Sensing a political opening, the Senate's GOP leader said Saturday that Democratic efforts to overhaul health care will bury the nation in debt.

AP - The president of the U.N. General Assembly postponed a financial summit aimed at giving the developing world a bigger voice in tackling the global economic crisis in hopes of attracting more world leaders. To date, he hasn't succeeded.

AP - Nearly hidden among the ranks of giant airliners, military airlifters and sleek warplanes on display at this year's centenary Paris Air Show, an eclectic collection of historic aircraft has been drawing large crowds of curious onlookers.

CQPolitics.com - Three House committees will begin hearings next week on a health care bill that its backers say would cover 95 percent of the uninsured while driving down health care costs for the rest of the country.

AP - Greece's new Acropolis Museum opens to the public on Sunday. Here are some facts and figures about the museum.

AFP - US President Barack Obama has warned Iran that the 'world is watching' its actions, and said the United States stood with those seeking 'peaceful' justice in the post-election tumult.

CQPolitics.com - Buried inside a health care overhaul draft bill unveiled by House Democrats on Friday are a collection of proposals likely to draw opposition from Republicans, including a profit limit on insurance companies, a powerful 'Health Benefits Advisory Council' that would regulate much of a new insurance market, and potentially controversial provisions on a government-run health insurance option.

Bloomberg - June 20 (Bloomberg) -- President Barack Obama said a new agency he proposed this week as part of an overhaul of U.S. financial regulations will protect consumers from deceptive lending practices.

AP - How do the Obamas keep their girls' lives normal in the White House? Chores.

CQPolitics.com - Some will disagree, but a big reason we're in this current financial mess is because a bunch of folks thought they could eliminate risk. They were wrong. It can't be done, and no one should try.

AP - The pharmaceutical industry agreed Saturday to spend $80 billion over the next decade improving drug benefits for seniors on Medicare and defraying the cost of President Barack Obama's health care legislation, capping secretive negotiations with the White House and key lawmakers.

AP - The president's spokesman says the White House is 'very pleased' that a New York Times reporter is safe and returning home after escaping from Taliban captors.

AP - British Prime Minister Gordon Brown said fallout over the recent lawmaker expense scandal has marked the worst time in his political life, but he has no immediate plans to step aside.

AFP - US President Barack Obama Saturday called on Iran's government to 'stop all violent and unjust actions against its own people,' the White House said amid swelling post-election tensions in the Islamic republic.

AP - The son of former British Prime Minister Margaret Thatcher says she had a good night after a successful operation to insert a pin in her broken arm.

McClatchy Newspapers - WASHINGTON — Congress voted resoundingly Friday to condemn the Iranian government's crackdown on protesters, sending a strong bipartisan signal to the White House that it wants less caution and more outrage.

AP - Secretary of State Hillary Rodham Clinton says the U.S. is committed to helping the world's 34 million refugees build safe and fulfilling lives, calling their struggle a 'humanitarian emergency.'

McClatchy Newspapers - Iran descended further into chaos Saturday, as security forces used guns, tear gas and metal batons against defiant protesters, protesters fought back and the toll of dead and injured mounted in the country's escalating post-election crisis.

AP - Barack Obama got a basketball, his first name and ambition from his father. Little else.

AP - It's a difficult balancing act. Where some economists see 'green shoots' of a recovery others see only yellow weeds of continuing recession. It's hard to know for sure whether things are getting better or worse.

AP - President Barack Obama said Saturday that current financial rules exploit consumers and he put critics of his proposed overhaul on notice: 'While I'm not spoiling for a fight, I'm ready for one.'

AP - Sensing a political opening, the Senate's GOP leader said Saturday that Democratic efforts to overhaul health care will bury the nation in debt.

AP - Secretary of State Hillary Rodham Clinton has had successful surgery to repair a fractured right elbow. The State Department says she's expected to make a full recovery.

AFP - US President Barack Obama called on Iran's government to stop 'violent and unjust' action against its own people, in his sharpest challenge yet to top leader on a day of bloodshed and violence.