AP - Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu got a warm and supportive welcome Tuesday from Italian Premier Silvio Berlusconi, while postponing a potentially less comfortable meeting with President Barack Obama's Mideast envoy.

Reuters - President Barack Obama has decided to return a U.S. ambassador to Syria after a four-year hiatus as talks between the two nations intensify, U.S. media reported on Tuesday.

AP - For President Barack Obama, the MRIs and other medical scans for Medicare patients that cost the government billions are prime targets for cuts to help finance health care overhaul.

AP - South Carolina Gov. Mark Sanford's mysterious disappearance from his state is the latest sign that Republican governors, once thought to be President Obama's most credible adversaries, haven't quite lived up to their billing.

CQPolitics.com - Nearly four dozen members of Congress have spouses employed in the health care industry -- ties that lawmakers acknowledge are influencing their thinking about how the health system should be overhauled.

AP - It's October 1968, and the Soviet Union has just landed cosmonauts on the moon. Warsaw Pact troops are massing on the Austrian border, and nuclear showdown looms between east and west.

AP - Former Republican presidential candidate Mitt Romney is giving President Barack Obama higher marks now for his response to civil unrest and a government crackdown in Iran.

Bloomberg - June 24 (Bloomberg) -- A plan to limit U.S. greenhouse gas emissions won new support under an agreement to give farmers and coal-fired electric utilities added benefits in a bill set for a vote in the House of Representatives this week.

AP - A top Muslim group in Britain lashed out at Nicolas Sarkozy as 'patronizing and offensive' on Tuesday, after the French president said body- and face-covering Islamic garments such as the burqa turn women into prisoners.

AP - President Nicolas Sarkozy revamped France's Cabinet on Tuesday, turning to conservative loyalists and ousting two poorly performing ministers in the second reshuffle of the government since he took office in 2007.

Reuters - President Barack Obama said in an interview aired on Wednesday that he 'absolutely' will get healthcare reform completed in 2009 but declined to say what the final package would eventually look like.

Bloomberg - June 24 (Bloomberg) -- At Zappos.com, the $10-to-$11 hourly wage of a warehouse and customer-service worker is enhanced by free health benefits worth about $7,500. A proposal to help fund President Barack Obama’s health-care overhaul would make some employees pay about $495 in taxes on the perk.

AP - President Barack Obama will return an ambassador to Syria, filling a post that has been vacant for four years and marking an acceleration of Washington's engagement with the Arab world.

AP - The chairman of the Senate Veterans Affairs Committee is calling for more centralized control of the VA medical system after recent breakdowns in cleaning colonoscopy equipment exposed thousands of veterans to the risk of contracting HIV and other infections.

AP - South Carolina Gov. Mark Sanford's mysterious disappearance from his state, topped with misinformation from his staff about where he had gone and what he'd been doing, is the latest sign that Republican governors — once thought to be President Obama's most credible adversaries — haven't quite lived up to their billing.

Reuters - China on Wednesday rejected U.S. and European charges that its restrictions on raw materials exports violate international trade rules, saying that its policies were in keeping with WTO regulations.

AP - The General Assembly president announced tentative agreement on a blueprint for a global response to the world's worst economic crisis in 70 years which would make the United Nations a player in promoting recovery, especially in hard-hit poor countries.

Reuters - Bridging gaps between Israel and the United States over settlement growth in the occupied West Bank will require hard work, a senior Israeli official said on Wednesday, playing down prospects for a swift breakthrough.

AP - House Financial Services Chairman Barney Frank scoffed Wednesday at assertions that a new consumer protection agency would morph into 'some out of control entity.'

AP - The chairman of the House Agriculture Committee says farmers can support a proposed Democratic bill to limit greenhouse gases and combat global warming.

AP - The government is warning consumers to be wary of unofficial 'cash for clunkers' Web sites that seek personal information or direct consumers to pre-register for the program.

Reuters - U.S. President Barack Obama, whose support for abortion rights for women and stem cell research has angered some Catholics, is due to meet Pope Benedict for the first time on July 10 during a visit to Italy.

AP - The government shouldn't buy more of the new radiation detection machines it's been developing to look for smuggled nuclear materials at ports, a report from the National Research Council says.

AP - Federal authorities indicted 53 people on Wednesday for schemes to cheat Medicaid out of $50 million.

AP - Taxing workers for employer-provided medical benefits could become the next big controversy for President Barack Obama in his quest to overhaul the nation's health care system.

AP - The chairman of a powerful House subcommittee that funds the military said Wednesday he hopes at least some of the $3.2 billion spent for a new fleet of presidential helicopters can be salvaged.

AP - A British woman with a prosthetic arm has filed a discrimination claim against Abercrombie & Fitch Co., alleging the U.S. retailer made her work in the stockroom because she didn't conform to its 'look policy.'

AP - Bulgarian authorities have detained a former Kosovo prime minister on an international arrest warrant issued by Interpol, and Serbia sought his extradition on Wednesday.

AP - Hackers broke into the computers of the Oregon University System and posted a message telling President Barack Obama to mind his own business and stop talking about the disputed Iranian election.

Bloomberg - June 24 (Bloomberg) -- Zappos.com pays warehouse and customer-service workers $10 to $11 an hour plus health benefits worth about $7,500 a year.

AP - The Obama administration has concluded the risk of a security collapse in Iraq is too slight to slow plans for withdrawing U.S. troops.

AP - A White House spokesman says President Barack Obama and Pope Benedict XVI will talk about their shared belief in the dignity of all people at their meeting next month.

AP - The Equal Employment Opportunity Commission is suing retail giant Kmart for employment discrimination, alleging that the company fired an employee because he used a cane.

AP - An offer for Iranian envoys to attend U.S. embassy Fourth of July parties has been rescinded as the violent crackdown in Tehran continues, the White House said Wednesday.

AP - New York and New Jersey lawmakers are asking Congress to provide $12 billion in long-term medical care and monitoring to thousands of Sept. 11 workers who became sick after being exposed to toxic dust and debris at the World Trade Center site.

AP - Thousands of athletes who will be competing in next month's World University Games in Serbia will be required to provide a certificate saying they do not have swine flu, or they will be quarantined, the government said Wednesday.

AP - Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon warned at a U.N. financial summit Wednesday that the impact of the global economic crisis could last for years with millions more families pushed into poverty, and he urged rich nations to mobilize the money to help hard-hit developing countries.

AFP - US President Barack Obama will meet Pope Benedict XVI for the first time at the Vatican on July 10, the White House said Wednesday.

CQPolitics.com - A public watchdog group has filed formal complaints with the Senate Ethics Committee and the Federal Elections Commission calling for investigations of Sen. John Ensign.

Bloomberg - June 24 (Bloomberg) -- South Carolina Governor Mark Sanford said he has been unfaithful to his wife and will resign as chairman of the Republican Governors’ Association.

AP - The number of al-Qaida extremists in Iraq has plummeted and their ability to maintain a high-level of attacks has been eroded, U.S. intelligence suggests.

AP - Preparing for a possible showdown with Congress, the White House on Wednesday threatened to veto legislation authorizing a $680 billion military budget if it contains money for jet fighters the Pentagon doesn't want.

AP - The Equal Employment Opportunity Commission is suing retail giant Kmart for employment discrimination, alleging that the company fired an employee because he used a cane.

AP - Roadside bombs and gunfire killed six people and wounded five in Russia's North Caucasus region, officials said Wednesday, as a provincial leader remained in critical condition from an earlier suicide attack.

McClatchy Newspapers - WASHINGTON — President Barack Obama on Wednesday intensified his campaign to overhaul the nation's health care system, as polls show Americans wanting but fearing change and as a divided Congress grapples over what to do.

CQPolitics.com - One year before the 2010 census initiates the politically significant process of redrawing congressional district lines, some lawmakers are making a last-ditch federal effort to overhaul a procedure they say has exacerbated partisan warfare in Congress.

AP - Has the National Transportation Safety Board become the government's 'I-told-you-so' agency?

AP - Support among House Democrats appeared to be growing Wednesday for a massive climate bill that for the first time would limit the pollution linked to global warming and redirect the nation toward greater use of clean energy.

AP - A watchdog group alleged Wednesday that Sen. John Ensign violated the Senate's ethics rules by engaging in an affair with a campaign aide who was married to his administrative assistant, then terminating their employment.

AP - The Swiss government on Wednesday ordered the quick destruction of about 100 pages of evidence linked to an investigation of three Swiss engineers suspected of smuggling nuclear weapons technology.

AP - The Senate is urging President Barack Obama to pardon the late black heavyweight champion Jack Johnson, who was sent to prison nearly a century ago because of his romantic ties with a white woman.

McClatchy Newspapers - WASHINGTON — A Democrat who helped draft the sweeping climate bill that limits greenhouse gases and improves the nation's energy efficiency predicted Wednesday that the legislation would be approved by the House on Friday.

AP - The number of al-Qaida extremists in Iraq has plummeted and their ability to maintain a high-level of attacks has been eroded, U.S. intelligence suggests.

AP - Forty-three House Democrats urged President Barack Obama on Wednesday to drop a plan they say will delay an increase in aid to highway and transit projects.

AP - The White House on Wednesday denied that it planted question about Iran from a left-leaning Web site at a presidential news conference this week.

AP - The House passed a $44 billion spending bill Wednesday that awards the Homeland Security Department a 7 percent budget increase, with money for more border patrol agents and for anti-piracy efforts off the coast of Somalia.

AP - Pope Benedict XVI and President Barack Obama will meet on July 10, a much-anticipated Vatican audience with a president under attack by some American bishops for his support of abortion rights.

Reuters - President Barack Obama stepped up pressure on Congress on Wednesday to pass healthcare reform this year, staging a daylong media blitz that ended with a televised town hall-style meeting at the White House to rally public support.

Bloomberg - June 25 (Bloomberg) -- After disappearing from South Carolina for a week, Governor Mark Sanford said he was in Argentina seeing a woman with whom he’d had an affair for the past year.