AP - What is it with philandering politicians?

AP - Nearly seven years since the rescue of nine trapped coal miners in Pennsylvania's Quecreek Mine captivated the nation, the legal wrangling over the incident continues.

AP - The nuclear industry, ethanol producers and rural electric cooperatives are among those who stand to benefit from eleventh-hour deals made by House Democrats in search of enough votes to pass a sweeping climate bill.

AP - Vice President Joe Biden says more than half of the economic stimulus money set aside for highway projects has been allocated.

AP - Jean Dausset, a Nobel prize-winning French immunologist and pioneer behind organ transplants and mapping of the human genome, has died. He was 92.

Reuters - President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad called on Barack Obama on Thursday not to interfere in Iran's internal affairs after the U.S. president said he was 'appalled and outraged' by post-election violence in the Islamic state.

AP - District of Columbia Mayor Adrian Fenty says this week's deadly crash of a Metro subway train dramatizes the need for city officials to upgrade and modernize the fleet.

Reuters - Developing countries had a clear message on Wednesday for a U.N. meeting on the global financial crisis -- we need money.

AP - President Barack Obama is praising five Cuban dissidents for their pro-democracy activities, and he's calling on the communist government to release all political prisoners.

AP - Democrats scrambled for votes Thursday on a climate bill that would for the first time limit the pollution blamed for global warming as the White House stepped up pressure on reluctant lawmakers and former Vice President Al Gore tried to stave off any defections.

AP - The Supreme Court has ruled for Arizona officials who are challenging federal court supervision of a program to educate students who aren't proficient in English.

AP - The Supreme Court says criminal defendants have a constitutional right to cross-examine the forensic analysts who prepare laboratory reports on illegal drugs and other evidence used at trial.

AP - Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu met France's prime minister and foreign minister Thursday, wrapping up a trip marked by differences with Washington and Paris over Jewish settlements.

AFP - Pakistan's prime minister Thursday told Washington's visiting top security adviser that the United States must halt drone attacks on its soil, after they killed dozens of people in the northwest.

AP - The Obama administration has decided to bolster efforts to support Somalia's embattled government, U.S. officials say, by providing money for weapons and helping the military in neighboring Djibouti train Somali forces.

AP - It's not a wrap yet on John Kerry's plans to become a movie producer.

AFP - Supporters and foes of sweeping US legislation to fight climate change squared off Thursday as the giant bill faced a hard-fought vote one day later in the House of Representatives.

AP - The Obama administration is scrambling to find an extra $20 billion to keep highway and transit construction projects and the thousands of jobs they represent going for the next year and a half.

Reuters - The United States called on Thursday for a new approach to concluding the long-running Doha round to free up world trade. U.S. Trade Representative Ron Kirk said Washington wanted to negotiate directly with key trading partners in the World Trade Organization talks as the traditional multilateral approach was not working. Major emerging countries said they would reject calls for bilateral concessions.

AP - The global recession has an up side, at least for people worried about climate change: carbon emissions are growing more slowly than in recent years, Dutch researchers said Thursday.

AP - The top Hamas leader on Thursday welcomed what he said is 'new language' by President Barack Obama toward the Islamic militant group — part of Hamas' cautious outreach to Washington in recent weeks.

McClatchy Newspapers - Federal Reserve Chairman Ben Bernanke told a congressional panel Thursday that the Fed had asked Bank of America Corp. to 'look at top management and make changes to its board' after it needed more government assistance in January.

CQPolitics.com - The Obama administration remains confident it can pass a negotiated health care compromise with bipartisan support this year and is open to alternatives to a government-run health insurance plan, White House chief of staff Rahm Emanuel said Thursday.

AP - President Barack Obama is pressing again for passage of legislation that would confront the problem of global warming head-on.

AP - President Barack Obama says his administration is committed to working with Congress to pass a comprehensive immigration reform.

AP - The White House says it likes its chances as the climate bill heads toward a House vote.

AP - Award-winning actress Edie Falco, cable television's no-nonsense 'Nurse Jackie,' delivered a stern message to lawmakers Thursday: fix health care.

AP - The U.S. Supreme Court on Thursday handed a partial victory to Arizona officials, ruling that the state is entitled to a fresh legal review that could lift a court order requiring changes in how schools teach children learning English.

AP - For the second time this month, Vladimir Putin has stood up for the common man, at a carefully staged media event.

AP - Senators have added $1.75 billion to a Pentagon budget proposal for seven more of Lockheed Martin's F-22 fighter jets, setting the stage for a battle with the Obama administration.

CQPolitics.com - As the House heads toward a vote on landmark global warming legislation, Democratic leaders are still trying to shore up support from pockets of resistance in their own party.

AP - For years, landowners have gotten paid for not farming. Now they may get paid for not cutting down trees.

AP - President Barack Obama on Thursday selected for ambassadorships in Europe two of his presidential campaign's biggest fundraisers, extending a pattern of rewarding political supporters.

AP - Cap-and-trade? Offsets? Pollution credits? The climate bill under consideration in the House tackles global warming with new limits on pollution and a market-based approach to encourage more environmentally friendly business practices. But what exactly do the proposed rules mean, and how would they work?

AFP - US President Barack Obama urged lawmakers Thursday to pass a historic global warming bill, amid down-to-the-wire campaigning on the eve of a tense vote in the House of Representatives.

AP - Homeland Security Secretary Janet Napolitano leaves this weekend for meetings with officials in Europe and Kuwait on counterterrorism issues.

McClatchy Newspapers - WASHINGTON — In a mix of gripping political theatre and a financial 'whodunnit,' Federal Reserve Chairman Ben Bernanke strenuously denied on Thursday that he strong-armed Bank of America into absorbing troubled investment bank Merrill Lynch against its will.

AP - For all those who say the press corps is in the tank when it comes to the Obama White House, here's the news.

Reuters - The U.S. Senate on Thursday approved the Obama administration's nomination of Julius Genachowski, a telecommunications industry executive, to head the Federal Communications Commission.

AP - Federal safety officials said Thursday they are investigating two incidents in which airspeed and altitude indications in the cockpits of Airbus A330 planes may have malfunctioned, including one that took place ten days before the same type of plane crashed into the Atlantic Ocean killing all 228 aboard.

AP - The Supreme Court on Thursday:

AP - Attorney General Eric Holder urged Congress to pass a new hate crimes law so the government could prosecute cases of violence based on sexual orientation, gender or disability.

AFP - Showing that Turkey has a future in the European Union would send a positive message to the whole Muslim world, the country's European affairs minister said Thursday.

McClatchy Newspapers - BUENOS AIRES, Argentina — TV camera operators and photographers camped Thursday outside the apartment building where Argentina's mystery woman lives.

AP - Straw huts, hula dancers and kids playing with hula hoops were all on display Thursday evening in the White House's backyard — not the typical congressional picnic.

AP - A Bulgarian court released Kosovo's former prime minister Thursday, two days after he was detained on an international arrest warrant issued by Serbia for alleged war crimes.

McClatchy Newspapers - WASHINGTON — When South Carolina Gov. Mark Sanford added a stop in Argentina to his trade mission to Brazil last June, the side trip should've raised eyebrows because he was undertaking a trade mission that the U.S. government was unwilling to make.

CQPolitics.com - Rep. Ellen O. Tauscher's confirmation to a top State Department job kicks into high gear a race that's already underway to choose her replacement in Congress.

AP - President Barack Obama promised gay and lesbian voters he would repeal a law banning their open service in the military, would do away with a federal marriage law and would champion their causes from the White House. In his first five months, he's taken incremental steps that have little real effect and left some people feeling betrayed.

AP - The House ethics committee is investigating whether five Democratic lawmakers, including two committee chairmen, received improper gifts in travel to Caribbean conferences 2007 and 2008.

AP - Interior Secretary Ken Salazar has appointed Elizabeth Birnbaum, a veteran congressional aide and former Interior Department attorney, to head the department's Minerals Management Service.

AP - EDITORS: The Russia alcohol deaths story will be retransmitted at a later time.

AP - FIFA, the international governing body for football, has asked Iran's soccer federation to respond to media reports that players who wore green wrist bands in solidarity with the political opposition have been punished.