Reuters - The U.S. House of Representatives is poised to vote on Friday on one of the most significant environmental bills in history -- a sprawling measure that aims to wean industry off of carbon-emitting fuels blamed for global warming.

AP - An Iranian doctor who claims he tried to save Neda Agha Soltan as the young Iranian protester bled to death on the streets of Tehran said Thursday that she apparently was shot by a member of Iran's pro-government Basij militia.

Reuters - U.S. President Barack Obama and German Chancellor Angela Merkel will debate how to fix the global economy and fight climate change on Friday in a White House meeting that is likely to highlight a range of differences between the two leaders.

AP - Sometimes, paying three times the price for the same merchandise can be a good deal.

AP - President Barack Obama is taking heat from some gays and lesbians for not fulfilling campaign pledges. He's also taking their cash.

AP - Electricity was in the air � literally � at Dries Van Noten, as a summer thunderstorm and a truck fitted with thumping speakers amped up the voltage at the Belgian designer's already-charged menswear display Thursday.

AP - The Spanish flamenco dancer got a rock-'n'-roll makeover Thursday at Emanuel Ungaro, in a menswear collection that popped with pink polka dots and fluttered with fuchsia scarves.

Politico - Vice President Biden told gay and lesbian Democrats that he doesn't blame them for their impatience and promised that the Obama administration will begin to push more strongly on the issues they care about, including the repeal of 'Don't Ask Don't Tell.'

Bloomberg - June 26 (Bloomberg) -- President Barack Obama should avoid a “tit-for-tat” with Mahmoud Ahmadinejad over Iran’s election dispute, and maintain focus on the longer-term U.S. interest in curbing the regime’s nuclear program, two former top Clinton administration officials said.

AP - A U.N. special envoy was in Myanmar on Friday to pave the way for a possible visit by the U.N. secretary-general that would be politically delicate because of the continuing trial of opposition leader Aung San Suu Kyi.

AFP - South Korea is eyeing setting up a 3,000-strong military unit to help international peacekeeping operations led by the United Nations, military officials said.

AFP - A top aide of US President Barack Obama held talks with Indian leaders Friday on Washington's revamped security policy in the region.

Bloomberg - June 26 (Bloomberg) -- Senate Finance Committee Chairman Max Baucus said the cost of health-care options being weighed by his panel can be cut to his goal of $1 trillion, potentially removing a major stumbling block to the legislation’s passage.

AP - The House has set the stage for a historic vote on hotly contested legislation to combat global warming and overhaul U.S. energy policy.

AP - Foreign ministers from the Group of Eight industrialized nations deplored the post-election violence in Iran at a meeting in Trieste, Italy, on Friday and weighed in on other regional and global issues. Here are some highlights from their statement, which noted that the Afghanistan conflict would be dealt with during the remaining sessions of the meeting:

AFP - The Group of Eight leading powers on Friday called on Iran to immediately put a halt to post-election violence but refrained from calling into question the poll result.

Bloomberg - June 26 (Bloomberg) -- President Barack Obama prodded lawmakers to approve a “historic” bill to limit greenhouse-gas emissions as part of intensifying lobbying efforts for a vote in the U.S. House that could come today.

AP - President Barack Obama says he and Chancellor Angela Merkel have not yet gotten down to a discussion of just how many Guantanamo detainees might be sent to Germany.

AP - President Barack Obama said Friday the United States and Germany share 'one voice' in condemning the Iranian effort to crush dissent. He said Iran's leaders cannot hide the 'outrageous' behavior of clamping down violently on their people.

AP - House Democrats narrowly won a key test vote Friday on sweeping legislation to combat global warming and usher in a new era of cleaner energy. Republicans said the bill included 'the largest tax increase in American history.'

AP - A longtime advocate for victims of domestic violence and sexual assault has been named to a new post advising the White House on those issues.

AP - Gazprom, the world's largest natural gas producer, said Friday it hoped to sign key deals in Azerbaijan next week, raising the possibility that Russia will secure Azeri gas to feed pipelines to Europe.

AP - Group of Eight foreign ministers criticized Iran's postelection violence, and urged its ruling clergy on Friday to ensure the outcome of the disputed ballot reflects the will of the Iranian people.

AP - Despite continuing violence in Iraq, President Barack Obama says he thinks the bigger challenge there is finding political agreement among Shiites, Sunnis and Kurds.

AP - Rep. Ellen Tauscher made it a memorable last day in Congress.

AP - A Duke University official has been arrested and charged with offering his adopted five-year-old son for sex.

AP - A powerful Senate Democrat is backing an oyster farmer over the National Park Service in a northern California controversy that has environmentalists seething.

Reuters - A Canadian citizen accused by the United Nations of being linked to al Qaeda flew out of Sudan Friday after a court order ended his six-year exile in Khartoum, his lawyers said.

AP - It has the wingspan of a Boeing 747 but weighs less than a small car. And it is powered entirely by the sun.

AFP - US President Barack Obama admitted Friday Iran's crackdown on demonstrators had dented his hopes for direct talks with Tehran, but said international multilateral nuclear talks would go on.

CQPolitics.com - The House Friday began debating comprehensive energy legislation as Democratic leaders lobbied furiously to round up enough votes to pass the bill.

Bloomberg - June 26 (Bloomberg) -- The U.S. House began debating legislation to limit greenhouse-gas emissions as lawmakers remained divided and Democratic leaders tried to rally support.

AP - President Barack Obama's criticism of Iran escalated Friday into an unusually personal war of words. To Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad's demand he apologize for meddling, Obama shot back that the regime should 'think carefully' about answers owed to protesters it has arrested, bludgeoned and killed.

AP - White House press secretary Robert Gibbs says President Barack Obama saw pop star Michael Jackson as a spectacular performer and music icon whose life nonetheless had sad and tragic aspects.

AP - The Senate on Thursday approved the nomination of Rep. Ellen Tauscher, D-Calif., as undersecretary of state for arms control and international security.

AP - Ugandan rebels this year have killed around 1,200 Congolese civilians and abducted 1,500, mostly children, in a remote region of northeast Congo, a U.N. official said Friday.

AP - Italy's Dolomite mountains and the Wadden Sea along the coasts of Germany and the Netherlands were among several sites added Friday to UNESCO's world heritage list.

Bloomberg - June 26 (Bloomberg) -- Louis Gerstner, the former International Business Machines Corp. chief executive officer, lauded President Barack Obama’s economic policies while criticizing how the restructurings of General Motors Corp. and Chrysler LLC were carried out.

McClatchy Newspapers - WASHINGTON � Despite the strains of sky-high costs and public skepticism, the government is moving steadily toward a vast health care overhaul that would at least partly fulfill a six-decade quest for universal coverage and could rein in soaring costs for everyone else.

CQPolitics.com - Democratic leaders lobbied furiously to round up support Friday for one of their key legislative priorities as the House debated a comprehensive energy bill.

Bloomberg - June 26 (Bloomberg) -- The U.S. House debated legislation to limit greenhouse-gas emissions as lawmakers remained divided and Democratic leaders worked to rally support for one of President Barack Obama’s top domestic priorities.

AP - One week after surgery to repair a broken right elbow, Secretary of State Hillary Rodham Clinton on Friday had not resumed a full work schedule at the State Department, officials said.

AP - President Barack Obama is describing his German counterpart as 'smart,' and he adds that he can trust what she says.

Politico - A $32.3 billion natural resources budget bill cleared the House Friday after Democrats beat back a Republican attempt to deny any funding increase to the Environmental Protection Agency.

AP - Treasury Secretary Timothy Geithner said Thursday the administration will send legislative language to Congress in the next few days to create a consumer financial products agency, one of the key parts of its overhaul plan.

AP - Angry demonstrators broke into the Iranian Embassy outside Stockholm on Friday, climbing in through shattered windows and injuring one embassy worker, police said.

AP - Holocaust survivors, Jewish groups and experts gathered in Prague on Friday to assess efforts to return property and possessions stolen by the Nazis to their rightful owners or heirs.

AFP - US President Barack Obama spoke by telephone with Malaysia's Prime Minister Najib Razakon Friday, and discussed proliferation, North Korea and financial regulation, the White House said.

CQPolitics.com - This table compares the Obama administration's fiscal 2009 supplemental spending request to the bill the House passed and draft legislation that the Senate Appropriations Committee approved, both on May 14.

AP - The House has rejected a Republican alternative to a Democratic climate bill. The vote sets the stage for likely passage of a bill that for the first time would limit U.S. greenhouse gases linked to global warming.

AP - Connecticut's Republican governor has signed a bill pushed by Democrats after the Rod Blagojevich (blah-GOY'-uh-vich) scandal that strips her of the power to fill a vacant U.S. Senate seat and instead requires a special election.

AP - A broad international coalition urged Israel on Friday to freeze all settlement activity in the West Bank and lift its blockade of the Gaza Strip, backing U.S. President Barack Obama's Mideast policy.

AP - Foreign ministers from Group of Eight countries on Friday condemned North Korea's nuclear and missile tests and urged the country to return to the negotiating table.

AP - A British company has won its bid to buy a Chicago-based clothier that made inaugural and election night suits for President Barack Obama.

McClatchy Newspapers - WASHINGTON � By a narrow margin, the House of Representatives on Friday took the first legislative step in U.S. history to reduce the heat-trapping gases building up in the atmosphere and gradually shift America to cleaner sources of energy.

CQPolitics.com - The House passed legislation Friday to overhaul the nation's energy policy and curb global warming, handing President Obama a landmark legislative victory on one of his top priorities.

AP - Sometimes, paying three times the price for the same merchandise can be a good deal. That's the American calculation behind quiet negotiations that will allow the United States to hang onto a Central Asian air base crucial to the expanding war in Afghanistan.

AP - Rep. Ellen Tauscher made it a memorable last day in Congress. The California Democrat wielded the gavel during debate Friday, gave an Academy Award-length thank you address to the chamber and was casting one of the more important votes of her 13-year congressional career.

AP - A longtime advocate for victims of domestic violence and sexual assault was named to a new post Friday as a White House adviser on violence against women.

AFP - The Group of Eight leading powers on Friday deplored post-election violence in Iran but refrained from questioning President Mahmoud Ahmedinejad's re-election victory.

Bloomberg - June 27 (Bloomberg) -- Louis Gerstner, the former International Business Machines Corp. chief executive officer, praised President Barack Obama’s economic performance while criticizing the way the White House handled restructurings of General Motors Corp. and Chrysler LLC.