Reuters - The United States joined the International Renewable Energy Agency (IRENA) on Monday as part of the Obama administration's commitment to developing a new energy policy, Secretary of State Hillary Clinton said.

AP - The Supreme Court ruling in favor of white New Haven firefighters who said they were victims of reverse discrimination will probably leave employers confused, civil rights advocates and labor attorneys say.

AP - Dealing with the first Latin American crisis of his presidency, Barack Obama sought a swift, clear response that would not be interpreted as U.S. interventionism in a region that loathes it.

AP - Four divisive issues could dash President Barack Obama's hopes of overhauling health care: cost, creating a government-run plan, taxing workers' benefits and penalizing employers that don't offer coverage.

AP - Forty-four coal ash storage sites near 26 communities have been targeted for inspection after federal officials identified the ponds as potential threats to nearby residents.

AP - President Barack Obama said Monday he is confident the U.S. and Colombia can ultimately reach a deal on a stalled trade agreement, despite continuing concern about the killings of labor leaders in Colombia.

AP - An international conference assessing efforts to return property and possessions stolen by the Nazis to their rightful owners or heirs said Monday that caring for Holocaust survivors is a matter of the 'utmost urgency.'

AP - First lady Michelle Obama visited a community health center Monday to announce the release of $850 million in stimulus grants to help such clinics across the country provide care.

Politico - President Barack Obama’s claims of broad executive authority to carry out the war on terror are drawing fire from an unexpected source: federal judges nominated by President George W. Bush, who asserted the sweeping powers in the first place.

AP - Albania's governing party was in a close race with the Socialist opposition on Monday as the votes were slowly counted in the country's parliamentary election.

AP - The ousted president of Honduras will address the U.N. General Assembly on Tuesday.

Politico - President Barack Obama’s claims of broad executive authority to carry out the war on terror are drawing fire from an unexpected source: federal judges nominated by President George W. Bush, who asserted the sweeping powers in the first place.

AP - Honduras' ousted president, bolstered by international support, said he will return home this week to regain control. The government that overthrew him said Tuesday that Manuel Zelaya may be able to return — but only as a common citizen.

AP - The United States is prepared to provide more military observers, police and civilian staff to beef up the U.N.'s far-flung peacekeeping operations, the U.S. ambassador said Monday.

AP - President Barack Obama says his new Consumer Financial Protection Agency will protect Americans from unscrupulous practices and make financial products easier to understand.

CQPolitics.com - The pharmaceutical industry, which has long invested heavily in federal lobbying, is now on course to smash its previous records as it tries to shape the health care overhaul pushed forward by Democrats.

AP - The Obama adminstration has imposed financial sanctions on a company accused of involvement in North Korea's missile proliferation network.

AP - The Environmental Protection Agency gave the go-ahead Tuesday for California to impose stringent regulations on greenhouse gas emissions from motor vehicles, setting the stage for a national requirement expected to mirror the state's effort.

AP - It looks like catfish, it tastes like catfish, and it acts like catfish.

AP - The government is about to start a huge research effort to prove which are the best treatments for scores of ailments. Irregular heartbeat, prostate cancer, back pain and hearing loss lead the list of medical problems to be studied.

AP - Liberal-leaning religious groups are launching radio ads in five states this week in which local pastors urge senators to back efforts to overhaul the nation's health care system.

AFP - The US Supreme Court has quietly put off deciding whether it will take up the case of black death row inmate Troy Davis who for 20 years has insisted he did not kill a white policeman, a source close to Davis said Tuesday.

AP - Countering criticism that he's done little on gay rights, President Barack Obama commemorated the 40th anniversary of the birth of the modern movement by welcoming its leaders to the White House and reaffirming his commitment to their top priorities.

AP - Honduras' ousted president, bolstered by international support, said he will return home this week to regain control. The man who replaced him said Tuesday that Manuel Zelaya could be met with an arrest warrant.

Reuters - The Obama administration on Tuesday approved California's long-standing bid to set its own standard for reducing vehicle tailpipe emissions, the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency said in a statement.

AP - Wal-Mart, a huge company once criticized for less than generous employee benefits, has embraced President Barack Obama's call for requiring all large employers to offer health insurance to their workers.

AP - With the 2010 census months away, Commerce Secretary Gary Locke on Tuesday hired three experts to assess potential problems as the government waits for confirmation of President Barack Obama's nominee to lead the high-stakes count.

AP - A Spanish court on Tuesday shelved a judge's investigation of an Israeli air force bombing in Gaza in 2002 that killed a suspected Hamas militant and 14 civilians, siding with prosecutors who said Spain lacks jurisdiction.

AP - The new commander of all U.S. forces in Europe on Tuesday said quelling the Afghan insurgency would take more than bullets, calling for efforts to rebuild roads, schools and farms to win local support against the Taliban.

AP - The Obama administration sent Congress legislation Tuesday to create a new Consumer Financial Protection Agency designed to protect Americans from unscrupulous practices and make financial products easier to understand.

McClatchy Newspapers - WASHINGTON _The Obama administration on Tuesday sent Congress a detailed plan to create one of the most ambitious parts of the president's proposed overhaul of financial regulation, a Consumer Financial Protection Agency.

CQPolitics.com - Two public health experts painted a relatively rosy picture Tuesday of the United States' ability to respond to the swine flu pandemic, saying the country had learned from earlier mistakes and from plans developed during the avian flu scare several years ago.

AP - U.S. troops are out of Iraq's cities but not its future.

AP - President Barack Obama says that Iraqi security forces taking control of cities from the United States is an important step toward Iraq's sovereignty and the end of the war.

AP - The United States said Tuesday it saw no acceptable solution to the ouster of the president of Honduras other than returning him to power.

AP - A former CIA officer has been indicted on charges of sexually assaulting a woman while posted in Algeria.

AP - Senators on a key committee are putting the finishing touches on a government health insurance option that they hope will win broad support among Democrats and the public.

AFP - Minnesota's Supreme Court ruled Tuesday that comic Al Franken is the winner in a bitter US Senate race, a step that could hand Democrats sweeping powers to pass US President Barack Obama's agenda.

AP - Western observers pulled out of Georgia on Tuesday after Russia blocked an extension of the mission to observe the cease-fire that ended last year's war.

AP - For the second time in two years, Polish officials began building a new museum of Jewish history in Warsaw on Tuesday that they hope will become a major cultural landmark.

McClatchy Newspapers - WASHINGTON _Comedian Al Franken is virtually certain to become the new U.S. senator from Minnesota after the state Supreme Court ordered that he be certified as the winner of last year's election.

CQPolitics.com - Democrats in the Senate are more than ready for Al Franken to join their ranks.

AP - Foes of Supreme Court nominee Sonia Sotomayor celebrated the high court's reversal of her decision in a reverse discrimination case.

AP - A judge asked federal prosecutors in a major drug-dealing case Tuesday if they have a pattern of mishandling evidence after a second high-profile prosecution fell apart in his courtroom because of witness problems.

AP - A Puerto Rican civil rights leader says his group is ready to start sending a trove of documents from Supreme Court nominee Sonia Sotomayor's ( past to the Senate panel considering her nomination.

AP - A former CIA station chief charged with raping an unconscious Algerian woman last year surrendered to federal agents outside a federal courthouse on Tuesday.

AP - Father's Day has come and gone, and with it the annual flurry of dad-friendly gifts, heartwarming newscasts and the highest-ranking father in the land — President Barack Obama — taking time to urge his fellow fathers to step up when it comes to their kids.

McClatchy Newspapers - WASHINGTON — The Social Security Administration has continued to pay millions of dollars in benefits to dead Americans, and other elderly U.S. residents are at risk of losing badly needed aid because they're improperly recorded as deceased, federal investigators warn in a new report.

AP - On civil rights and campaign cash, the Supreme Court earned an 'incomplete' grade in the term that just ended. There is a good chance the court will have a new member but the same right-of-center tilt when the justices return in late summer to deal with unfinished business.

AP - President Barack Obama is hoping that lessons learned from a 1976 flu outbreak can help the country act wisely to combat the current spread of swine flu.

McClatchy Newspapers - WASHINGTON — Ousted Honduran President Manuel Zelaya formally began his campaign to reclaim his office Tuesday, making appeals to diplomats and Obama administration officials in the capital and in New York.

AP - Ousted Honduran President Manuel Zelaya met Tuesday night with envoys to the Organization of American States to discuss what Argentina's foreign minister called an urgent and dangerous situation in Honduras.

AP - U.S. officials said Tuesday that a North Korean ship has turned around and is headed back toward the north where it came from, after being tracked for more than a week by American Navy vessels on suspicion of carrying illegal weapons.

AP - A Puerto Rican civil rights leader said Tuesday he was ready to start sending a trove of documents from Supreme Court nominee Sonia Sotomayor's past to the Senate panel considering her nomination.

AP - Wal-Mart is the latest in a line of traditionally Republican-leaning businesses to embrace key portions of President Barack Obama's bid to overhaul health care, a trend that could complicate opponents' efforts to build a united front when Congress ramps up its work on the issue this summer.

Politico - A close vote after intense debate.

Politico - Vanity Fair piece has started a blistering exchange between high-profile Republicans.

AP - A Puerto Rican legal advocacy group late Tuesday sent a trove of documents from Supreme Court nominee Sonia Sotomayor's past to the Senate panel considering her nomination.