AFP - One year after US-Russia ties hit a low over the war in Georgia, President Barack Obama's administration is walking a tightrope between resetting ties with Moscow and supporting ally Tbilisi.

AP - Legally speaking, Guantanamo Bay detainee Alla Ali bin Ali Ahmed should be a free man. He remains behind barbed wire in Cuba because he has nowhere to go.

AP - Some of President Barack Obama's health care numbers don't seem to add up. And that's complicating his efforts to pass his top domestic priority.

AP - Britain should abandon its anti-drug role in Afghanistan and focus on securing the country against the Taliban insurgency, a prominent group of U.K. lawmakers said Sunday.

AP - The government says an illegal immigrant sneaked into the U.K. by smuggling himself aboard a bus full of British border agents.

Politico - Sleepy, sweltering August is shaping up to be the critical month for health care reform.

Politico - Experts and specialists give POLITICO their picks for the best books in their field.

AP - British soldiers are getting so fat it's putting lives at risk, according to a leaked memo from the army's physical training corps published in a Sunday newspaper.

AP - The Interior Ministry says militants shot and killed a police officer and three government workers in two separate attacks in Russia's restive southern provinces.

Bloomberg - Aug. 3 (Bloomberg) -- Congressional Democrats, already behind in their bid to revamp the U.S. health-care system, will spend an August break trying to resolve discord within their party, fending off Republican attacks and taking on insurers.

Politico - In an Ideas piece, Frost says Dems have a shot because of intricacies in Texas election law.

Reuters - Al Qaeda's second-in-command Ayman al-Zawahri said an offer the militant group made to the previous U.S. administration of a conditional truce is still on the table for President Barack Obama.

Politico - In an Ideas piece, Aron says Obama has chance to appoint genuine progressives to Supreme Court.

Bloomberg - Aug. 3 (Bloomberg) -- Congressional Democrats, already behind in their bid to revamp the U.S. health-care system, will spend an August break trying to resolve discord within their party, fending off Republican attacks and taking on insurers.

AP - Secretary of State Hillary Rodham Clinton is appealing to Iran for information about three missing Americans believed to have been arrested by Iranian authorities last week on an ill-fated hiking trip in northern Iraq.

AP - The recession is starving the government of tax revenue, just as the president and Congress are piling a major expansion of health care and other programs on the nation's plate and struggling to find money to pay the tab.

AP - President Barack Obama said Monday a new GI Bill for those who fought in Iraq and Afghanistan is an investment in both a new generation of veterans and the future of America.

AP - Changes in federal tax receipts

AP - A top White House adviser says he can't rule out a tax on middle-class Americans to pay for President Barack Obama's health care overhaul.

AP - There is a very strong case for sending more U.K. soldiers to Afghanistan, British opposition leader David Cameron said in an interview broadcast Sunday.

AFP - Two human rights groups on Monday expressed concern about US President Barack Obama's nominee to a senior diplomatic post because of his links to a Chinese oil company with ties to Sudan's government.

AP - The Obama administration appealed to the Senate on Monday to bail out the cash for clunkers rebate program, arguing it has already made striking gains in fuel efficiency and is a 'wildly popular' economic boost.

AP - Senate Democrats will meet with President Obama at the White House on Tuesday.

AP - It appears that Republican-turned-Democrat Sen. Arlen Specter is formally getting challenged in Pennsylvania's Democratic primary.

AP - Senate Democratic leaders are promising to push through a health care bill even if negotiations with Republicans fail.

AP - The recession is starving the government of tax revenue, just as the president and Congress are piling a major expansion of health care and other programs on the nation's plate and struggling to find money to pay the tab.

AP - British police say they have charged a 16-year-old boy with assault after he allegedly splashed bleach on a woman who had asked him to be quiet during a movie.

AP - Osama bin-Laden's deputy said in a video message released Monday that the al-Qaida leader's offers of a truce with the U.S. and Europe remained on the table, though he ridiculed President Barack Obama as 'the new face of the same old crimes.'

CQPolitics.com - Prospects remain uncertain for Senate action this week to refinance the popular 'cash for clunkers' program, even though the House has acted and the Obama administration is pushing senators to quickly clear the legislation.

AP - Republican Sen. John McCain says he'll oppose Supreme Court nominee Sonia Sotomayor when the Senate votes on her confirmation this week.

AP - Facing staggering financial losses, the Postal Service is looking at closing nearly 1,000 offices across the country.

Politico - A brief to the Supreme Court urges against overturning restrictions on corporate spending in campaigns.

Politico - The money is used to defend against a wide-ranging investigation of his personal finances.

AP - President Barack Obama's top defense advisers huddled in Europe over the weekend to discuss the Afghanistan war, a Pentagon spokesman said Monday.

AP - The state Supreme Court bowed to pressure and abandoned its plan to destroy the records of thousands of juveniles who appeared before a corrupt judge between 2003 and 2008.

AP - First lady Michelle Obama is becoming an honorary chairwoman of the National First Ladies' Library.

AFP - US President Barack Obama, facing tough fights over his climate change and health care plans, has invited all of his Senate allies to lunch on Tuesday -- his birthday -- his spokesman said Monday.

AP - The neighborhood post office is facing major changes as postal officials consider closings or consolidating services at hundreds of locations across the United States.

AP - Booed, jeered and occasionally cheered in a raucous session with the public, a Democratic senator said Monday that other lawmakers can expect the same as they face voters on the divisive issue of overhauling health care.

AP - Republican Sen. John McCain, his party's failed 2008 presidential contender, announced Monday he'd join the vast majority of the GOP to vote against Judge Sonia Sotomayor, who's on track to be confirmed this week as the first Hispanic justice.

AP - A United Nations working group on Monday urged Congress to investigate whether the U.S. government used private contractors to secretly transport terror suspects to clandestine prisons.

Reuters - U.S. business groups frustrated with the slow pace of nearly 8-year-old world trade talks urged the Obama administration on Monday to remove negotiations on environmental goods and services from the Doha round and pursue them separately.

McClatchy Newspapers - WASHINGTON — College students convicted of illegal drug possession could get federal financial aid for the first time in more than a decade under legislation aimed at overhauling the student loan system.

CQPolitics.com - Ignoring the people who think President Obama isn't a natural-born American didn't make them go away, but Democrats haven't been especially eager to engage in debate on something they generally consider to be illogical -- if not looney.

Politico - After a spate of criticism, MSNBC will identify Wolffe as a strategist for a top Washington public affairs firm.

Politico - A brief to the Supreme Court urges against overturning restrictions on corporate spending in campaigns.

AP - Secretary of State Hillary Rodham Clinton's seven-nation tour of Africa seeks to affirm a commitment by the Obama administration to tackle trouble spots from Somalia and Zimbabwe to the Democratic Republic of the Congo and Liberia.

AP - House Republicans are trying to rebound in the 2010 election from the hit they took last year's contests by targeting 70 districts held by Democrats.

AP - President Barack Obama's chief spokesman says the popular cash for clunkers rebate program may not survive beyond Friday if the Senate doesn't provide a $2 billion cash infusion.

AP - Europe's top human rights watchdog launched a probe Monday into Serb allegations that ethnic Albanian guerrillas kidnapped Serb civilians during Kosovo's war, then removed their organs and sold the body parts on the black market.

AP - Lower temperatures on Monday helped firefighters battle two forest fires that have raged on La Palma in Spain's Canary Islands for three days.

AP - The Senate broke with Barack Obama on Monday as it voted to keep alive a grant program to help people in rural areas receive reasonably priced electricity despite the president's demand to kill it.

McClatchy Newspapers - WASHINGTON — Republican opposition is stalling Senate efforts to keep the popular 'cash for clunkers' program alive.

CQPolitics.com - A trio of Senate fuel-efficiency advocates said Monday they would back House-passed legislation to refinance the popular 'cash for clunkers' program, eliminating a potential source of opposition to the bill and raising the likelihood it could got to President Obama before the August recess.

Politico - Markey: 'This fraud on Congress distorts the legislative process and disserves the American people.'

AP - Jordan on Monday mirrored Saudi Arabia in publicly rejecting U.S. appeals to improve relations with Israel to help restart Middle East peace talks, throwing a damper on the Obama administration's push for Arab support behind new negotiations.

Politico - North Korean officials told the family that they would release the women to Clinton, the source said.