Reuters - Prime Minister Tayyip Erdogan promised democratic reforms on Saturday in a rare meeting with Turkey's religious minority leaders highlighting the issue of minority rights, a key stumbling block in its EU membership bid.

Time.com - As angry exchanges take place outside, the President engages in a polite town-hall meeting, albeit with heartfelt worries from the audience

AP - A commander in chief fighting two wars, President Barack Obama plans to thank veterans for their service on Monday while pressing his commitments to wind down the Iraq war and redouble efforts in Afghanistan.

AP - Rescue mission or diplomatic risk?

AP - For Barack Obama, these are the dogged days of summer.

Bloomberg - Aug. 17 (Bloomberg) -- A columnist for the online news magazine Slate once proposed the month of August be banned as “it has a dismal history” and “nothing good ever happens.” A week ago, President Barack Obama might have co-sponsored the suggestion.

Politico - Israelis increasingly focus their disappointment not on Obama, but rather on his chief of staff.

AP - On paper, the bus does not exist.

CQPolitics.com - President Obama sounded a bit like a weary air traffic controller on Aug. 10, when he was quizzed during a three-way summit with leaders from Mexico and Canada about a promised overhaul of U.S. immigration laws.

AP - Former Democratic Party Chairman Howard Dean is arguing that there can be no meaningful overhaul of the health care system without a public option for coverage.

AP - The French academic who is part of a mass trial in Iran has been freed from prison on bail and turned over to the French embassy in good health, French leaders said Sunday, urging that charges against her be dropped.

Bloomberg - Aug. 16 (Bloomberg) -- U.S. Senator Jim Webb said he hopes his visit to Myanmar will lay groundwork for restoring democracy in the Southeast Asian nation, after meeting with pro-democracy activist Aung San Suu Kyi and winning the release of an imprisoned American.

AP - The Obama administration has filed court papers claiming a federal marriage law discriminates against gays, even as it continues to defend the law.

AP - The U.S. Embassy in London says the new U.S. ambassador to Britain has arrived.

CQPolitics.com - President Obama sounded a bit like a weary air traffic controller on Aug. 10, when he was quizzed during a three-way summit with leaders from Mexico and Canada about a promised overhaul of U.S. immigration laws.

AP - Union leaders argue that federal safety officials made a mistake in implying that an air traffic controller could have prevented a mid-air collision over the Hudson River.

Politico - What's the fate of public option?

Reuters - The U.S. Supreme Court on Monday granted an appeal by a Georgia death row inmate and ruled he should get a hearing to assess what he says is new evidence that will show his innocence.

AP - The mountainous regions just to the north of Russia's southern border known as the North Caucasus have long been troubled by violence, stoked by poverty, Islamic extremism, ethnic tensions, feuding criminal gangs and the two separatist wars that ravaged Chechnya since 1994.

AP - The lawyer for 'Great Train Robber' Ronnie Biggs says the ailing ex-convict is being transferred from a hospital to a London nursing home.

AFP - US President Barack Obama will Monday offer Americans an update on the war in Afghanistan, days before a presidential election marred by Taliban violence and rising combat deaths of foreign troops.

Politico - W.H. shuts down flag@whitehouse.gov, set up to receive tips on “fishy” claims on health plan.

AP - President Barack Obama insisted Monday he still wants to scrap what he calls a discriminatory federal marriage law, even as his administration angered gay rights activists by defending it in court.

AP - A fifth State Department worker has been convicted of snooping into the passport files of famous Americans.

AP - A prisoner rights group said Monday it has begun legal action to force the British government to reveal the identities of two men detained by British troops in Iraq and transferred to U.S. custody in Afghanistan.

Reuters - Liberal Democrats warned President Barack Obama on Monday that a retreat on support for a government-run health insurance plan could endanger passage of major healthcare reform in Congress this year.

Politico - Obama is invited to eulogize the legendary CBS News anchorman at a memorial service in Manhattan.

AP - A mass e-mail from a top adviser to President Barack Obama has the leading Republican on a House oversight panel looking for answers.

AP - The government is investigating a potential fire risk in more than 200,000 Jeep Wranglers.

AFP - The US Supreme Court on Monday ordered that Troy Davis, a high-profile death row inmate, should receive a new hearing to determine whether evidence not available at his trial could prove him innocent.

AP - Liechtenstein's reigning prince has angered German Jews by invoking the Holocaust to defend his country's banking secrecy.

AP - An American man has been extradited to Germany to face charges that he raped and murdered a 19-year-old woman near where he worked on a U.S. military base 25 years ago, police said Monday.

Reuters - A new high-tech helicopter that was designed to whisk U.S. President Barack Obama to safety in the event of a nuclear attack had a secret capability -- cooking.

McClatchy Newspapers - WOCH TANGI, Afghanistan � This valley in eastern Afghanistan could almost be in a different country for the thousands of former refugees who're struggling to rebuild their lives in it.

Politico - 'One thing that reform won't change is veterans' health care,” Obama tells�the Veterans of Foreign Wars.

Politico - Inside the Beltway, many are bemused at the prospect of DeLay doing a paso doble on primetime TV.

AP - The White House plans to host a discussion on immigration on Thursday with advocates, faith-based groups, businesses and law enforcement officials.

AP - The Obama administration has signaled that it might accept health care cooperatives instead of a government-run health insurance program to compete with private insurers.

AP - The top Republican on the House's oversight committee asked the White House on Monday about an e-mail from a top political adviser urging support for a health care overhaul and whether officials are collecting names of President Barack Obama's critics.

Reuters - The U.S. Supreme Court on Monday granted an appeal by a man sentenced to death in Georgia for the murder of a policeman, ruling he should get a hearing to assess what he says is new evidence showing his innocence.

AP - In an Aug. 14 story about the actions of air traffic controllers at the time of a midair collision over the Hudson River, The Associated Press erroneously reported a response by the airplane pilot. The pilot acknowledged an instruction to change radio frequency, not an instruction to turn his plane southwest.

AP - The father of a French academic on trial in Iran said Monday he hopes she can come home within weeks as the government continued efforts to secure her unconditional release.

AP - About a dozen people carrying guns, including one with a military-style rifle, milled among protesters outside the convention center where President Barack Obama was giving a speech Monday � the latest incident in which protesters have openly displayed firearms near the president.

McClatchy Newspapers - JERUSALEM � Former Republican presidential candidate Mike Huckabee slammed President Barack Obama's policies toward Israel on Monday in a visit here that underscored the tensions between the Obama administration and the Israeli government over Jewish settlements in what traditionally have been Palestinian areas.

Bloomberg - Aug. 17 (Bloomberg) -- U.S. Senator Jim Webb said he hopes his visit to Myanmar will lay groundwork for restoring democracy in the Southeast Asian nation, after meeting with pro-democracy activist Aung San Suu Kyi and winning the release of an imprisoned American.

AP - Federal prosecutors on Monday charged a Miami man with the largest case of credit and debit card data theft ever in the United States, accusing the one-time government informant of swiping 130 million accounts on top of 40 million he stole previously.

Reuters - President Barack Obama will meet with Bill Clinton on Tuesday, the White House said, in their first meeting since Clinton's trip to North Korea to secure the release of two American journalists.

AP - The U.S. won't have nearly as much swine flu vaccine ready by mid-October as long predicted � 45 million doses instead of the anticipated 120 million, a federal official said Monday.

AFP - US President Barack Obama was bidding Tuesday to breathe new life into his Middle East peace push, looking to Egyptian leader Hosni Mubarak help break a deadlock between Israel and Arab states.

AP - Justice Sonia Sotomayor is getting into the swing of being a member of the Supreme Court.

Bloomberg - Aug. 18 (Bloomberg) -- President Barack Obama is facing pressure from fellow Democrats after a top administration official suggested the president may back down from including a federal insurance plan in a U.S. health-care overhaul.