AP - U.S. Defense Secretary Robert Gates is getting a closer view of the Afghanistan war Tuesday, with a visit to troops fighting the Taliban in the country's rugged south.

CQPolitics.com - In what is shaping up to be a turbulent election year, with voters disgusted with Congress and disenchanted with both major political parties, could term limits re-emerge as a salient issue?

AFP - US President Barack Obama and Greek Prime Minister George Papandreou are set to hold talks on economic issues amid concerns that speculators are undermining Greece's efforts to overcome a severe debt crisis.

CQPolitics.com - Among the many innovations that social media tools have brought to the world of campaign politics are new ways to conduct opposition research.

AP - The political team that helped Scott Brown stage his improbable victory in the Massachusetts Senate race wants to apply its winning strategy elsewhere this election year. First stop: Rhode Island.

AP - A senior administration official says the U.S. still hopes to put some Guantanamo Bay detainees on trial in U.S. civilian courts.

Reuters - U.N. Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon said on Monday he sent a letter to Myanmar's junta chief to voice concern about the credibility of this year's nationwide election, the country's first in 20 years.

AP - The International Criminal Court announced Monday it has delayed the start of the war crimes trial of former Congo vice president Jean-Pierre Bemba by more than two months after he claimed his case was inadmissible.

AP - Germany's justice minister said Monday that a Vatican secrecy rule has played a role in a 'wall of silence' surrounding sexual abuse of children.

Politico - The titanic, yearlong health care epic is headed toward a wonkish finale.

Politico - In an Ideas piece, Rose says Obama's crew is more like Bush's Texas posse than Daley's city hall.

AP - Israel's infrastructure minister says his country wants to build nuclear power plants in cooperation with its Arab neighbors.

AP - The U.S. will back those willing to 'take risks for peace,' U.S. Vice President Joe Biden said Tuesday during the highest-level visit to Israel by an Obama administration official.

Politico - In an Ideas piece, Gacek marvels at the energy of the tea party movement.

Politico - Health care execs blame rising medical costs for premium hikes, but the president isn't buying.

AP - Britain's opposition Conservatives will likely fail to win power outright in the country's national election this spring, a poll of 100 key districts indicated Tuesday.

AP - Britain is opening an inquiry into claims that its soldiers murdered and abused civilians in southern Iraq in 2004.

Politico - Florida governor criticizes Rubio's “$130 haircut, or maybe it was a back wax.”

AP - The House's No. 2 Democrat is dismissing as 'absurd' former Rep. Eric Massa's claims that he was forced out by party leaders because of his opposition to health care.

AP - Northern Ireland lawmakers debated Tuesday whether to approve the next key step in making their Catholic-Protestant government work. The No. 2 Protestant party, the Ulster Unionists, confirmed it will vote against the plans amid continuing tensions.

AP - Turkey's prime minister said Tuesday that Israel had accepted that his country again mediate talks with Syria but the Israeli prime minister said no decision had been made.

AP - Israel has approved the construction of 1,600 new homes for Jews in east Jerusalem, threatening to cloud a visit by Vice President Joe Biden.

Politico - He says she's “unwise' to attack DoJ lawyers.

Politico - The N.Y. congressman receives criticism from both the House majority leader and the White House.

AP - Ahead of a meeting Tuesday with President Barack Obama, Greek Prime Minister George Papandreou said the United States cannot afford to ignore the financial woes of his country and, by extension, Europe.

AP - A Dutch court has taken the unusual step of asking U.S. authorities for more information about the case of a Somali man wanted in Minneapolis for allegedly aiding an Islamist terror group, his lawyer said Tuesday.

AP - Police in Ireland have arrested seven people over an alleged plot to kill a Swedish cartoonist who depicted the Prophet Mohammed with the body of a dog.

Reuters - U.S. business groups on Tuesday criticized President Barack Obama's administration for its continued failure to resolve a cross-border trucking dispute that prompted Mexico to slap duties on about $2.4 billion worth of U.S. exports nearly a year ago.

AP - The White House says the United States condemns Israel's approval of 1,600 new settlement homes in disputed East Jerusalem.

AP - Major business groups Tuesday announced a multimillion-dollar ad campaign to stop President Barack Obama's health care overhaul as it approaches a make-or-break vote in the House.

AP - A senior State Department official said Tuesday he's sorry for a joking remark he made about Libyan leader Moammar Gadhafi that prompted Libya to threaten diplomatic retaliation unless he apologized.

Politico - G. Thomas Porteous is accused of accepting money from lawyers arguing cases before him.

Politico - Barbara Hafer is still swinging at Democratic congressional nominee Mark Critz.

AP - A moderate Democrat insisted Tuesday she remained opposed to pushing a health care bill through the Senate with a simple majority vote, despite saying she wanted to see what was in the legislation.

AP - With the public still furious over bank bailouts, Democrats desperate to keep President Barack Obama's old Senate seat are scrambling to counter revelations that a bank owned by their candidate's family may be nearing collapse.

AP - The U.S. government is preparing a safety warning about baby slings — those popular and fashionable infant carriers that parents can sling around their chests to carry their baby.

AP - The pope's brother said in a newspaper interview published Tuesday that he slapped pupils as punishment after he took over a renowned German boys' choir in the 1960s. He also said he was aware of allegations of physical abuse at an elementary school linked to the choir but did nothing about it.

Reuters - Top Greek officials pressed their case on Tuesday for curbs on speculative trading they blame for pushing the country into crisis, but the Obama administration reacted coolly, saying it was working on its own plans to make trading more transparent.

CQPolitics.com - Senate Finance Committee members are working with their House counterparts on tariff-lowering legislation designed to boost Haiti's apparel industry as part of the effort to help the Caribbean nation recover from the devastating January earthquake.

AP - Americans and their lawmakers are dramatically out of sync on health care, with large majorities of people looking for bipartisan cooperation that's nowhere in sight.

AP - Vice President Joe Biden is condemning Israel's approval of 1,600 new settlement homes in disputed East Jerusalem and says the timing undermines the peace process the United States is attempting to revive.

Politico - The Drudge Report fires at a Senate committee for urging staffers to avoid site because of viruses.

Politico - The House ethics committee has groping allegations against former Rep. Eric Massa.

AP - Democrats are tying the fate of President Barack Obama's health care overhaul to a fast-track process that will make the bill tough for Republicans to derail in the Senate. But GOP lawmakers will still be able to force votes and make arguments that could give them ammunition for November's congressional elections.

AP - The Navy says that three dogs died and dozens more were in poor health after being neglected by a private security contractor in Chicago that had been hired to train the dogs to detect explosives.

AP - The U.S. government is preparing a safety warning about baby slings — those popular and fashionable infant carriers that parents can sling around their chests to carry their baby.

AP - President Barack Obama meets with Prime Minister George Papandreou (pah-pahn-DRAY'-oh) of Greece on Tuesday before sitting down with senators from both parties to talk about energy.

Reuters - The top U.S. trade official expressed doubt on Tuesday that negotiators could reach a deal this year in long-running world trade talks despite a goal set by President Barack Obama and other leaders.

AFP - More than 200,000 people made homeless by a cyclone last year face a 'catastrophic' humanitarian crisis because river embankments have not been repaired, the European Union said Tuesday.

Reuters - President Barack Obama inserted himself into Senate efforts to pass a climate change bill on Tuesday, gathering Republican and Democratic lawmakers at the White House to jumpstart efforts to overhaul U.S. energy policy.

AP - Americans and their lawmakers are dramatically out of sync on health care, with large majorities of people looking for bipartisan cooperation that's nowhere in sight.

AP - President Barack Obama stood with Greek Prime Minister George Papandreou on Thursday and pledged that the United States would work with its ally, even as Greece's enormous debts sparked frenzied trading.

AP - President Barack Obama made a renewed push for a long-stalled climate and energy bill Tuesday, urging lawmakers at a White House meeting to pass a comprehensive bill this year.

Politico - Robin Carnahan will not greet President Obama at the pitch for his health care overhaul in Missouri.

Politico - Shelby proposes yet another protections structure.

AP - New York congressman Eric Massa resigned his House seat this week under a sexual harassment cloud, claiming fellow Democrats forced his ouster to keep him from voting against their health care bill.

AP - Northern Ireland lawmakers voted overwhelmingly Tuesday to create a new Justice Department, the next key step in making their Catholic-Protestant government work.

McClatchy Newspapers - WASHINGTON — Congressional investigators late Tuesday requested detailed documents from Navy Secretary Ray Mabus and a private contractor that was involved in the testing and cleanup of contaminated water at Camp Lejeune, N.C., over the past two decades.

CQPolitics.com - Former Rep. Eric Massa, who resigned from the House Monday night as he battled allegations that he sexually harassed his aides, acknowledged on a Fox News program Tuesday that he touched a male staffer.

AP - President Barack Obama made a renewed push for a long-stalled climate and energy bill Tuesday, urging lawmakers at a White House meeting to pass a comprehensive bill this year.

AP - The top U.S. general in Iraq says the Iraqi military performed superbly on Sunday's mostly peaceful election day and that President Barack Obama's plan to remove American combat troops from that country by Sept. 1 is proceeding on schedule.

AP - Three months after it was stolen, the corpse of Cyprus' former president was found reburied in another grave and three men were arrested Tuesday in what officials called a case of bodysnatching for ransom.

AP - Dutch Catholic bishops announced an independent inquiry Tuesday into allegations of sexual abuse of children by priests at church schools, and apologized to victims.

McClatchy Newspapers - WASHINGTON — Congressional investigators late Tuesday requested detailed documents from Navy Secretary Ray Mabus and a private contractor that was involved in the testing and cleanup of contaminated water at Camp Lejeune, N.C., over the past two decades.

Politico - A bipartisan group of 14 Senators and top cabinet officials are forging ahead with a climate bill.

AP - An emotional Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon paid tribute Tuesday to 'the 101 heroes' working for the United Nations who were killed in the Haiti earthquake, the single greatest loss for the world body in its 64-year history.