AP - The United States is sitting out the argument in Europe this week over the fate of the long drive to unite 25 nations under a single constitution, but the Bush administration stands to lose if the drive collapses.

AP - President Bush said Wednesday that he doesn't spend much of his time worrying but that he does fear for Americans and others in insurgency-wracked Iraq and for the safety of his 23-year-old twin daughters.

WASHINGTON (Reuters) - Europe sought to reassure the United States on Thursday it remains a strong partner on foreign policy, particularly in the Middle East, despite a crisis over the EU's constitution.

WASHINGTON (Reuters) - The United States criticized four Gulf Arab allies as among the world's worst offenders in permitting human trafficking on Friday in a rebuke Washington hopes will promote improved human rights in the Middle East.

CRAWFORD, Texas (Reuters) - President Bush said on Saturday that the U.S. economic expansion was solid, with thriving small-business and factory sectors, despite a report showing weak payroll growth.

FORT LAUDERDALE, Fla. (Reuters) - Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice is expected to visit Israel as well as the Palestinian territories around June 18 before Israel's planned Gaza Strip withdrawal, a U.S. official said on Sunday.

UNITED NATIONS (Reuters) - A senior U.S. senator said on Monday he had no doubt Syria was behind the assassination of the former Lebanese prime minister, Rafik al-Hariri, according to intelligence he had seen.

WASHINGTON (Reuters) - The U.S. Senate intelligence committee on Tuesday sided with the White House by proposing broad new subpoena powers for the FBI to use in counterterrorism and counterintelligence investigations, officials said.

WASHINGTON (Reuters) - The U.S. Senate confirmed a second of President Bush's long-stalled judicial nominees on Wednesday and cleared the way for a third under a bipartisan truce certain to face even tougher tests ahead.

AP - Senate Democrats opposed to John R. Bolton asked one of his GOP supporters to be a go-between in their pursuit of information that could break an impasse over his nomination to be U.N. ambassador.

WASHINGTON (Reuters) - President Bush told African leaders on Monday he would 'work harder and faster' to accelerate aid to the region under a heavily promoted but little-used program after they complained the system was too bureaucratic.

HONG KONG (Reuters) - North Korea is not suicidal enough to use its nuclear arsenal and talks to dismantle its atomic program will eventually bear fruit, former U.S. secretary of state Colin Powell said on Tuesday.

LONDON (Reuters) - The European Union risks losing U.S. investment if anti-business sentiment goes unchecked, U.S. Treasury Secretary John Snow said in an interview published on Wednesday.

WASHINGTON (Reuters) - The White House said on Thursday it would urge Congress to reconsider legislation that would withhold half of the United States' dues to the United Nations unless it makes certain reforms, but stopped short of issuing a veto threat against the measure.

AP - The House was poised to give the Pentagon an additional $45 billion for wars next year, even as public support for combat in Iraq wanes and lawmakers press for an exit strategy.

SHANNON, Ireland (Reuters) - Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice said Palestinians needed to keep to a ceasefire that has been shaky to ensure a planned Israeli withdrawal from the Gaza Strip can go ahead.

JERUSALEM (Reuters) - Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice will seek on Sunday to ease Israel's fears that militants might take advantage of its planned August pullout of Gaza to launch attacks from the coastal territory.

WASHINGTON (Reuters) - President Bush needs to tell Americans the nation faces 'a long, hard slog' in Iraq, a key Republican senator said on Sunday, and another said the White House was 'disconnected from reality' in its optimism over the war.

WASHINGTON (Reuters) - The White House is waiting for the go ahead from congressional leaders before asking for final votes on a controversial free trade pact with Central America, a top Bush administration official said on Monday.

AP - A casino-rich tribe wrote checks for at least $55,000 to House Majority Leader Tom DeLay's political groups, but the donations were never publicly disclosed and the tribe was directed to divert the money to other groups that helped Republicans, tribal documents show.

AP - Speaking in a Manhattan ballroom just a few miles north of ground zero, Karl Rove said on Wednesday night that the Democratic party did not understand the consequences of the Sept. 11 attacks.

WASHINGTON (Reuters) - The U.S. Senate rejected a Democratic plan to require better mileage for cars and gas-guzzling sport utility vehicles on Thursday but put off a final vote on energy legislation until next week.

AP - Vice President Dick Cheney visited a renowned orthopedist Friday while in town for a forum held by a conservative think tank, his spokeswoman said.

AP - U.S. Sen. Dick Durbin apologized to war veterans Saturday for his remarks earlier this month comparing interrogators at an American-run prison camp in Cuba to Nazis and other historically infamous regimes.

AP - The Bush administration has misused a federal law to detain at least 70 terrorism suspects since the Sept. 11 attacks, two advocacy groups contend.

WASHINGTON (Reuters) - A majority of Americans disapprove of President Bush's handling of the war in Iraq but the public is far from demanding an immediate withdrawal, according to an ABC News/Washington Post poll published on Monday.

UNITED NATIONS (Reuters) - Condoleezza Rice, on her first trip to the United Nations since becoming secretary of state, made clear on Tuesday that enlarging the Security Council should not override other U.N. reforms, U.S. officials said.

WASHINGTON (Reuters) - A free trade agreement with Central America, fiercely opposed by U.S. sugar producers, won a vote of approval by the Senate Finance Committee on Wednesday after the Bush administration pledged to support more funding to promote workers' rights in the region.