AP - Interior Secretary Dirk Kempthorne made his first visit to the Arctic National Wildlife Refuge on Thursday and was greeted by local leaders concerned not about drilling in the refuge, but by plans for offshore oil development.

AP - Five people will run in the special election to temporarily fill the seat vacated by former House Majority leader Tom DeLay, the secretary of state's office said Friday.

AP - The U.N. Security Council passed a resolution Thursday that would give the United Nations authority over peacekeepers in Darfur as soon as Sudan's government gives its consent — which it has so far refused to do.

TOKYO (Reuters) - U.S. Assistant Secretary of State Christopher Hill said on Monday that North Korea is showing no interest in returning to six-party talks on its nuclear weapons program. Hill, the top U.S. point man on North Korea, arrived in Japan at the start of an Asian tour that will also take him to Beijing and Seoul.

AP - Congress will mark the fifth anniversary of the Sept. 11 attacks with a pre-election agenda focusing on national security-related issues.

CQPolitics.com - A $2 million personal investment in his campaign treasury did not quite enable wealthy car dealer Vern Buchanan to dominate Tuesday’s Republican primary in Florida’s open 13th Congressional District, but it was fuel enough to boost him to a plurality victory over four other GOP contenders.

AP - The GOP is once again divided over how the nation should treat its most dangerous terror suspects, setting up a showdown in Congress just weeks away from elections when all members will try to sell themselves as tough on terror.

HANOI (Reuters) - U.S. Treasury Secretary Henry Paulson said on Friday that the United States and China agree currency flexibility is 'very important.'

AP - Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger's taped comment that Cubans and Puerto Ricans are feisty because of their mixed black and Latino 'blood' set the blood of some Democrats boiling, but others say it's no big deal.

AP - Democratic Senate candidate Ned Lamont, who recently denounced Sen. Joe Lieberman for his public scolding of President Clinton over the Monica Lewinsky affair, lauded the senator at the time for his eloquence and moral authority.

AP - In April 1976, Ted Landsmark stumbled into a crowd of whites demonstrating against the city's desegregation school busing and was speared with the pointed staff of an American flag. A photo of the attack won a Pulitzer Prize and branded Boston as racially intolerant.

WASHINGTON (Reuters) - U.S. Trade Representative Susan Schwab will sign a deal in Ottawa on Tuesday designed to end a long-running dispute over Canadian lumber exports, the trade representative's office said in a statement.

CQPolitics.com - Democrats in Minnesota’s strongly Democratic 5th Congressional District put history into motion by nominating state Rep. Keith Ellison in Tuesday’s primary — all but guaranteeing that he will become the first Muslim ever elected to Congress.

AP - A Los Angeles talk radio station says it easily accessed the same part of Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger's Web site that his Democratic rival's campaign used to obtain a private conversation and leak it to a newspaper.

WASHINGTON (Reuters) - Ohio Republican Rep. Bob Ney has agreed to plead guilty to criminal charges in the political corruption investigation involving disgraced lobbyist Jack Abramoff, a source familiar with the matter said on Thursday.

AP - A former assistant federal prosecutor easily won a Democratic special primary Friday to face U.S. Rep. Mike Turner in November.

AP - Amid hopeful talk of the future, Rep. Charles Taylor and Russia's ambassador to the United States welcomed 20 Russian college students to western North Carolina to study business.

SINGAPORE (Reuters) - U.S. Treasury Secretary Henry Paulson called on Monday for urgent action to stop 'irresponsible' new lending to poor countries whose debts have just been canceled.

UNITED NATIONS (Reuters) - President George W. Bush, locked in a test of wills with Iran and facing tough going in Iraq, will urge the United Nations on Tuesday to 'stand up for peace' by supporting Middle East moderates over extremists.

BOSTON (Reuters) - Deval Patrick, a former top U.S. civil-rights enforcer, will try to become Massachusetts' first black governor and break a 16-year Republican hold on the office after winning the liberal state's Democratic primary on Tuesday.

BEIJING (Reuters) - U.S. Treasury Secretary Henry Paulson on Thursday urged China to open its financial sector to foreign competition and said a critical challenge would be to hold back global trade protectionist forces.

BEIJING (Reuters) - Washington and Beijing differ on the timing of resolving their economic disagreements, but not on the general goals, U.S. Treasury Secretary Henry Paulson said on Friday after meeting China's top two leaders.

AP - Sen. Daniel Akaka faces a challenge in Saturday's Democratic primary from a congressman who wants voters to dump the 82-year-old lawmaker in favor of younger blood.

AP - Liberal incumbent Sen. Daniel Akaka held an early lead Saturday night over upstart challenger Rep. Ed Case in the Democratic primary after absentee ballots and early votes were released.

AP - When the squeal from an automated warning radio brought news a severe storm was approaching, school principal William Tomic acted quickly. He alerted teachers to bring children indoors and to a secure interior hallway for shelter.

SEOUL (Reuters) - North Korea may wait for the Bush administration to go before implementing a deal to end its atomic ambitions, despite the hardship the wait would bring the impoverished country, a top former U.S. diplomat said on Tuesday.

AP - One of Virginia's best-known political analysts said he had never personally heard Sen. George Allen use racial epithets, despite saying on television a day earlier that the senator 'did use the n-word.'

WASHINGTON (Reuters) - U.S. lawmakers on Thursday plan to shine a spotlight on Hewlett-Packard Co.'s snooping into the telephone records of some board members and journalists, a practice that Congress may soon ban.

AFP - Former US Supreme Court justice Sandra Day O'Connor said that virulent criticism was threatening the judicial independence of the nation's highest court.

WASHINGTON (Reuters) - The U.S. Congress agreed on Saturday to extend sanctions on Iran set to expire this weekend that are aimed at choking off funds that could aid Iran in developing nuclear weapons.