AP - Wary of lobbyists calling signals from the sidelines, Maine is taking steps to ban text messages and e-mails to lawmakers in session as it becomes the latest state to address the ever-expanding use of electronic communications in statehouses.

AP - In a case that hinges on credibility, FBI agent Deborah Bond is making it clear from the witness stand just how believable she finds former White House aide I. Lewis 'Scooter' Libby to be: not very.

AP - Four of the senators who will vote next week on putting more troops in Iraq bear the scars of another war in another time, in a place called Vietnam. Three will vote against sending more troops. One will vote the other way.

Reuters - New U.N. chief Ban Ki-moon urged Bosnian Serb genocide suspects Ratko Mladic and Radovan Karadzic to surrender to the U.N. war crimes tribunal as the court comes under pressure to wrap up its work by 2010.

AP - A Democrat on the Senate Intelligence Committee is cautioning Republicans against blocking a vote Monday on a resolution opposing President Bush's troop increase in Iraq, saying it would be a 'terrible mistake.'

Reuters - A U.N. committee rejected credentials of a Canadian gay and lesbian organization seeking consultative status with the United Nations and deferred the application of a similar body from Sweden, according to documents circulated on Friday.

AFP - The US Senate Select Committee on Intelligence has unanimously backed the nomination of retired vice admiral Michael McConnell as Director of National Intelligence.

WASHINGTON (Reuters) - The U.S. Senate on Wednesday confirmed retired Navy Adm. Mike McConnell as President George W. Bush's top intelligence adviser.

AP - For most of the past five weeks, House Republicans could do little else but watch as majority Democrats passed major legislation without giving them a chance to propose changes or offer alternatives. So when they finally got a chance Thursday to air pent-up frustrations over how Democrats were running things, the Republicans decided to make some noise — and how. They aimed high, all the way to House Speaker Nancy Pelosi.

SEVILLE, Spain (Reuters) - Defense Secretary Robert Gates plunged into NATO diplomacy at his first alliance meeting this week and some European allies pronounced him easier to deal with than his bristly predecessor, Donald Rumsfeld.

AP - The United Nations, United States, European Union and Russia expressed hope Friday that a Palestinian accord on sharing power in a coalition government would end months of deadly factional violence.

AP - Attorneys for I. Lewis 'Scooter' Libby believe that NBC News holds a key to clearing him of perjury and obstruction charges in the CIA leak case.

AP - The school bus industry has a message for bus drivers: Put down your cell phones.

AP - To forgive is divine. To forget may be asking too much of religious conservatives when it comes to Sen. John McCain.

WASHINGTON (Reuters) - A bill to allow workers to form unions by signing up, instead of voting, advanced in the U.S. House of Representatives on Wednesday as the Bush administration threatened to veto it.

AP - The fate of a higher federal minimum wage for the lowest paid workers no longer depends on whether small businesses will get tax breaks. The pending question is the size of the breaks.

AFP - China has allowed a high-profile AIDS campaigner under house arrest to travel to the United States to receive an award following Chinese President Hu Jintao's intervention, US Senator Hillary Clinton said.

Reuters - The United Nations police chief in Kosovo resigned on Wednesday at the request of the province's U.N. governor following the deaths of two Albanian demonstrators in a weekend protest rally.

AP - Rep. Dan Lipinski endures at least nine needle pricks a day to control the diabetes he's had since childhood. Rep. Joe Barton takes a half dozen prescription pills daily to ward off another heart attack. Rep. Jeff Fortenberry's little girl may need her fourth open-heart surgery in a few months. Such personal details are spilling out in debates close to home for the lawmakers shaping policy on prescription drugs, stem cell research and more.

AP - A judge dismissed charges Wednesday against five British soldiers accused of mistreating Iraqi civilian detainees but said the court-martial would continue against two other servicemen.

AP - The United Nations has allocated $2.35 million from an emergency fund to provide humanitarian aid to Guinea, which is in the midst of a tense nationwide strike, a U.N. spokesperson said Friday.

SYDNEY (Reuters) - Protesters plan to deliver a firm anti-Iraq war message to Vice President Dick Cheney in Australia on Thursday as one of his firmest allies faces searching questions over its commitment to the unpopular war.

AP - John McCain has a day job — and it may make getting a promotion all the more difficult.

CQPolitics.com - Illinois Sen. Barack Obama’s charismatic persona and status as perhaps the strongest-ever African-American contender for president has had him riding a wave of publicity in the early weeks of his bid for the 2008 Democratic nomination.

AP - Hillary Rodham Clinton's lead in the early polls may not be that reassuring if history is any guide. Republican hopeful Rudy Giuliani, however, is sitting pretty.

AP - A U.S. Treasury Department delegation was in Macau on Monday briefing local officials about the investigation of North Korean bank accounts in the Chinese territory, an American official said.

NEW YORK (Reuters) - Five Western U.S. states have formed the latest regional pact to bypass the Bush administration to cut emissions linked to global warming through market mechanisms.

WASHINGTON (Reuters) - A plan to impose conditions on U.S. troops ordered to Iraq would damage their ability to fight, the top American military officer warned on Tuesday, while congressional Democrats considered a possible alternative.