AP - Sen. Barack Obama vowed Thursday to restore environmental protections the Bush administration has rolled back through executive orders, especially at the Environmental Protection Agency.

AP - Joe Biden on Friday questioned how his Democratic presidential rivals could skip a debate involving the Congressional Black Caucus.

AP - The U.N. representative in East Timor on Friday praised the young nation's recent presidential elections but warned that the upcoming parliamentary vote would be 'more challenging.'

AFP - US President George W. Bush on Saturday praised US "global leadership and generosity" ahead of a Group of Eight summit in Germany expected to be marked by massive protests against the war in Iraq.

AP - Russia isn't alone in disliking the idea of basing a U.S. missile defense system in the Czech Republic and other countries on its doorstep.

AP - Fred Thompson says the country faces different challenges now than it did when he spurned overtures to run for president in 2000, leading him to consider a return to politics.

AFP - Anti-poverty and anti-globalisation campaigners meeting at a parallel forum to counter the G8 summit on Wednesday took industrialised nations to task over unfulfilled pledges made two years ago to the world's poorest.

AFP - A sweeping immigration reform drive collapsed in the US Senate on Thursday, leaving 12 million illegal immigrants in limbo and dealing a stinging blow to President George W. Bush.

AFP - The Group of Eight failed to break the deadlock between Russia and the West on the vexed issue of the future status of Kosovo on the final day of their three-day summit here on Friday.

AFP - Tony Blair left his last Group of Eight summit as British prime minister upbeat about efforts by the world's rich club to beat global problems such as climate change and poverty.

CQPolitics.com - CQPolitics.com on Friday published a story on how former Arkansas Gov. Mike Huckabee’s socially conservative views are influencing his campaign for the 2008 Republican presidential nomination. Huckabee’s roughly 10 and a half year tenure — from July 1996 until his retirement this January — makes him one of the longest serving governors in Arkansas’ history. Which of the following Democrats holds the record?

AP - President Bush, wading deeper into an issue that bitterly divides his party, hopes a personal appeal can help persuade skeptical Republicans to resurrect and pass his immigration bill.

Reuters - EU foreign ministers must step up efforts next week for a ceasefire in Darfur and impose sanctions on members of Sudan's government responsible for the violence, activists said on Tuesday.

AFP - The US House of Representatives approved a bill Wednesday designed to tighten gun ownership, nearly two months after a disturbed student went on the deadliest ever US school shooting rampage.

Reuters - The U.S. Supreme Court ruled on Thursday that foreign governments can be sued in an effort to collect unpaid local property taxes on residences for their diplomats at the United Nations.

AP - The next time the Democratic presidential candidates meet up, they should pass around a thank you card for Evan Bayh.

AFP - The fluid and unpredictable 2008 Republican White House sweepstakes took a sharp new turn Wednesday, as the stuttering John McCain campaign ripped into rising rival Mitt Romney.

AP - As Congress edges closer to renewing a health insurance program for children, state officials have made it clear that they have a much different vision for the program's future than the Bush administration.

Reuters - Leaders of the committee writing energy legislation in the U.S. House of Representatives backed away on Monday from controversial elements of the bill, including new fuel economy standards for automobiles.

AFP - Democratic presidential front-runner Hillary Clinton on Tuesday warned Iraqis must decide if they want to stop killing one another, and pledged to bring US troops home.

AP - Russia immediately rejected a revised U.N. resolution introduced Wednesday that would delay internationally supervised independence for Kosovo to give the province's majority ethnic Albanians and minority Serbs more time to agree on its future status.

AP - Mayor Michael Bloomberg often has called Hillary Rodham Clinton a 'very good senator.' He and her husband exchanged compliments at a climate conference they hosted together just last month.

AP - Once multiple killer Coral Eugene Watts was behind bars for life, Harriett Semander of Houston says she could remember her daughter Elena without also thinking of the man who strangled her.

AFP - The US House of Representatives has voted to deny all aid to Saudi Arabia, despite repeated assurances by the administration the desert kingdom was cooperating with the United States in the war on terror.

AP - Mitt Romney values his family, and when it comes to his presidential campaign, his family members are providing value for him.

AFP - The European Union ended two years of limbo at the weekend by agreeing new guidelines for the 27-member club's future and throwing off the shackles of the failed constitution.

AP - Guests at a high-dollar fundraiser for Hillary Rodham Clinton on Tuesday were treated to cocktails, dinner and an hourlong business tutorial from billionaire Warren Buffett.

Reuters - Republican presidential candidate Rudy Giuliani tiptoed around the thorny issue of abortion on Tuesday in a speech to conservative Christians who are key to his quest for the White House.

AP - Fred Thompson — actor, ex-senator, former lobbyist and Republican presidential aspirant — appealed to fellow Southerners with his conservative pitch Wednesday and belittled foolishness in Washington.

Reuters - European Union funding for an African peacekeeping force in Darfur has run out, and the United States and Arab League should help cover the costs until a replacement force arrives, the EU's aid chief said on Friday.