AP - Government secrecy by almost any measure is expanding and little is being done to stop it, according to a coalition of 67 organizations favoring greater openness.

AFP - The maelstrom engulfing the US housing market and threatening to throw millions onto the streets is soaring up the agenda in the race for the country's most prestigious address, the White House.

AFP - Pace-setting Democrat Hillary Clinton set course for the White House Sunday, as the most intense US election in decades hit top gear awash in historic potential.

AP - Major union endorsements made early in the 2004 and 2008 Democratic presidential primaries:

AP - The worst housing slump in 16 years and upheaval in financial markets have cast a shadow on the economy, leading lawmakers to question federal regulators about the path ahead for anxious consumers.

Reuters - The leaders of Cyprus's divided communities failed to make progress on Wednesday in relaunching stalled peace talks harming Turkey's EU accession bid.

AFP - Thailand and the European Union on Thursday reached a compromise over an EU proposal to send election observers for the kingdom's post-coup polls in December.

AP - CRITICAL SUPPORT: Florida's Cuban-Americans have backed Republican presidential candidates for nearly a decade and helped to deliver electoral votes central to GOP victories.

Reuters - Iran's nuclear programme has slipped so far down the European Union's agenda that it did not even figure at a two-day brainstorming session of the bloc's 27 foreign ministers this week.

AP - In an interview billed as his first since leaving the top Pentagon post, Donald Rumsfeld calls Afghanistan 'a big success,' but says U.S. efforts in Iraq are hampered by the failure of Iraq's government to establish a foundation for democracy.

AFP - Taiwan's African allies on Sunday gave their backing to the island's bid to secure a seat in the United Nations.

AP - Sheila Dixon, the first black woman to serve as mayor of Baltimore, all but guaranteed herself an extended stay in office with a resounding victory in Tuesday's Democratic primary.

AP - In the clamor of Democrats assailing President Bush on Iraq, presidential candidate John Edwards has found a way to be heard after Bush addresses the nation Thursday night: He's buying time for a rebuttal.

AP - A Colorado judge has set bail at $5 million in cash for Democratic fundraiser Norman Hsu on a charge of grand theft.

Reuters - United Nations peacekeepers have discovered three graves, each containing several bodies, at a military base in eastern Congo recently abandoned by rebels loyal to a renegade general, a U.N. spokesman said on Friday.

AP - Democratic presidential candidate Hillary Rodham Clinton, unveiling her agenda to promote civil rights, told an NAACP banquet Saturday that the 'scales of justice are seriously out of balance' for black Americans.

AP - Democratic presidential candidate Hillary Rodham Clinton is unveiling a sweeping health care reform proposal Monday that would require every American to carry health insurance and offer federal subsidies to help reduce the cost of coverage.

AP - Democratic presidential candidate Barack Obama is proposing more than $80 billion in annual tax relief for workers and seniors funded by an increase on wealthier investors.

Reuters - More than 50 people were killed in civil war-racked Sri Lanka in August and dozens more disappeared, a rights group said on Tuesday, urging the United Nations to intervene.

AFP - President George W. Bush's administration Wednesday thwarted the latest bid by Democrats to derail its Iraq strategy, as the Senate blocked a bid to limit the numbers of troops ready for deployment.

Reuters - An Iraqi Kurd sentenced to seven years' jail in Germany last year for aiding the Iraqi insurgency is being freed early and removed from a United Nations terrorism blacklist, sources close to the case say.

AP - Hillary Rodham Clinton is finding herself in her rivals' cross-hairs.

AP - The Florida Democratic Party will stick with a Jan. 29 presidential primary even if it means losing all its nominating convention delegates, a party source said Saturday.

AP - An experimental online 'mashup' — a build-your-own Democratic presidential debate — attracted more than 1 million viewers in the past 10 days, many of them young people drawn to the interactivity of the Internet.

AP - Retired Congressman Charlie Wilson, the subject of an upcoming movie starring Tom Hanks, received a new heart in transplant surgery at a Houston hospital Monday, his former chief of staff said.

AP - Gov. John Hoeven, who won re-election with more than 70 percent of the vote in 2004, wants to become the first governor in North Dakota history to be elected to a third term.

AP - Some excerpts from Wednesday's debate among Democratic presidential candidates in Hanover, N.H.

AP - Myth: The president refuses to admit that climate change is real and that humans are a factor. Myth: The U.S. is doing nothing to address climate change. Myth: The United States refuses to engage internationally.

AP - Democratic presidential hopeful John Edwards criticized Rush Limbaugh on Friday for referring to some members of the military as 'phony soldiers.'

AP - Three presidential candidates on Saturday courted Republican leaders from across Wyoming, home to next year's first primary event.