Politics News

LONDON - Democratic presidential contender Barack Obama brushed aside Republican criticism of his overseas trip on Saturday and stood outside the famed 10 Downing Street to say that both President Bush and Sen. John McCain were moving his way on the key issues of Iraq and Afghanistan.

WASHINGTON - Republican John McCain's campaign on Saturday sharply criticized Democratic rival Barack Obama for canceling a visit to wounded troops in Germany, contending Obama chose foreign leaders and cheering Europeans over "injured American heroes."

COTTONWOOD, Ariz. - Republican presidential candidate John McCain is pledging support for a proposal to expand protections for disabled people under an 18-year-old landmark civil rights law.

WASHINGTON - President Bush said Saturday he's eager to sign legislation that triples money to fight AIDS and other diseases around the world — an initiative that has won him praise from some of his harshest critics.

WASHINGTON - President Bush signed an executive order on Friday to expand sanctions against what he calls the "illegitimate" regime of Zimbabwe's President Robert Mugabe and his supporters.

WASHINGTON - President Bush on Thursday nominated Paul S. Diamond to the 3rd U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals in Philadelphia, withdrawing his earlier pick for the job after she drew opposition in the Senate.

WASHINGTON (AFP) - The US Senate on Saturday approved an elaborate housing rescue plan designed to help thousands of homeowners avert foreclosure and bolster mortgage finance giants that have struggled amid a volatile housing market.

WASHINGTON - Congress approved mortgage relief for 400,000 struggling homeowners Saturday as part of an election-year housing plan that also aims to calm jittery financial markets and bolster the sagging economy. President Bush said he would sign it promptly, despite reservations.

WASHINGTON - Sen. Jack Reed says America can't afford the Republican strategy of continuing to write blank checks for the Iraq war.

WASHINGTON - Sirius Satellite Radio Inc.'s $3.3 billion buyout of rival XM Satellite Radio Holdings Inc. will mean millions of subscribers will be able to receive programming from both services, while executives say it will create huge cost savings for the industry.

WASHINGTON - Only jalapeno peppers grown in Mexico are implicated in the nationwide salmonella outbreak, the government announced Friday in clearing the U.S. crop.

WASHINGTON - A majority of members of the Federal Communications Commission have cast votes in favor of punishing Comcast Corp. for blocking subscribers' Internet traffic, an agency official said Friday.

DUBLIN (AFP) - Nearly three-quarters of Irish voters are against holding a second referendum on the EU's key reform treaty, according to an opinion poll out Sunday.

SKOPJE (AFP) - Macedonia's parliament approved Saturday a new government presented by Prime Minister Nikola Gruevski, who has promised to speed up reforms needed for the Balkan country to join the European Union.

GENEVA (AFP) - Top trade negotiators struck a rare note of harmony in their quest for a new global free trade pact Saturday, expressing encouragement after the latest development in talks that have divided rich and emerging economies.

WASHINGTON - It's a pretty good crowd for a summer Friday morning at Kennedy Center. From stage right (where else?) Justice Antonin Scalia enters.

WASHINGTON - Louisiana prosecutors asked the Supreme Court on Monday to revisit its recent decision outlawing the death penalty for people convicted of raping children.

WASHINGTON (AFP) - The top US law enforcement official on Monday called on Congress to draft rules for court hearings for terror suspects in the wake of a landmark Supreme Court ruling that they have the right to challenge their detention.

WASHINGTON - Congress approved mortgage relief for 400,000 struggling homeowners Saturday as part of an election-year housing plan that also aims to calm jittery financial markets and bolster the sagging economy. President Bush said he would sign it promptly, despite reservations.

JERUSALEM - A written prayer that Barack Obama left this week in the cracks of the Western Wall, Judaism's holiest site, asks God to guide him and guard his family, an Israeli newspaper reported Friday.

COTTONWOOD, Ariz. - Republican presidential candidate John McCain is pledging support for a proposal to expand protections for disabled people under an 18-year-old landmark civil rights law.