AP - Close to securing the Democratic nomination, Barack Obama is lavishing attention on Florida and its wreckage of a presidential primary while minding his manners with Hillary Rodham Clinton — a rival he now can afford to praise.

AP - The government is quietly negotiating to help cell phone customers avoid expensive fees when they cancel contracts with wireless companies, The Associated Press has learned.

AFP - Veteran US Senator Edward Kennedy left hospital Wednesday giving a thumbs up to waiting supporters a day after doctors announced he had a malignant brain tumor.

AP - The money tells the tale. Democrat Barack Obama entered May sitting comfortably atop more than $37 million in the bank. Republican John McCain had nearly $22 million in hand. Hillary Rodham Clinton, once the Democrats' presidential front-runner, was in the red.

AP - The United Mine Workers of America endorsed Barack Obama for president Wednesday despite his recent defeats in primaries in coal-producing states where many of the union's members vote.

AP - Obama, Clinton campaigning in Florida after trading primary wins ... United Mine Workers endorses Obama for president as unions swing behind the Democrat ... Obama builds his delegate total, closing in on Democratic nomination

AP - Sen. Barack Obama pulled within shouting distance of the Democratic presidential nomination Tuesday, though he still needs help from superdelegates to claim the prize.

AP - The Democratic presidential race is all but over.

AP - Close to securing the Democratic nomination, Barack Obama is lavishing attention on Florida and its wreckage of a presidential primary while minding his manners with Hillary Rodham Clinton — a rival he now can afford to praise.

AFP - The European Commission has granted the first licence to market a vaccine in preparation for a pandemic of H5N1 bird flu in Europe, British pharmaceutical firm GlaxoSmithKline said on Monday.

AP - Pink slips for principals and teachers. School-funded tutoring for poor kids. Schools are increasingly looking at those kind of consequences for failing to raise math and reading scores.

AP - Despite numerous veto threats, senators in both parties have loaded up President Bush's war funding bill with a grab bag of domestic programs, including work permits for immigrant farm labor and heating subsidies for the poor.