AP - John McCain welcomed a Supreme Court decision invalidating a District of Columbia handgun ban. Barack Obama sought to straddle the subject by saying he favors an individual's right to bear firearms as well as a government's right to regulate them.

AP - When Democrats Barack Obama and Hillary Rodham Clinton step onstage in their first joint campaign appearance in New Hampshire, it will be the first public display of a rapprochement between former rivals hoping to set aside differences and unify the party while helping each other.

AFP - US President George W. Bush on Wednesday denounced Zimbabwe's planned run-off election as a "sham" and urged the African Union (AU) to increase pressure on the government of President Robert Mugabe.

AP - Americans can keep guns at home for self-defense, the Supreme Court ruled Thursday in the justices' first-ever pronouncement on the meaning of gun rights under the Second Amendment.

AP - Many of the nation's estimated 10.8 million underage drinkers are turning to their parents or other adults for free alcohol.

AP - WASHINGTON — The Roman Catholic priest who mocked Sen. Hillary Rodham Clinton at Democratic presidential hopeful Barack Obama's former church says he regrets that his passionate delivery may have detracted from his message. But he stands by the message.

AP - Barack Obama told top business leaders Thursday that politics often gets in the way of solving problems that threaten America's ability to stay competitive in the global economy.

AP - The AFL-CIO endorsed Barack Obama for president Thursday, uniting the nation's 15 million union workers behind the Illinois senator and giving him full access to labor's massive bank accounts and political machinery.

AP - Barack Obama has won over more than half of Hillary Rodham Clinton's former supporters, according to an Associated Press-Yahoo News poll that finds party loyalty trumping hard feelings less than three weeks after their bruising Democratic presidential contest ended.

Reuters - Russia seeks a "serious" pact with the European Union reaffirming it as part of Europe, President Dmitry Medvedev told Reuters ahead of a Russia-EU summit in Siberia.

AP - Angry politicians vowed to keep writing laws that condemn child rapists to death, despite a Supreme Court decision saying such punishment is unconstitutional.

AP - The Federal Reserve's aggressive period of cutting interest rates to keep the country from falling into a recession is over. That point is in general agreement. The trouble starts when you try to figure out what period the Fed has now entered.