AP - Campaign officials say Republican John McCain raised more than $22 million in June for his presidential bid.

AP - Republican John McCain distanced himself from an economic adviser who dubbed the United States "a nation of whiners" in a "mental recession" as Democrat Barack Obama turned the remarks against his rival.

Reuters - Jews live longer and enjoy lower infant mortality and poverty rates in Israel than the country's Arab citizens, said a report published Wednesday by a watchdog partly funded by the European Union.

AP - Even with India's last-minute revival of a languishing civil nuclear accord with the United States, it may be too late for time-pressed U.S. lawmakers to ratify what has been one of President Bush's top foreign policy initiatives.

AP - Hundreds of thousands of homeowners could get safe, cheaper loans rather than losing their homes under a massive election-year mortgage rescue that's drawing bipartisan support.

AP - Sen. Barack Obama's vote in favor of anti-terrorist surveillance legislation on Wednesday marked an about-face on the issue that left him comfortably in the bipartisan middle, no matter the criticism from John McCain nor the discomfort among liberal Democrats.

AP - The system for funding Social Security is "a disgrace" because it forces young workers to pay into a program that is unlikely to benefit them in its current form, Republican presidential candidate John McCain said this week, wading into politically touchy territory.

AP - It was all part of a careful arrangement: Democrat Barack Obama would get fundraising help from his erstwhile rival, Hillary Rodham Clinton, in exchange for his help retiring about $10 million of her campaign debt.

AP - Barack Obama's campaign tried yet again to contain a political storm kicked up by a vocal Chicago supporter as the Rev. Jesse Jackson apologized for crude comments picked up by a live microphone about the Democratic presidential candidate.

AP - Barack Obama stoked vice presidential speculation Wednesday with an unannounced stop at the Washington law firm of a search team member and then a flight to New York fundraisers with potential pick Hillary Rodham Clinton and a second vetter.

AP - Russian President Dmitry Medvedev lashed out Wednesday at the United States over its plans for a missile shield in Europe, saying a U.S. deal to install part of the system in Czech Republic "deeply distresses" Moscow.

AP - Manufacturers say they are not responsible for FEMA trailers that had toxic levels of formaldehyde, despite Democrats' findings that companies knew about the dangers yet sold them to the government anyway after Hurricane Katrina.