AP - The government would help struggling homeowners get new, cheaper loans and be allowed to offer troubled mortgage giants Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac a cash infusion as part of legislation that aims to calm the chaotic housing market.

AP - Supporters of maverick Rep. Ron Paul who are organizing a rally as an alternative to the Republican National Convention are moving their crosstown event to a larger venue.

AP - Democratic presidential contender Barack Obama declined Tuesday to rate the Bush administration's troop surge in Iraq a success despite a reduction in violence, and expressed understanding of Gen. David Petraeus' opposition to a timetable for the withdrawal of U.S. combat troops.

Politico - Christoph von Marschall, the Washington bureau chief of the Berlin-based newspaper Der Tagesspiegel, wrote in Sunday’s Washington Post about the “dirty little secret” of the Obama campaign: snubbing the foreign press.

AP - Charles T. Payne had his first close brush with history at the end of World War II, when his infantry division liberated Ohrdruf, a subcamp of the Nazis' Buchenwald concentration camp.

AP - Yet another town-hall meeting isn't doing the trick. Neither is dropping in on a former Republican president. So just what can John McCain do to draw attention away from his showy Democratic rival? Pick a running mate, perhaps.

AP - Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas plans to tell Barack Obama on Wednesday that he must immediately turn his attention to the Israeli-Palestinian conflict if he is elected U.S. president, or risk losing gains made in peace talks with Israel.

AP - Democratic presidential contender Barack Obama held a breakfast meeting Wednesday with Israeli Defense Minister Ehud Barak, the first event in a day packed with meetings and travel across Israel and the Palestinian territories.

AFP - French President Nicolas Sarkozy insisted Monday the EU will not force Ireland to vote again after its shock rejection of the bloc's new treaty, as he faced protests in Dublin.

AP - Democratic presidential candidate Barack Obama said Tuesday that security in Iraq has improved and that the United States urgently needs to turn its attention to Afghanistan.

AP - Europe is about to give Barack Obama one of the grandest of stages for statesmanship.