AP - Democratic presidential candidate Barack Obama on Friday pushed for a windfall profits tax to fund $1,000 emergency rebate checks for consumers besieged by high energy costs, a counter to Republican rival John McCain's call for more offshore drilling in coastal states like Florida.

AP - Republican presidential candidate John McCain is warning an influential black organization that rival Barack Obama's ideas are not always as impressive as his rhetoric.

AP - The U.N. Security Council voted Wednesday to end an 8-year-long peacekeeping mission between Eritrea and Ethiopia despite continuing tensions, a move that the United Nations' chief has warned could lead to a new war.

AP - A federal judge on Thursday rejected President Bush's contention that senior White House advisers are immune from subpoenas, siding with Congress' power to investigate the executive branch and handing a victory to Democrats probing the dismissal of nine federal prosecutors.

AP - Under indictment and watching some Republican colleagues tiptoe away from him, Alaska Sen. Ted Stevens is counting on speed to keep corruption allegations from lingering until Election Day and ending his storied political career.

AP - Republican presidential candidate John McCain expressed pride Thursday in a new campaign ad that compares Barack Obama to a pair of Hollywood celebrities, but defended his Democratic opponent after a voter said Obama "terrifies me."

AP - Democratic presidential candidate Barack Obama seized on a record oil company profit to argue that rival John McCain offers only tax breaks for Big Oil and "short-term gimmicks" to consumers struggling with soaring gasoline prices.

AP - John McCain accused Barack Obama of playing politics with race on Thursday, raising the explosive issue after the first black candidate with a serious chance of winning the White House claimed Republicans will try to scare voters by saying he "doesn't look like all those other presidents on the dollar bills."

AP - Ludacris' new song, "Politics as Usual," may have cost him one of his biggest fans, Democratic presidential hopeful Barack Obama.

AP - Barack Obama is once again betting that his eloquence can persuade price-weary consumers — read that as voters — to take the long view and not jump at a short-term fix when it comes to soaring energy prices.

AFP - Eight European Union nations have made an unprecedented move to boost cooperation on divorce laws with the aim of easing proceedings for couples of different nationality, a diplomat said Wednesday.

AP - Americans love their cars, and so apparently does Uncle Sam. He's got 642,233 of them.

Politico - Barack Obama’s critics laid down the foundations of the strategy months ago: The Republican National Committee started the “Audacity Watch” back in April, and Karl Rove later fueled the attack by describing the first-term Illinois senator as “coolly arrogant.”