AP - Solid margins among women, minorities and young voters have powered Barack Obama to a 6 percentage point lead over John McCain in the presidential race, according to a poll released Tuesday.

AP - Republican presidential candidate John McCain opposes the $300 billion farm bill and subsidies for ethanol, positions that both supporters and opponents say might cost him votes he needs in the upper Midwest this November.

Reuters - Iran and the representative of six world powers talked by telephone on Monday without resolving a row over Tehran's sensitive nuclear work, which the Islamic Republic said would not be stopped.

AP - Forget the war for the White House for a moment. Among young people, Barack Obama appears to be beating John McCain in the battle for "cool."

AP - Will he or won't he? Vice President Dick Cheney is one of the nation's most prominent Republicans, but there are doubts about whether he will attend the GOP convention.

Politico - A new book by the author Ron Suskind claims that the White House ordered the CIA to forge a back-dated, handwritten letter from the head of Iraqi intelligence to Saddam Hussein.

AP - John McCain emphasized his independent streak and reformer credentials in a new TV commercial Tuesday as he sought to counter Democratic charges that he's the same as President Bush.

AP - Democratic candidate Barack Obama criticized Republican John McCain on Tuesday for taking a page out of "the Cheney playbook" on energy, overlooking his own support of oil-friendly policies that the unpopular vice president helped to craft.

AP - Sen. Hillary Rodham Clinton plans to campaign for Barack Obama in Nevada and Florida this month, events expected to be her first solo campaign appearances on Obama's behalf since she lost the Democratic nomination contest.

AP - A new poll finds Barack Obama is leading John McCain nationally by 6 percentage points thanks to big leads he is enjoying among women, minorities and younger voters.

AFP - Any new attempt to grasp the grail of a world trade pact will probably have to wait until next year, after elections in the United States and India, despite some calls for more talks now, economists say.

AP - One of the biggest mysteries surrounding the anthrax scare of 2001 — why the anthrax-laced letters were dropped off at a mailbox in New Jersey — may be connected to a sorority chapter at Princeton University.

AP - Sen. Ted Stevens returned home Monday to a cheering crowd, declaring his innocence and insisting his re-election campaign was "full speed ahead."