AP - President Bush's popularity has tanked, but boy can he still bring in the cash.

Reuters - The United Nations pledged on Wednesday to hasten its cautious steps in helping Iraq rebuild, five years after a devastating bomb pushed it to pull foreign staff out of the country.

AP - Before Julia Child became known to the world as a leading chef, she admitted at least one failing when applying for a job as a spy: impulsiveness.

AP - Still sore from an epic primary battle, some of Hillary Rodham Clinton's supporters aren't buying the unity theme planned for the Democratic National Convention.

Politico - Democrats moved one step closer to a full roster of convention speakers Wednesday, tapping former Virginia Gov. Mark Warner to deliver the keynote address at the party gathering in Denver later this month.

AP - Democrat Barack Obama's campaign plans to air a new TV ad during the Olympic Games that spotlights his proposals for job growth, middle-class tax breaks and other economic areas.

AP - Add another book to the pile from this year's presidential campaign, although this one is an especially quick and easy read.

AP - Democratic candidate Barack Obama doesn't want the embattled mayor of Detroit on hand when Obama accepts the party's presidential nomination in Denver.

AP - Hillary Rodham Clinton's name will be placed in nomination along with nominee-in-waiting Barack Obama at the Democratic National Convention, an emblematic move intended to unite the party after a divisive primary.

The Christian Science Monitor - Russia's blitz into the former Soviet republic of Georgia has exposed starkly the limits of US military power and geopolitical influence in the era following the invasion of Iraq.

AP - Before Julia Child became known to the world as a leading chef, she admitted at least one failing when applying for a job as a spy: impulsiveness.

AP - The first sisters in Congress, Loretta and Linda Sanchez of California, say they had to fend off propositions and patronizing from men to get there and to stay.

AP - John McCain's chief foreign policy adviser and his business partner lobbied the senator or his staff on 49 occasions in a 3 1/2-year span while being paid hundreds of thousands of dollars by the government of the former Soviet republic of Georgia.

AP - House Speaker Nancy Pelosi criticized former Democratic Sen. Joe Lieberman Wednesday for campaigning against Barack Obama, calling Lieberman's characterizations of the presumptive Democratic presidential nominee "totally irresponsible."