Reuters - Veteran Republican U.S. Sen. Ted Stevens was charged on Tuesday with concealing $250,000 of gifts from an oil services company and its top executive, the Justice Department said.

AP - Sen. Ted Stevens, the longest-serving Republican senator and a figure in Alaska politics since before statehood, was indicted Tuesday on seven counts of failing to disclose thousands of dollars in services he received from a company that helped renovate his home.

Reuters - An effort to break a Republican hold on U.S. election-year legislation that would aid medical research, help crack down on child pornography and advance other popular measures failed in the Senate on Monday.

AP - Under a Democratic dare, Senate Republicans on Monday blocked a bill that would aid victims of torture, disability and disease, insisting the legislation would add to the deficit and demanding that Congress first act to lower soaring gas prices.

U.S. News & World Report - Despite media raves about Barack Obama's weeklong trip to the Mideast and Europe, Republican strategists say his nation-hopping exposed major vulnerabilities that they hope to exploit in the fall.

AP - Obama rejects criticism of trip, says McCain moving his way on wars in Iraq and Afghanistan ... To clap or not to clap: When Obama speaks to minority journalists, that is the question ... Analysis: From Mideast to Europe, foreign leaders gave Obama a welcome fit for a president

AP - Republicans on Saturday blocked the Senate from considering a bill next week that would nearly double federal aid to help the poor pay heating and air-conditioning bills.

AP - Obama campaign cites Pentagon concerns in scrapping candidate's visit to wounded troops ... McCain meets with Dalai Lama, urges China to release Tibetan prisoners ... Ron Paul backers snap up tickets for alternative to GOP convention ...