AP - Claire McCaskill, senator from Missouri, is hardly a household name outside her home state. But Barack Obama knows who she is.

AP - The U.S.-led coalition in Afghanistan says its warplanes have killed more than 22 militants in the country's troubled east.

AP - A roadside bomb killed three American soldiers and an interpreter north of Baghdad, the U.S. military said Wednesday, and Iraqi police reported 14 Shiite gunmen were arrested after fighting south of the capital.

AP - Federal Reserve Chairman Ben Bernanke and his colleagues are updating Teddy Roosevelt's admonition to speak softly and carry a big stick. The Fed policymakers are starting to raise their voices while brandishing the stick even though they don't appear ready to use it.

AP - Saying the world can "shout as loud as they like," President Robert Mugabe refused to give into pressure from Africa and the West and vowed to go ahead with this week's runoff election, even though his opponent quit the race.

AFP - Two rockets fired from the Hamas-ruled Gaza Strip slammed into southern Israel on Tuesday as an Egyptian-brokered truce between Israel and the Islamist movement entered its sixth day.

AFP - Zimbabwe's government defied global criticism on Tuesday by vowing to push ahead with a presidential run-off election this week even as the opposition leader remained holed up in the Dutch embassy.

Reuters - U.S. radio personality Don Imus on Tuesday defended linking a football player's race to brushes with the police as Imus tried to dampen a brewing race controversy over remarks he made one day earlier.

Reuters - Consumer sentiment slid to a 16-year low in June while house prices suffered record annual drops in April, according to data Tuesday that suggested a retrenchment in spending that will keep squelching economic growth.

Reuters - An Israeli guard on the perimeter of a farewell airport ceremony for French President Nicolas Sarkozy shot himself dead on Tuesday, causing a security stir but not endangering the visiting leader, police said.

Reuters - The U.S. House of Representatives on Tuesday approved a bill that would shave billions of dollars in reimbursement from health plans that contract with the federal Medicare program.

Reuters - Midwest governors pleaded with the White House on Tuesday for more help to counter billions of dollars in damages from floods that drowned parts of the U.S. farm heartland and drove thousands from their homes.

Reuters - Zimbabwean President Robert Mugabe on Tuesday defied mounting pressure from both inside and outside Africa to call off Friday's presidential election, saying he had a legal obligation to go ahead.

Reuters - Republican presidential candidate John McCain on Tuesday ran into opposition in environmentally conscious California to his policy switch in favor of U.S. offshore oil drilling.