Politics News

WASHINGTON - President Bush, addressing the NAACP after skipping its convention for five years, said Thursday he knows racism exists in America and that many black voters distrust his Republican Party.

WASHINGTON - President Bush urged Sudan on Thursday to accept a U.N. peacekeeping force in Darfur province to replace overstretched African Union troops. He acknowledged there was much work to be done before that could happen.

Text of President Bush's speech at the NAACP's annual convention Thursday in Washington.

WASHINGTON - After waiting 5 1/2 years to make good on a veto threat, President Bush used his first to underscore his politically risky stand against federal funding for the embryonic stem cell research that most Americans support.

OKLAHOMA CITY - A man was accused Wednesday in an indictment of making threats against former President Clinton.

ST. LOUIS - Winning votes in the Midwest will be crucial to Democratic hopes to regain power in Washington in November, party Chairman Howard Dean told about 400 young people at the College Democrats National Convention on Thursday.

HARTFORD, Conn. - Democratic Sen. Joe Lieberman is enlisting help in his re-election campaign from former President Clinton, the man he criticized in 1998 for "disgraceful behavior" in a sex scandal with a White House intern.

WASHINGTON - Signaling a new phase in the struggle for control of Congress, House Democrats have reserved time for more than $30 million worth of campaign advertising this fall in roughly two dozen congressional districts, with a heavy emphasis on the Northeast and Midwest.

WASHINGTON - The 1965 Voting Rights Act, which opened voting booths to millions of black Americans, won a 25-year extension from Congress Thursday as Republicans sought to improve their standing with minorities before the fall election.

TOLEDO, Ohio - A former councilman and one-time mayoral candidate was convicted of spray-painting anti-war slogans on highway overpasses.

HARTFORD, Conn. - Democratic Sen. Joe Lieberman is enlisting help in his re-election campaign from former President Clinton, the man he criticized in 1998 for "disgraceful behavior" in a sex scandal with a White House intern.

WASHINGTON - Signaling a new phase in the struggle for control of Congress, House Democrats have reserved time for more than $30 million worth of campaign advertising this fall in roughly two dozen congressional districts, with a heavy emphasis on the Northeast and Midwest.

WASHINGTON - The 1965 Voting Rights Act, which opened voting booths to millions of black Americans, won a 25-year extension from Congress Thursday as Republicans sought to improve their standing with minorities before the fall election.

WASHINGTON - Convicted child molesters would be listed on a national Internet database and would face a felony charge for failing to update their whereabouts under a bill the Senate approved Thursday.

WASHINGTON - Federal plans to help evacuate the elderly and ill from a disaster do not cover nursing home patients and provide inadequate transportation, congressional investigators reported Thursday.

WASHINGTON - A Justice Department official who slashed the amount of money being sought from tobacco companies made misleading statements to Congress, says a former government lawyer who handled a landmark lawsuit against the industry.

WASHINGTON - A federal health official worked with drug maker Merck to discredit a government whistleblower who publicized safety risks associated with the painkiller Vioxx, a lawmaker alleged Wednesday in seeking an investigation.

The following recalls have been announced:

WASHINGTON - The new head of the government's Yucca Mountain nuclear waste dump has doubts about a Senate plan for temporary storage of highly radioactive nuclear waste pending completion of Yucca.

WASHINGTON - The fighting in the Middle East has prompted the FBI to increase its focus on the worldwide activities of the Islamic militant group Hezbollah, but the bureau said Wednesday it has no credible intelligence pointing to an imminent attack in the United States.

WASHINGTON - The United States held the line Thursday against a quick cease-fire deal in the Middle East, increasingly isolated as world powers and the United Nations demanded an immediate end to fighting between Israel and Hezbollah militants.

WASHINGTON (Reuters) - The proposed $5 billion sale to Pakistan of F-16 fighter jets will help shore up ties to a key American ally in the war on terror, a senior State Department told a Congressional hearing on Thursday.

WASHINGTON (Reuters) - President George W. Bush is considering a new effort to have John Bolton confirmed as the U.S. ambassador to the United Nations, a year after appointing him to the job over Senate objections, aides said on Thursday.

WASHINGTON (Reuters) - President George W. Bush called on Sudan on Thursday to allow a United Nations peacekeeping presence to help stem the violence in Darfur.

WASHINGTON - United Nations Ambassador John Bolton's most vocal critic in the Senate now says Bolton should be renominated without a fight.

WASHINGTON - Congressional Republicans on Tuesday proposed a $100 million plan to let poor children leave struggling schools and attend private schools at public expense.

JACKSON, Miss. - The death penalty appeal of Bobby Glen Wilcher will be among the first cases the U.S. Supreme Court will discuss when justices return from vacation this fall.

WASHINGTON - Dorothy Clark Blackmun, whose late husband wrote the Supreme Court decision that legalized abortion nationwide, has died. She was 95.

WASHINGTON (AFP) - President George W. Bush has nominated an army general who currently oversees "war on terror" detention operations at Guantanamo Bay, Cuba, to the post of Supreme Allied Commander Europe, the Pentagon said.

BOSTON (AFP) - The Massachusetts Supreme Court dealt a blow to same-sex marriages in the only US state where they are authorized by allowing the possible introduction of a constitutional amendment banning the unions.

WASHINGTON - The House, displaying a foreign affairs solidarity lacking on issues like Iraq, voted overwhelmingly Thursday to support Israel in its confrontation with Hezbollah guerrillas.

WASHINGTON - President Bush, addressing the NAACP after skipping its convention for five years, said Thursday he knows racism exists in America and that many black voters distrust his Republican Party.

WASHINGTON - The 1965 Voting Rights Act, which opened voting booths to millions of black Americans, won a 25-year extension from Congress Thursday as Republicans sought to improve their standing with minorities before the fall election.

HARTFORD, Conn. - Suddenly trailing in the polls, Democratic Sen. Joe Lieberman is enlisting the help of former President Clinton, the man he criticized in 1998 for "disgraceful behavior" in a sex scandal with a White House intern.

WASHINGTON - The fundraising organization that helped vault former Rep. Tom DeLay to GOP leadership and distributed election money to numerous fellow Republicans has been fined for campaign finance violations and is shutting down.