Politics News

CEDARBURG, Wis. - John McCain and Sarah Palin on Friday cast the new Republican presidential ticket as a team of determined reformers eager to challenge Washington's political establishment.

DURYEA, Pa. - Democrat Barack Obama called Republican rival John McCain's acceptance speech the final piece of an out-of-touch convention that focused on its nominee's biography instead of the struggles of the middle class.

WASHINGTON - Just four in 10 say Republican vice presidential nominee Sarah Palin has enough experience to be president, while nearly two-thirds say so about Joe Biden, her Democratic counterpart, a poll showed Friday.

PHILADELPHIA - Vice presidential nominee Joe Biden is promoting the Democrats' economic plan as he visits southeastern Pennsylvania.

John McCain didn’t soar with his rhetoric, didn’t bash his opponent and didn’t sugarcoat the Republican track record of recent years.

WASHINGTON - President Bush will announce his decision on future troops levels in Iraq next week and is expected to largely follow the recommendations of military leaders to reduce the number by up to 8,000 by mid-January.

WASHINGTON - President Bush is keeping tabs on the Gulf Coast's recovery from Hurricane Gustav while monitoring the threat from two other looming storms, Hanna and the even more-powerful Ike.

WASHINGTON - President Bush "rarely was the voice of realism" on the Iraq war and "too often failed to lead," according to a new book by Bob Woodward examining how the president handled the war effort during some of the conflict's most difficult years.

WASHINGTON - President Bush is poised to punish Moscow for its invasion of Georgia by canceling a once-celebrated deal for civilian nuclear cooperation between the U.S. and Russia.

KIEV, Ukraine - Vice President Dick Cheney insisted that Georgia will join NATO and backed its attempts to rebuild from its war with Russia on Thursday, using a trip to former Soviet republics as a show of U.S. support for their pro-Western leaders.

WASHINGTON - Rep. Charles Rangel paid no mortgage interest on a beach resort property for about 15 years, a lawyer for the powerful House committee chairman said Friday.

CAMDEN, N.J. - U.S. Rep. Rob Andrews said Thursday he intends to seek re-election after all, replacing his wife on the ballot for his congressional seat.

ST. PAUL, Minn. - The Republican National Convention's dominant theme of John McCain as war hero was reinforced with a documentary-style film shown to convention delegates before the senator came to the stage to accept his party's presidential nomination.

Sept. 4 (Bloomberg) -- Senator John McCain, accepting his party's presidential nomination, said he was the candidate to change the way Washington does business and vowed to ``restore the principles'' of a Republican Party that has ``lost the trust'' of the American people.

The back-to-back Democratic and Republican extragavanzas gave both parties a chance to put their best foot forward as the general election campaign gets underway. If their competing efforts are a wash, the advantage will remains with the Democrats as far as the push to expand their congressional majorities.

WASHINGTON - Capitol Police said Friday they had detained a man after a rifle and an improvised explosive device were discovered in his vehicle near the Capitol building.

WASHINGTON - Federal aviation officials said Friday they are investigating 17 cases in which 11 air carriers did not comply with government safety directives.

WASHINGTON - Broken and disgraced, lobbyist Jack Abramoff will spend four years in prison for his role in a corruption scandal that upended Washington politics and contributed to the Republicans' loss of Congress in 2006.

Lawmakers, lobbyists, Bush administration officials, congressional staffers and businessmen caught up in the Jack Abramoff public corruption probe:

WASHINGTON - People calling a federal phone number to order duck stamps are instead greeted by a phone-sex line, due to a printing error the government says would be too expensive to correct.

AVIGNON, France - European Union nations called for an international probe Friday to find out which country should shoulder responsibility for starting the conflict between Georgia and Russia.

TAIPEI (AFP) - Taiwan on Friday denied a media report it routinely offers extra aid to allies in exchange for their support in its campaign to join the United Nations.

LISBON (AFP) - US Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice said Friday that she was "very satisfied" with work between the European Union and United States to counter Russia's military intervention in Georgia.

LUANDA (AFP) - Angola's first peacetime election Friday was marred by a chaotic start as the ruling party looked set to keep its more than three-decade-long grip on power in Africa's top oil producer.

MANILA (Reuters) - Philippine Muslim guerrillas halted a United Nations convoy and seized food supplies intended for tens of thousands of people displaced by weeks of fighting on a southern island, police said on Friday.

MEXICO CITY (AFP) - Mexico's Supreme Court compared the practices of US retail giant Walmart in Mexico to employer-worker relations during the dictatorship of former president Porfirio Diaz.

CLEVELAND - A man who wrote hundreds of threatening letters over 20 years to black and mixed-race men — including Supreme Court Justice Clarence Thomas and New York Yankees shortstop Derek Jeter — was sentenced Tuesday to three years and 10 months in prison.

WASHINGTON (AFP) - Four Britons released from Guantanamo in 2004 after two years' detention, requested the US Supreme Court to rule on the right of prisoners "to worship and ... not to be tortured."

WASHINGTON - Top doctors at the helm of one of the nation's most influential medical journals are giving the Supreme Court some unsolicited legal advice about a major case.

ANCHORAGE, Alaska - The U.S. Supreme Court on Tuesday declined to decide whether Exxon Mobil Corp. must pay interest on punitive damages awarded in the nation's worst oil spill.

ST. PAUL, Minn. - John McCain set a new tone for the Republican National Convention Thursday, with speakers abandoning many of the tough words aimed at Barack Obama that had characterized the previous night. But the picture they painted blurred some facts.

HARRISBURG, Pa. - Barack Obama's campaign plans to employ high-profile female supporters in an effort to blunt GOP vice presidential candidate Sarah Palin's potential to persuade women to vote Republican.

Not since Jacqueline Kennedy first donned her signature pillbox hats have fashionistas paid such close attention to what the women of politics are wearing.

ST. PAUL, Minn. - Shortly after a priest's opening prayer and a screening of a short film on John McCain's faith, Sen. Sam Brownback stepped to the microphone and didn't waste words.

A week ago, most Americans had never heard of Alaska Governor Sarah Palin. Now, following a Vice Presidential acceptance speech viewed live by more than 40 million people, Palin is viewed favorably by 58% of American voters. The latest Rasmussen Reports national telephone survey finds that 37% hold an unfavorable view of the self-described hockey mom.