Elections

WASHINGTON - More than 2.1 million drop-side cribs by Stork Craft Manufacturing are being recalled, the biggest crib recall in U.S history, following reports of four infant suffocations.

WASHINGTON - Big banks are roaring back. At crisis' edge last year, they are repaying billions of dollars dumped into their vaults to rescue them. Dividend checks are accumulating at the Treasury. Taxpayers won't recoup the full sum of the government's unprecedented infusion to the financial sector, but the returns are ahead of schedule.

WASHINGTON - President Barack Obama held a "rigorous final meeting" with his Afghanistan war council and is expected to announce his revised strategy for the eight-year-old conflict just after his Thanksgiving break.

Call it “pay as you fight.”

WASHINGTON - Behind the elaborate ceremony of the Indian prime minister's state visit Tuesday, Manmohan Singh and President Barack Obama will be working to smooth over differences on climate change and U.S. ties with Indian rivals China and Pakistan.

WASHINGTON - Most Americans don't expect a health care overhaul to affect their lives directly, but those who worry about the fallout outnumber those expecting to come out ahead, a poll out Tuesday has found.

WASHINGTON - A lot more Americans are feeling stressed out by debt this holiday season, raising the glum likelihood they'll behave like Scrooge rather than Santa.

WASHINGTON - A technology originally developed for premature babies may be helping to save some of the sickest swine flu patients by rerouting their blood so their lungs can rest.

WASHINGTON - In the history of U.S.-India relations, there's been plenty of broken bread and even a few crumbled Triscuits.

WASHINGTON - President Barack Obama hosts Indian Prime Minister Manmohan Singh (MAHN'-moh-hahn SING) at the White House on Tuesday, the first state visit of his presidency.

BAGHDAD (Reuters) - Iraq will be unable to hold a national election in January as planned, a poll official said on Tuesday, heaping more uncertainty on a vote meant to cement democracy and pave the way for a partial U.S. troop withdrawal.

Former CNN host Lou Dobbs fueled already rampant speculation about his political future Monday, sending the clearest signals yet that he's mulling a bid for president—and leaving third-party political operatives salivating over the possibility of a celebrity recruit for the 2012 campaign.

WASHINGTON - Failure is not an option on health care, a leading Democratic senator said Monday, even as Republicans turned up the heat on moderates who hold the fate of the legislation in their hands.

WASHINGTON (Reuters) - U.S. President Barack Obama honored a group of women Monday who have confronted Zimbabwean President Robert Mugabe and said they had defied a dictator.

WASHINGTON (Reuters) - U.S. acceptance of a treaty banning landmines is "long, long overdue" and President Barack Obama should use a 10-year review this weekend to announce plans to join the accord, anti-landmines campaigners said on Monday.

SACRAMENTO, Calif. - Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger has nominated a Republican state senator to fill California's recently vacated lieutenant governor seat.

LOS ANGELES (AFP) - The daughter of former US presidential candidate John Kerry will not be charged after being arrested on suspicion of driving under the influence, Los Angeles prosecutors have said.

WASHINGTON - Two Senate leaders trying to steer a pair of President Barack Obama's high-stakes initiatives through Congress are being dogged by re-election worries, and it's not clear whether their legislative prominence will help or hurt them.

WASHINGTON - President Barack Obama is getting used to leaving events before they end — even when he doesn't have to.

WASHINGTON - President Barack Obama praised representatives of a women's organization whose members have been beaten by Zimbabwe President Robert Mugabe's police force and face court trials for challenging Zimbabwe's government. He said their grassroots efforts could improve the African country.

MINNEAPOLIS - Promising both "true brotherhood" and "fun," several Somali men convinced fellow immigrants in Minneapolis to return to their East African homeland and take up arms with a terrorist group, according to federal charges unsealed Monday against eight individuals.

WASHINGTON - President Barack Obama said Monday the nation's economy is in good shape for the long term thanks to "core strengths" such as its universities, its innovation and a dynamic workforce.

WASHINGTON (AFP) - The United States is "deeply involved" in efforts to help Iraqi rivals adopt an electoral law, but elections may be delayed, Secretary of Stage Hillary Clinton said Monday.

WASHINGTON (Reuters) - President Barack Obama assured Americans on Monday that boosting jobs was a top priority, but gave no specifics about how to meet this goal that some economists say warrants more government spending.

Trevor Francis, communications director of the Republican National Committee, abruptly resigned Monday, and two Republican strategists familiar with the situation said he was pushed out because Chairman Michael Steele didn’t feel he was getting enough credit for the GOP’s electoral success earlier this month.

Many Republicans have already announced their interest in running for the seat currently held by Rep. Dennis Moore (D-Kan.), who unexpectedly [@url@announced Monday morning@@http://www.kansascity.com/842/story/1587369.html@] that he would not run for re-election after six terms in the House.

It's been a bad few weeks for the Obama administration when it comes to climate change, as the White House has found itself trapped between a stalled Senate and constant hammering from world leaders on a lack of leadership on global warming.

TOPEKA, Kan. - U.S. Rep. Dennis Moore, the only Democrat in Kansas' congressional delegation, said Monday he will not seek a seventh term, calling it "time for a new generation of leadership."

WASHINGTON (Reuters) - U.S. lawmakers and exiled Chinese dissidents urged President Barack Obama on Monday to intervene with China's government on behalf of Jiang Tianyong, a rights activist who tried to see Obama while he was in China last week.