Politics News

DENVER - Barack Obama stands before delegates and the nation Thursday — the 45th anniversary of Martin Luther King Jr.'s historic "I Have a Dream" speech — to accept the Democratic presidential nomination, the first black man to claim such a prize.

DENVER - Sen. Barack Obama dropped in on his own party at the Democratic convention a day early Wednesday to praise his wife, his former rival, and former President Bill Clinton for going to bat for him.

DENVER - Joe Biden accepted the Democratic vice presidential nomination Wednesday night and declared that the challenges America faces require "more than a good soldier" in the White House, hailing Barack Obama as a wise leader who can deliver the change the nation needs.

WASHINGTON - The Bush administration is raising the stakes in a court fight that could change the balance of power between the White House and Congress.

WASHINGTON - A federal judge overseeing cases against dozens of Guantanamo Bay detainees said Wednesday that he fears the public — and the detainees themselves — will be locked out of the courtroom when evidence in the case is scrutinized for the first time.

CRAWFORD, Texas - In an escalating war of words, President Bush on Tuesday urged Russia to reconsider its "irresponsible decision" to shower independent status on two breakaway Georgian provinces.

CLEVELAND - Ohio Gov. Ted Strickland has ordered a special election Nov. 18 to replace the late U.S. Rep. Stephanie Tubbs Jones.

LAS VEGAS - Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid said Wednesday that Republican John McCain "doesn't have the temperament to be president."

ANCHORAGE, Alaska - Don Young, Alaska's lone congressman for the last 35 years, remained locked in a tight race with the lieutenant governor Wednesday, a day after the state's primary election, and the winner may not be decided for days.

WASHINGTON - A government safety group is warning parents not to use a Pennsylvania company's baby bassinets after two babies were trapped and strangled in the product.

WASHINGTON - More than a quarter of the U.S. intelligence agencies' employees are outside contractors, hired to fill in gaps in the military and civilian work force, according to a survey of the 16 intelligence agencies.

WASHINGTON - A KGB spy who switched allegiances at the height of the Cold War and was considered by the CIA as its "most valuable and economical defector" has died.

By being the most populous country in the European Union, a title now held by Germany. By 2060, demographic trends will change the face of the region

UNITED NATIONS - The U.N. Security Council voted unanimously Wednesday to keep a peacekeeping force in Lebanon for another year, calling for stepped-up efforts to achieve a permanent cease-fire and long-term resolution of the 2006 Israel-Hezbollah war.

THE HAGUE, Netherlands - The Yugoslav war crimes tribunal, set up by the United Nations to prosecute those responsible for atrocities in the Balkan wars, on Wednesday summoned a former prosecution spokeswoman on contempt-of-court charges.

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.

DENVER - Former President Clinton gave his full-throated endorsement to Barack Obama's bid for the White House on Wednesday, telling delegates to the Democratic convention that Obama is "ready to lead America and restore American leadership in the world."

DENVER — The Clintons have left the building. Finally.

DENVER - Sen. Barack Obama dropped in on his own party at the Democratic convention a day early Wednesday to praise his wife, his former rival, and former President Bill Clinton for going to bat for him.