VoteKansas.org

WASHINGTON (Reuters) - Legislation to give the U.S. Food and Drug Administration broad authority to regulate cigarettes and other forms of tobacco cleared the U.S. House of Representatives on Wednesday.

JERUSALEM (Reuters) - Israel's right-wing Likud leader Benjamin Netanyahu called on Thursday for an early election to replace Prime Minister Ehud Olmert, whose pledge to resign has deepened uncertainty over Middle East peacemaking.

UNITED NATIONS (Reuters) - The U.N. Security Council is set to renew a mandate for peacekeepers in Sudan's war-ravaged Darfur region on Thursday in a resolution calling for redoubled efforts to end a 5-year humanitarian disaster.

HELSINKI (Reuters) - Aurelia no longer brings her four-year-old daughter with her to beg on the streets of Finland's capital Helsinki. The 35-year-old Roma is too scared the little girl will be taken from her and put in foster care.

GUANTANAMO BAY U.S. NAVAL BASE, Cuba (Reuters) - The first prisoner tried at the Guantanamo war crimes court pledged a loyalty oath to Osama bin Laden, according to a U.S. naval investigator whose testimony on Wednesday might not be heard by the jury.

SPRINGFIELD, Missouri (Reuters) - Democrat Barack Obama accused White House rival John McCain of trying on Wednesday to scare voters with attacks on his character, as McCain launched a new ad labeling Obama more of a celebrity than a leader.

WASHINGTON (Reuters) - The United States on Wednesday tried to ease its way out of a dispute between South Korea and Japan over a cluster of islands both countries claim, which had threatened to mar U.S. President George W. Bush's visit to Seoul next week.

WASHINGTON (Reuters) - President George W. Bush on Wednesday signed into law a big expansion of U.S. efforts to fight AIDS in Africa and elsewhere, warning that defeating this scourge requires an unprecedented investment over generations.

WASHINGTON (Reuters) - U.S. presidential candidates have spent some $50 million and aired more than 100,000 TV ads since the start of the general election campaign in early June, far outpacing the rate of the 2004 campaign, a report showed on Wednesday.

WASHINGTON (Reuters) - A partisan election-year battle over high gasoline prices and a Republican push to open more U.S. coastal waters and federal land to oil and gas drilling has brought work in the U.S. Senate to a halt.

KANSAS CITY, Mo., July 30, Reuters - Republican White House hopeful John McCain's campaign said on Wednesday the indictment of fellow Republican Sen. Ted Stevens was a "sad reminder" the next president will face a tough task rebuilding the public trust.

WASHINGTON (Reuters) - The White House on Wednesday made a new push for expanded offshore drilling to help lower fuel prices, days after new government data showed American petroleum product exports hit record levels.

JERUSALEM (Reuters) - Ehud Olmert said on Wednesday he would resign as Israel's prime minister after his ruling party chooses a new leader in September, a move that plunged Middle East peace talks and Israeli politics into limbo.

ASUNCION (Reuters) - Pope Benedict granted an unprecedented waiver to allow a former bishop to serve as president of Paraguay without violating church rules, a Vatican representative said on Wednesday.

BRUSSELS (Reuters) - The European Union's trade chief Peter Mandelson said on Wednesday the United States helped to bring down global trade talks this week when its negotiators shunned a compromise proposal at a key juncture in the talks.

BRUSSELS (Reuters) - The European Union's trade chief Peter Mandelson said on Wednesday the United States helped to bring down global trade talks this week when its negotiators shunned a compromise proposal at a key juncture in the talks.

GUANTANAMO BAY U.S. NAVAL BASE, Cuba (Reuters) - A driver for Osama bin Laden lacked the education and skills for admission to the al Qaeda leader's inner circle, a defense witness testified on Wednesday at his Guantanamo war-crimes trial.

WASHINGTON (Reuters) - A bill aimed at preventing excessive speculation in oil and other futures trading did not get enough votes to pass in the U.S. House of Representatives on Wednesday, as Republicans complained the measure did not also open more offshore areas to oil drilling.

AURORA, Colo. (Reuters) - Republican presidential candidate John McCain opened up a new line of attack on Democratic rival Barack Obama on Wednesday, labeling him a celebrity without the strength to bring change to Washington.

SPRINGFIELD, Missouri (Reuters) - Democrat Barack Obama pushed his plans for middle-class economic relief in a Republican area of Missouri on Wednesday, and said White House rival John McCain was trying to scare voters about an Obama presidency.