WASHINGTON (Reuters) - The House of Representatives passed a massive housing rescue bill on Wednesday while the White House dropped a threat to veto it, paving the way for measures aimed at shoring up the worst U.S. housing market since the Great Depression.
BERLIN (Reuters) - Presidential candidate Barack Obama travels to Berlin on Thursday to give the only public speech of a week-long foreign tour, an outdoor address on transatlantic ties that is likely to draw tens of thousands.
WASHINGTON (Reuters) - Democrat Barack Obama has a 6-point lead over Republican John McCain in the presidential race as a growing percentage of Americans believe the country is headed in the wrong direction, according to an NBC News/Wall Street Journal poll released on Wednesday.
BROWNSVILLE, Texas (Reuters) - Hurricane Dolly moved inland after tearing into the South Texas coast on Wednesday with 95 mph (150 kph) winds, pouring torrential rain on the U.S.-Mexico border area before being downgraded to a tropical storm.
GUANTANAMO BAY U.S. NAVAL BASE, Cuba (Reuters) - A black-and-white interrogation video of Osama bin Laden's driver showed Salim Hamdan denying under questioning in a dark cell that he worked for al Qaeda.
WASHINGTON (Reuters) - Israeli Lt. Gen. Gabi Ashkenazi, on his first visit to Washington as Israel's top military officer, said on Wednesday it was crucial to block what he called "Iranian aggression" in the Middle East.
SINGAPORE (Reuters) - Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice said on Thursday after talks with North Korea that she believed Pyongyang was under no "illusions" it had to agree to a strong mechanism to verify its nuclear activities.
WASHINGTON (Reuters) - U.S. Attorney General Michael Mukasey said on Wednesday he had rejected a request from lawmakers that an outside special counsel investigate the case of a Canadian taken off a plane in New York and sent to Syria, where he says he was tortured.
WASHINGTON (Reuters) - The Pentagon on Wednesday sought to play down the seriousness of growing violence in Afghanistan but declined to say the United States and NATO were winning their fight against Taliban insurgents.
GENEVA (Reuters) - Urgent talks to salvage a global trade deal made "some progress" in the early hours of Thursday, ministers said, but officials warned the mood was dark behind closed doors at the World Trade Organisation.
