BY SHERYL GAY STOLBERG AND JANIE LORBER
New York Times

WASHINGTON — Desiree Rogers, President Barack Obama’s social secretary, will not testify on Capitol Hill about how a couple of aspiring reality television show contestants crashed a state dinner, the White House…

BY JACKIE CALMES
New York Times

WASHINGTON — Under pressure from Democrats in Congress, the Obama administration has begun talks with lawmakers about tapping unspent money from the government’s financial bailout program to help offset additional spending to create jobs and aid…

BY CHERYL WITTENAUER
Associated Press

Anti-abortion activists are urging Roman Catholic bishops to rebuke Catholic lawmakers if they support publicly financed abortion in the national health care bill.

As part of a 14-state tour, members of Insurrecta Nex were in St. Louis on…

BY ERICA WERNER
Associated Press

WASHINGTON  — Senators debating health care legislation are headed for a clash over abortion, the issue that threatened to derail the bill in the House.

Anticipating the showdown, hundreds of abortion rights supporters gathered on Capitol Hill Wednesday…

BY DAVID ESPO
Associated Press

WASHINGTON — With a Senate showdown looming, the politically potent AARP rode to the rescue of Democrats on Wednesday, supporting $460 billion in Medicare cuts to help pay for landmark health care legislation.

As Republicans pressed to restore…

BY ROBERT PEAR AND DAVID M. HERSZENHORN
New York Times News

WASHINGTON — After more than two days of Senate debate on sweeping health care legislation, Democrats and Republicans said Wednesday that they had broken an impasse over the seemingly simple question…

BY RICHARD A. OPPEL JR.
New York Times

KABUL, Afghanistan — A U.S. military official said Wednesday that the bulk of new combat forces approved by President Barack Obama would be sent to southern Afghanistan, an area including Helmand and Kandahar provinces…

BY STEWART M. POWELL
Houston Chronicle

WASHINGTON — Fort Hood-based Army combat units may be designated to join President Obama’s 30,000-strong troop surge to Afghanistan within a matter of days, with hurry-up deployments early next year, a Pentagon spokesman said Wednesday.

Marine Maj.…

By Nancy A. Youssef
McClatchy Newspapers

WASHINGTON — Getting 30,000-35,000 troops into some of the world’s most backward terrain in six months will be the most ambitious troop movement yet in the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan, and it will compel an…

BY SLOBODAN LEKIC AND ANGELA CHARLTON
Associated Press

BRUSSELS  — President Barack Obama won flattering words but little solid firepower from European allies for his new Afghanistan strategy Wednesday, as small countries pitched in small troop reinforcements but bigger armies held back.

The…