AP - The State Department must develop a "comprehensive, long-term strategy" to meet the public's rising demand for passports and avoid a repeat of the frustrating backlog fiasco of last summer, congressional investigators have concluded.

AFP - White House hopeful Barack Obama fired back at Republican foe John McCain in a new row over Iraq, as his Europe and Middle East tour Friday took him to France, after a massive campaign event in Berlin.

Reuters - Home foreclosure filings rose 14
percent in the second quarter, the eighth consecutive quarterly
climb, and more than doubled from the same period a
year-earlier, real estate data firm RealtyTrac said on Friday.

Reuters - New Pakistani Prime Minister Yousaf
Raza Gilani can expect U.S. demands for action against
militants in tribal lands on the Afghan border, along with
usual statements of support, when he visits Washington next
week.