Politics - Reuters

LOS ANGELES (Reuters) - Republican presidential candidate John McCain beat Democratic rival Barack Obama in the crucial battle to attract U.S. television viewers during their race to the White House, according to figures released on Friday.

CINCINNATI (Reuters) - Trudy Tucker doesn't know if the back-to-back U.S. political conventions addressed the financial worries she has raising four children -- she was too busy to watch.

ST. PAUL (Reuters) - Police arrested 250 anti-war protesters on Thursday shortly before John McCain accepted the Republican presidential nomination at the party's convention a short distance away.

NEW YORK (Reuters) - Democratic presidential candidate, Sen. Barack Obama, should benefit from consumers' dissatisfaction with the weak national economy, according to Reuters/University of Michigan Surveys of Consumers.

ST. PAUL (Reuters) - Sen. John McCain said on Thursday many Americans were struggling to find jobs and pay rising food and fuel bills, and predicted the tax cuts he would support as president would spur economic growth.

NEW YORK (Reuters) - House Rep. Charles Rangel, chairman of the tax-writing Ways and Means Committee, failed to report $75,000 of income from a villa he owns in the Dominican Republic, his attorney said on Friday.

WASHINGTON (Reuters) - The Bush administration will withdraw a civilian nuclear pact with Russia soon as a penalty for its invasion of Georgia last month, a State Department official said on Friday.

WASHINGTON (Reuters) - The Bush administration on Friday sought $8 billion immediately from Congress to close a fast growing shortfall in tax receipts used to reimburse states for highway construction projects.

WASHINGTON (Reuters) - America's pain at the gasoline pump has been years in the making, but there will be a big push in Congress next week, when lawmakers return from summer break, to fix the problem by expanding offshore oil drilling.

WASHINGTON (Reuters) - Disgraced lobbyist Jack Abramoff was sentenced on Thursday to serve four more years in prison in a corruption scandal that rocked Washington's power elite and helped Republicans lose control of Congress.

ANCHORAGE, Alaska (Reuters) - A long-delayed natural gas pipeline championed by Gov. Sarah Palin that would carry supplies from Alaska to Canada and then to the lower 48 states exists in concept only and is years away from fruition.

ST. PAUL (Reuters) - Sarah Palin broke a five-day silence and talked her way into Republican hearts and minds. The Alaska governor plucked from relative obscurity by John McCain to be his vice presidential running mate for the Nov. 4 election pressed all the right buttons in a much anticipated speech on Wednesday at the party's national convention.

YORK, Pennsylvania (Reuters) - Democratic presidential nominee Barack Obama on Thursday shrugged off the criticisms from the Republican convention, saying he's been called worse on the basketball court.

ST. PAUL (Reuters) - Having harshly criticized Russia for invading Georgia, U.S. Republican presidential candidate John McCain said on Thursday he wanted good relations with Moscow and to avoid a return to the Cold War

ST. PAUL (Reuters) - Republicans John McCain and Sarah Palin kicked off a two-month battle for the White House on Friday with a promise that "change is coming," a theme co-opted from their Democratic rivals.

ORLANDO, Florida (Reuters) - Sen. Barack Obama got his first intelligence briefing as the Democratic U.S. presidential candidate this week and spy agencies are ready to do the same for Republican rival Sen. John McCain, a senior U.S. official said on Thursday.

MINNEAPOLIS (Reuters) - In her first public appearance since accepting the Republican Party nomination for vice president, Sarah Palin on Thursday promised that she and running mate John McCain will "shake things up" by controlling government spending.

WASHINGTON (Reuters) - The Bush administration still believes it can overcome significant opposition in Congress and win approval of trade deals with Colombia, Panama and South Korea before the end of the year, U.S. Trade Representative Susan Schwab said on Thursday.

ST. PAUL (Reuters) - He has been called a maverick, a hero, a survivor. John McCain, the longtime Arizona senator adds a new title on Thursday: Republican presidential nominee.