WASHINGTON Top Bush administration officials are pressing the president to direct U.S. troops in Afghanistan to be more aggressive in pursuing militants into Pakistan on foot as part of a proposed radical shift in regional counterterrorism strategy, The Associated Press has learned.

WASHINGTON The United States urged Russia on Friday to halt aircraft and missile attacks in Georgia's breakaway region of South Ossetia and withdraw its combat forces from Georgian territory as the situation in the former Soviet state verged on full-scale war.

DES MOINES, Iowa The major candidates for president on Friday called on Russia and Georgia to end their military action and appealed for more diplomatic efforts aimed at avoiding a full-scale war.

WASHINGTON Former Democratic presidential candidate John Edwards on Friday admitted to an extramarital affair while his wife was battling cancer. He denied fathering the woman's daughter.

DES MOINES, Iowa Republican presidential candidate John McCain didn't mince words Friday at the Iowa State Fair, telling corn producers he didn't want to subsidize their ethanol but was eager to help market farm products around the world.

JOHNSON CITY, Tenn. Being linked to "big oil" turned into a big problem for Tennessee Republican freshman Rep. David Davis, who became the first congressman from that state to lose in a primary in more than four decades.

PEARL, Miss. They're not exactly rooting for Barack Obama, but prominent white supremacists anticipate a boost to their cause if he becomes the first black president. His election, they say, would trigger a backlash - whites rising up, a revolution of sorts - that they think is long overdue.

MIAMI Two people closest to a man charged with threatening to assassinate Democratic presidential candidate Barack Obama said Friday he has no violent tendencies and would never have seriously threatened violence against anyone.

WASHINGTON Defense Secretary Robert Gates has endorsed a new five-year, $17 billion plan to increase the size of the Afghan army by about 50,000 troops.

TITLE: "Painful."

WASHINGTON What happens if the Senate is supposed to meet and there aren't any senators around?

IN THE HEADLINES

WASHINGTON Pilots are complaining that their airline bosses, desperate to cut costs, are forcing them to fly uncomfortably low on fuel.

The Aviation Safety Reporting System - a database maintained by NASA - has reports from pilots expressing safety concerns about airline directives pressuring them to fly with uncomfortably low fuel levels. NASA deletes names and other identifying information to encourage pilots, flight crews, dispatchers and others to identify safety problems, including their own mistakes.

WASHINGTON Vice President Dick Cheney, a conservative favorite but a divisive national figure, will join President Bush in addressing delegates on the opening night of the Republican National Convention, the White House said Friday.

WASHINGTON Army scientist Bruce Ivins didn't keep his problems to himself.

DES MOINES, Iowa John McCain is calling on Russia to cease military action in Georgia and withdraw its forces.

LIMA, Ohio John McCain's efforts to define Barack Obama have been well cataloged in recent days, from the substantive (calling Obama a tax raiser slow to offer an energy plan) to the silly (comparing the Illinois senator to Britney Spears and Paris Hilton.)

BEIJING The White House on Friday urged Russia and Georgia to peacefully resolve their dispute over South Ossetia.

CHICAGO Party officials say former President Clinton will deliver a speech on the third night of the Democratic National Convention before an address by the as-yet-to-be-named running mate for Barack Obama.

NEW YORK For a few long hours in 2001, things looked impossibly grim for Dr. Irshad Shaikh and his brother, Masood. Not long after dawn on Nov. 13, armed FBI agents hunting for the anthrax killer crashed through the door of his Pennsylvania home and spent the next 13 hours searching the place in moon suits. Another team raided the apartment of a colleague, a few blocks away.

HONOLULU The diverse culture of the nation's 50th state - and the island nature of Hawaii itself - shaped Barack Obama's view of the world and the politics he would practice.

DENVER The American Civil Liberties Union said Thursday it will not appeal a federal judge's ruling that upheld the city's decision to limit protests during the Democratic National Convention to a fenced-in demonstration zone, and to end all marches more than a quarter-mile from the site.

WILMINGTON, Ohio Republican John McCain called Thursday for a federal investigation into plans by the DHL shipping company that could cost 10,000 jobs here, as he and his campaign manager took criticism for helping DHL complete a key corporate merger in 2003.

WASHINGTON John McCain's campaign said Thursday it is returning $50,000 in contributions solicited by a foreign citizen. The move follows the disclosure that the money was being raised by a Jordanian man who is a business partner of prominent Florida Republican Harry Sargeant III, who has collected hundreds of thousands of dollars for McCain.

WASHINGTON Health and Human Services Secretary Mike Leavitt attempted to ease concerns Thursday that the Bush administration is planning to issue new rules that would limit women's access to birth control.

WASHINGTON A federal judge ruled Thursday that American Indian plaintiffs are entitled to $455 million in a long-running trust case, a fraction of the $47 billion they wanted.

WASHINGTON A loophole in a sweeping tobacco regulation bill would give the industry a 21-month window to introduce some new products without first getting federal approval.

WASHINGTON Two years ago with fanfare, President Bush declared a remote chain of Hawaiian islands the biggest, most environmentally protected area of ocean in the world.

WASHINGTON Computers seized last week from a Frederick, Md., library may hold clues about the 2001 anthrax letters and the Army scientist accused of mailing them, the FBI said Thursday.