AP - On Christmas Day, a passenger on a Northwest Airlines flight bound for Detroit tried to blow up the plane with plastic explosives in his underwear. He failed, yet the very attempt shook the U.S. government, set federal agencies against each other and triggered months of political second-guessing.

AP - Toyota's massive recalls are prompting Congress to reconsider whether the nation's auto safety agency has lived up to its mission of protecting motorists.

AP - A final agreement nearly in hand, President Barack Obama and Democratic leaders are about to embark on one last sales job that will determine the outcome of the president's signature health care overhaul.

AP - One is a former Democratic freshman little known outside his Corning-Olean-Pittsford, N.Y., district. The other, a 20-term Democratic kingpin from Harlem, is widely known to New Yorkers and anyone following tax legislation.

The Christian Science Monitor - It’s starting to look like the Hatfields versus the McCoys. Except, in this instance, it’s two branches of government duking it out: the judicial branch (Chief Justice John Roberts) versus the executive (President Obama).

AP - Heavy fighting between Somali insurgents and pro-government troops has killed at least 43 people over two days, as African Union peacekeepers used tanks to help the beleaguered government beat back an insurgent attack, officials said Thursday.

AP - Britain's High Court on Thursday granted bail to former Bosnian Vice President Ejup Ganic, who was arrested at London's Heathrow Airport on a Serbian war crimes warrant earlier this month.

AFP - US President Barack Obama will sign an executive order Thursday to put into action his ambitious strategy to double American exports to ease an unemployment crisis at home, officials said.