Sen. Barack Obama arrived Saturday in Afghanistan on the first stop of his tour of the Middle East and Europe, aimed at boosting the U.S. Democratic presidential hopeful's foreign policy credentials, his campaign confirmed.

Former Republican Sen. Phil Gramm said Friday he is stepping down as co-chairman of Sen. John McCain's presidential campaign amid criticism for saying, "We have sort of become a nation of whiners."

On the eve of one of her top diplomats meeting with an Iranian official, Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice said the United States is sticking to its policy that Iran must suspend its nuclear program before negotiations can proceed.

In 1835, Alexis DeTocqueville, in his seminal work, "Democracy in America," prophesied that the abolition of slavery would not eliminate racial prejudice, which he declared was "immovable."

House Speaker Nancy Pelosi on Thursday called President Bush "a total failure" -- among the California Democrat's harshest assessments to date of the president.

House Speaker Nancy Pelosi Thursday blamed the "two oil men in the White House," President Bush and Vice President Dick Cheney, and their Republican allies in Congress for gas prices exceeding a gallon.

A federal judge refused Thursday to delay the approaching military commission trial of a Yemeni man who served as Osama bin Laden's personal bodyguard and driver.