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AP – A double standard? Republicans seeking Sen. Harry Reid’s resignation as majority leader over racial remarks he made about Barack Obama say yes — that Reid should be held to the same standard as former GOP Sen. Trent Lott, whose own racial gaffes cost him the Senate leadership in 2002.

AP – A Defense Department review of the shooting rampage at Fort Hood, Texas, has found the doctors overseeing Maj. Nidal Hasan’s medical training repeatedly voiced concerns over his strident views on Islam and his inappropriate behavior, yet continued to give him positive performance evaluations that kept him moving through the ranks.

Reuters – Secretary of State Hillary Clinton heads to the South Pacific this week, working to boost key U.S. alliances while pressing Japan to resolve a damaging dispute over a critical U.S. military base.

Reuters – The Obama administration’s newly appointed envoy for human rights in North Korea said on Monday Pyongyang had an abysmal record and that Washington would press the reclusive state to clean up its act.

AP – President Barack Obama says he has no intention of sending American troops to Yemen or Somalia.

AP – Republicans on Sunday accused Democrats of a double standard by accepting Sen. Harry Reid’s apology for racial remarks about Barack Obama instead of demanding Reid’s ouster as majority leader.

Reuters – A U.S. peace envoy’s suggestion that Washington could penalize Israel financially to force it to make concessions to the Palestinians drew Israeli ire on Sunday.

Reuters – The Republican Party chief called on Senator Harry Reid on Sunday to step down as Senate majority leader over racial comments about President Barack Obama, while Democrats tried to put the issue behind them.

Reuters – The Nigerian man who attempted to blow up a commercial jet outside Detroit on Christmas Day should be tried as an enemy combatant in a military court, a leading Republican Senator said on Sunday.

Reuters – Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid apologized to President Barack Obama on Saturday for comments he made during the 2008 presidential campaign that critics find racially offensive.

AP – The Republican Party chairman says Sen. Harry Reid should step down as the Senate Democratic leader over racial remarks Reid made about Barack Obama during the 2008 presidential campaign.

AFP – CIA Director Leon Panetta, in an article published Sunday, revealed that a Jordanian doctor who killed seven agency operatives was about to be searched before he blew himself up at a US military base in Afghanistan.

Reuters – President Barack Obama on Saturday renewed his pitch for final congressional passage of a U.S. healthcare overhaul and promised Americans they will begin reaping the benefits soon after he signs a bill into law.

AP – Senate Democratic leader Harry Reid apologized on Saturday for saying Barack Obama should seek — and could win — the White House because Obama was a “light skinned” African-American “with no Negro dialect, unless he wanted to have one.”

AP – A federal grand jury has convened to investigate whether fraudulent statements were made to government officials, apparently in the probe of how a Virginia couple got into a White House state dinner without an invitation.

AFP – Hobbled by leg irons, a young Nigerian accused of trying to blow up a US plane on Christmas Day pleaded not guilty during his first court appearance amid heightened security.

AP – From Detroit to Afghanistan, scattered terrorists inspired and equipped by al-Qaida have attacked recently with surprising speed and worldwide reach, challenging the U.S. strategy of slowly and deliberately targeting the terror group’s top leaders.

AFP – US Secretary of State Hillary Clinton urged Palestinians and Israelis to resume peace talks “without preconditions,” backing Palestinian aims for a state along the 1967 boundaries.

Reuters – President Hugo Chavez said he ordered two F-16 jets to intercept a U.S. military plane that twice entered Venezuelan skies on Friday, but Washington said none of its planes flew over the South American country’s airspace.

AP – From Detroit to Afghanistan, scattered terrorists inspired and equipped by al-Qaida have attacked recently with surprising speed and worldwide reach, challenging the U.S. strategy of slowly and deliberately targeting the terror group’s top leaders.

Reuters – U.S. Vice President Joe Biden’s mother, Catherine Eugenia “Jean” Finnegan Biden, died on Friday at the family’s home in Wilmington, Delaware, the vice president said in a statement. She was 92.

Reuters – California Governor Arnold Schwarzenegger proposed “draconian” spending cuts in his new budget on Friday to help close a crippling deficit and warned new cash shortages loomed in coming months.

AFP – Hobbled by leg irons, a young Nigerian accused of trying to blow up a US plane on Christmas Day pleaded not guilty Friday as he made his first court appearance amid heightened security.

AFP – Lawyers for a young Nigerian accused of trying to blow up a US plane on Christmas Day pleaded not guilty Friday, as he faced life imprisonment on six charges.

Reuters – California Governor Arnold Schwarzenegger will propose replacing furloughs of state workers with permanent pay cuts and increased retirement contributions from workers when he unveils his fiscal 2011 budget later Friday, his spokesman said.

AP – Hundreds of law enforcement officers are being trained as federal air marshals to ramp up security as the Obama administration tries to prevent a repeat of the near-catastrophic attempt to blow up an airliner bound for Detroit on Christmas Day.

AP – Defense Secretary Robert Gates, the most prominent Republican in President Barack Obama’s inner circle plans to remain in his Cabinet post for at least another year.

Reuters – A former top attorney for President George W. Bush was charged in Connecticut on Thursday with attempted murder after he allegedly attacked his wife with a long flashlight.

Reuters – President Barack Obama took ultimate responsibility on Thursday for security lapses that allowed the attempted Christmas Day bombing of a U.S. airliner and ordered reforms aimed at thwarting future attacks.

AP – President Barack Obama declared Thursday “the buck stops with me” for the nation’s security and suggested he would not fire anyone for the Christmas attack on a Detroit-bound airliner. Security lapses that led to the near-disaster were not the fault of a single individual or agency, he said, vowing they would be corrected.