Eastern Owyhee County Library

A new political party in Germany has made saving the working class and the country's welfare system rallying points for attracting votes. Die Linke, or the Left Party, is drawing support from mainstream parties with a radical message.

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Stevens, one of the longest serving senators in the history of the Senate, at last check trailed his Democratic rival, Anchorage Mayor Mark Begich, by more than 3,700 votes as absentee and overseas ballots were counted.

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Alaska Sen. Ted Stevens, the longest-serving Republican in the history of the Senate, is falling behind Democrat Mark Begich in his re-election bid as absentee ballots and other ballots are counted.

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Retired Army Col. John Nagl, an expert on counterinsurgency, says he saw a new U.S. determination to stamp out the insurgent Taliban when he visited Afghanistan this month. He says the U.S. 'can win this war' if military commander Gen. David McKiernan gets the resources he needs.

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Iraqis of African descent in the southern port city of Basra say they're still discriminated against because of the color of their skin. Long relegated to menial jobs or work as musicians and dancers, some have recently formed a group to advance their civil rights.

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President-elect Barack Obama has decided to nominate Eric Holder as attorney general, according to a source close to the Obama-Biden transition team. If confirmed, Holder would be the country's first African-American to lead the Justice Department.

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The Job Center in Dayton, Ohio, is busy these days. It's a one-stop center for help with food stamps, Medicaid, resumes, employment searches and classes for new skills. Forty-three agencies are under one roof.

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Washington attorney Eric Holder has been chosen by President-elect Barack Obama to be the next attorney general. Holder, a former U.S. attorney who served as the No. 2 official in the Justice Department under President Clinton, would be the nation's first black attorney general.

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Pirate attacks on shipping vessels in the Gulf of Aden are on the rise. The director of the Nelson Institute for International and Public Affairs at James Madison University says piracy and ransom will exceed more than $50 million this year.

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Sen. Joe Lieberman will keep his job as chairman of the Senate Homeland Security Committee. Democrats decided against replacing the independent from Connecticut, but did strip him of the chairmanship of an environmental panel.

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Treasury Secretary Henry Paulson once again defends his management of the federal government's $700 billion rescue program for the financial industry. Democrats want some of the money used to help other ailing industries, as well as struggling homeowners.

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Detroit auto executives make their pitch for emergency financial aid at a Senate hearing. GM, Ford and Chrysler say they need about $25 billion in loans. For the moment, they may not have the votes to make that happen.

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Residents of a fire-ravaged mobile home park in the Los Angeles suburb of Sylmar are allowed to return home. About 500 of 600 homes in the complex were destroyed Saturday as wildfires raked Southern California.

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Purchasing toxic assets from banks is still the fairest way to save the American economy, say two University of Maryland economics professors. To prove it, they had a group of graduate students take part in what's known as a reverse auction.

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Fifty years ago, unless the family was playing Monopoly, parents didn't talk about finances with their children. Parents didn't even talk about money with each other. Now it's all people talk about. What happened?

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Democrats decided Tuesday to let Sen. Joe Lieberman keep his prized chairmanship of the Homeland Security Committee, despite his support for Republican presidential candidate John McCain. Meanwhile, Democrats are bracing for a battle on Wednesday over control of the House energy panel.

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At this point Republican incumbent Ted Stevens is behind Democratic challenger Mark Begich by just over a thousand votes. Even if he's able to pull off a victory, Stevens still faces an expulsion vote in the Senate. His Republican colleagues put off a preliminary step toward one Tuesday — waiting to see what happens in Alaska.

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Housing areas that saw a lot of foreclosures are starting to see more sales. In Sacramento and Riverside counties in California, sales have been up for the past six months. The same is true in Prince William County in Virginia. Some people wonder whether these pockets of recovery signal a bottom to the housing downturn.

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Executives from General Motor's European unit, Opel, met Monday with German Chancellor Angela Merkel. They want more than $1 billion in loan guarantees from the German government. Opel is seeking the guarantees because the company expects difficult credit conditions on the open market due to the world financial crisis.

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Treasury Secretary Henry Paulson shared a stage Monday night in Washington, D.C., with two of his predecessors. The former secretaries — Robert Rubin and Larry Summers — both served under President Clinton. They all spoke at a business conference hosted by The Wall Street Journal.

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