AP - California Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger endorsed Sen. John McCain in the Republican presidential race on Thursday, praising him as an "extraordinary leader" who can reach across the political aisle to get things done.

AP - Democratic presidential candidate Barack Obama raised $32 million in the single month of January, a whopping figure that has permitted the campaign to boost staff and extend advertising to states beyond the sweeping Feb. 5 contests, aides said Thursday.

AP - Consumers increased their spending at the weakest pace in six months while applications for unemployment benefits soared last week, two more signs the economy is weakening.

AP - Britney Spears was taken from her home by ambulance early Thursday and escorted to the hospital by more than a dozen police officers in cars, on motorcycles and in helicopters.

AP - Frustrated by long airport-security lines? Certain those screeners aren't paying attention? Wondering why your grandma always gets frisked? The federal government wants to hear ? or at least read ? your gripes at the "Evolution of Security" blog the Transportation Security Administration introduced Wednesday. And it promises those complaints and suggestions won't vanish into thin air.

AP - Americans have a decidedly dour view of how things are going in the country and an outsized view of what one person ? the president ? can do about it.

AP - "Entertainment Tonight" says it won't air a video it has acquired that shows the late Heath Ledger at a Hollywood party where drugs were apparently being taken.

AP - Tiger Woods picked up right where he left off last week ? at the top of the leaderboard.

AP - The Senate is set to begin voting on dueling economic aid proposals, as senators rush to add jobless benefits and tax rebates for high earners, the elderly, and disabled veterans to a House-passed package.

Reuters - The perception that Hispanics won't vote for Barack Obama because he is black is a myth, and Obama trails Hillary Clinton among Latinos because she has long courted their vote and he was late to reach out, experts say.

Reuters - MBIA Inc, a bond insurer struggling to keep the top credit ratings necessary to win new business, posted a record quarterly loss after writing down $3.5 billion and said it was looking at ways to raise equity to shore up capital.

Reuters - A police officer in Kenya shot dead an opposition legislator on Thursday, the second killed in a week, triggering fatal protests and interrupting talks to try to end more than a month of violence.

Reuters - Treasury Secretary Henry Paulson said on Thursday he was concerned that the $157 billion stimulus package passed by the Senate Finance Committee was too complex and he prefers the simpler House of Representatives version.

Reuters - The number of workers filing new claims for jobless aid surged last week to the highest since October 2005, and consumer spending softened at the end of last year, according to reports on Thursday that heightened worries about a possible recession.

Reuters - Tens of thousands of Chinese massed impatiently near a railway station in Guangzhou on Thursday, desperate to get on trains home for a major holiday after days of delay caused by snow.

Reuters - The United States and European Union are undermining human rights worldwide by letting states with dubious elections like Pakistan and Kenya pose as real democracies, Human Rights Watch said on Thursday.

AFP - Kofi Annan suspended Thursday crisis talks aimed at ending Kenya's political crisis after an opposition lawmaker was shot dead by a policeman, triggering further clashes which killed at least two.