About 70 percent of the money from international donors will pay public salaries, while 30 percent is expected to be used for development, food relief, and other assistance.
AP - President Bush, in the Mideast to push along a peace deal by the end of his presidency, gave orders to both sides on Wednesday. He told Israelis that "illegal" settlement outposts in disputed land must go and told Palestinians that no part of their territories can be "a safe haven for terrorists."
AP - Barack Obama talked of introducing some Chicago smackdown to his politics of hope Wednesday, seeking a rebound after Hillary Rodham Clinton grasped victory in the New Hampshire primary. In the wide-open Republican contest, John McCain pressed to build on his New Hampshire win and named experience, knowledge and judgment as his calling cards in the races ahead.
AP - The top U.S. commander in northern Iraq said Wednesday a nationwide operation launched against insurgents was meeting less resistance than expected, but that troops would pursue the militants until they were dead or pushed out of the country.
Police are searching for a missing Marine who could give birth at any time. Lance Cpl. Maria Lauterbach, 20, has been absent from Camp Lejeune, North Carolina, since December 14. Lauterbach's mom said the Marine was to testify about an incident she had witnessed at the camp, sheriff's officials said. There is evidence that raises concern about the disappearance, the department told CNN affiliate WITN.
A young hiker whose body was found in northern Georgia was probably alive for three days before she died from blunt force trauma to the head, an autopsy found, and the man charged with kidnapping her faces a murder charge when he returns today to court.
Police are questioning a woman in connection with the discovery of four children's bodies early Wednesday in a Washington home, Metropolitan Police said.