Chicago Mayor Richard M. Daley, who has presided over the nation's third-largest city for 21 years, like his father did before him, announced Tuesday that he will not run for a seventh term, saying the time "just feels right."

A former CIA officer accused of revving an electric drill near the head of an imprisoned terror suspect has returned to U.S. intelligence as a contractor, training CIA operatives after leaving the agency, The Associated Press has learned.

Libertarian U.S. Senate candidate David Haase said he's meeting Tuesday with Alaska Sen. Lisa Murkowski as the Republican Murkowski is being urged by supporters to find a way to stay in the race despite her loss in the primary last month.

Lagging in both fundraising and recent polls, the Democratic candidate for Ohio's open U.S. Senate seat said Tuesday it will be a week-to-week decision on how much TV time he can buy up until the Nov. 2 general election.

The Obama administration on Tuesday weighed in against a Florida church's threat to burn copies of the Muslim holy book, with the State Department calling the plan "un-American" and officials saying it could threaten U.S. troops, diplomats and travelers overseas.

GOP Senate candidate Christine O'Donnell derided her primary opponent as an Obama Republican on Tuesday as tea party activists rallied to defend her from harsh criticism by the GOP establishment.

President Barack Obama's proposed tax breaks for business sound like ideas that have enjoyed broad Republican backing in the past. But in today's toxic political atmosphere, he's unlikely to get much -- if any -- GOP help.

Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid says he knows who's to blame for the struggling economy -- and it's not him.

U.S. officials are heading to Asia to discuss the impasse over North Korea's nuclear program.

If you thought passing the health care overhaul was messy, wait until Republicans try to repeal it if they regain power this fall.

U.S.-led NATO troops in Afghanistan should be able to start handing off responsibility for security to the Kabul government sometime next year, Secretary-General Anders Fogh Rasmussen said Tuesday.

The president of a Montana tea party group has been kicked out of the organization for an exchange on his Facebook page that appeared to condone violence against homosexuals.

Massachusetts Rep. Barney Frank's retort was an Internet sensation. Questioned at a town hall last year about the "Nazi policy" of health care reform, Frank told the speaker who made the comment that talking to her was "like arguing with a dining room table." Fast forward to this year, the questioner, Rachel Brown, is challenging the 15-term Democrat's re-election bid.

Already in distinctive company as an American president, George W. Bush seeks to join an even more select group: president and top-selling author.

Turns out politics, for all its focus on the gloomy economy, is a recession-proof industry.

The U.S. government's financial commitment to Afghanistan is likely to linger and reach into the billions long after it pulls combat troops from the country, newly disclosed spending estimates show.

A determined Republican stall campaign in the Senate has sidetracked so many of the men and women nominated by President Barack Obama for judgeships that he has put fewer people on the bench than any president since Richard Nixon at a similar point in his first term 40 years ago.

Never before have so many governorships been up for grabs -- and with so much at stake.

It's hard to predict which pills will best lower which patient's high blood pressure, but researchers are hunting ways to better personalize therapy -- perhaps even using a blood test.