Ex-eBay CEO largely unknown amid Calif. gov.s bid

By Ron Edmonds (AP)

Former eBay executive Meg Whitman brings intrigue and a big bank account to California's beleaguered Republican Party.

And her likely entry into the 2010 governor's race gives the party a candidate with a corporate resume to match the political experience of any of the well-known Democrats eyeing the job.

But the question hovering over Whitman is as big as the curiosity about her potential candidacy: Just what does she stand for?

If she makes her bid for governor official in the next six weeks as expected, Whitman will have to show her cards on a broad range of issues,...

John McCain

Six compete to lead GOP back from defeats

By Manuel Balce Ceneta (AP)

Republicans, who lost control of the White House and Congress in the past two elections, must decide whether to give party chairman Mike Duncan a chance to reverse the losing streak or select one of his five challengers to chart a new path.

The party will have no natural standard-bearer when President George W. Bush leaves office this month, and failed GOP presidential nominee John McCain isn\'t close to the Republican National Committee. So there is no one Republican in a position to steer the party to a winning formula after back-to-back shellackings.

As a result, this...

Barack Obama

Busy Gupta performs brain surgery, reports for CNN

By Diane Bondareff (AP)

If Barack Obama wants a surgeon general with visibility to promote health issues in his administration, it can\'t hurt to hire a CNN correspondent called one of People magazine\'s \"sexiest men alive.\"

Dr. Sanjay Gupta, a practicing neurosurgeon and one of CNN\'s busiest personalities, is under consideration by the president-elect for the job. Should the offer come, CNN said Gupta has indicated he is likely to take it. Obama will have a man who has interrupted a TV assignment to perform emergency brain surgery and gotten into it on air with Michael Moore.

He has a weekend...

Vice President Dick Cheney says Russia's military actions in Georgia "must not go unanswered."

Cheney spoke Sunday afternoon with Georgian President Mikheil Saakashvili. "The vice president expressed the United States' solidarity with the Georgian people and their democratically elected government in the face of this threat to Georgia's sovereignty and territorial integrity," Cheney's press secretary, Lee Ann McBride, said.

Cheney told Saakashvili "Russian aggression must not go unanswered, and that its continuation would have serious consequences for its relations with the United States, as well as the broader international community," McBride said. Read More...

Iraq's foreign minister insisted Sunday that any security deal with the United States must contain a "very clear timeline" for the departure of U.S. troops. A suicide bomber struck north of Baghdad, killing at least five people including an American soldier.

Foreign Minister Hoshyar Zebari told reporters that American and Iraqi negotiators were "very close" to reaching a long-term security agreement that will set the rules for U.S. troops in Iraq after the U.N. mandate expires at the end of the year. Read More...

Michael Rodriguez remembers the exhilaration of newfound freedom when he hid in the back of a stolen truck as he and six of his buddy convicts staged one of Texas' most notorious prison breaks.

Then he recalls seeing his photo on national TV and grasping the reality that their Hollywood-style plan to rob a Nevada casino had gone terribly awry. He and his fellow fugitives were being hunted everywhere as the killers of a police officer, Aubrey Hawkins, at a store they robbed outside Dallas. Read More...