AP - President-elect Barack Obama hailed a rare Oval Office gathering of all U.S. presidents as an extraordinary event on Wednesday as the current occupant, President George W. Bush, reminded his predecessors and successor that the office "transcends the individual."

AP - President-elect Barack Obama said Wednesday that reforming massive government entitlement programs — such as Social Security and Medicare — would be "a central part" of his effort to control federal spending.

AP - Roland Burris said Wednesday he should be able to join the Senate "very shortly," after talking to newly supportive Democratic leaders and working on lingering legal obstacles.

AP - The federal budget deficit will hit an unprecedented $1.2 trillion for the 2009 budget year, according to grim new Congressional Budget Office figures.

AP - Israeli airstrikes and Hamas rockets resumed after a brief pause Wednesday to allow food and fuel to reach Palestinian civilians in Gaza, where an Israeli warplane dropped leaflets urging some residents to flee because of imminent attacks.

AP - Mississippi now has the nation's highest teen birth rate, displacing Texas and New Mexico for that lamentable title, a new federal report says.

AP - Jay-Z isn't performing at President-elect Barack Obama's inauguration, but he is planning to make a big splash on the eve of the event.

AP - Nuremberg's celebrity polar bear cub, Flocke, has a new friend: a Russian bear.

AP - Jason Giambi is returning to his professional baseball roots with the Oakland Athletics.

Reuters - Hundreds of embattled Palestinians ventured outside to shop for food on Wednesday during a three-hour Gaza truce, a first step toward an Egyptian-proposed ceasefire under discussion by Israel and Hamas.

Reuters - The U.S. budget deficit will swell to a record $1.186 trillion in fiscal 2009, congressional forecasters said on Wednesday, presenting President-elect Barack Obama with a daunting economic challenge.

Reuters - In an abrupt switch, Senate Democratic leaders began talks on Wednesday about swearing in former Illinois attorney general Roland Burris, nominated by embattled Gov. Rod Blagojevich to replace President-elect Barack Obama in the Senate.

Reuters - Job losses and plans to lay off workers hammered the struggling U.S. economy in the final month of 2008, according to private reports that could foreshadow surprisingly grim labor market data from the government on Friday.

Reuters - Defense Secretary Robert Gates has told Congress that a planned buildup of U.S. forces in Afghanistan could add $5.5 billion to U.S. war costs in the current federal fiscal year, officials said on Wednesday.

Reuters - One of the packages accused swindler Bernard Madoff sent in violation of a court order contained about 13 watches, a diamond necklace and other valuables worth more than $1 million, prosecutors said in court papers released on Wednesday.

Reuters - Russia shut down all gas flows to Europe through Ukraine on Wednesday and told Kiev it would restore supplies only after it had signed a new contract at prices comparable to those paid by European countries.

Reuters - President-elect Barack Obama should seek tougher sanctions against Iran, which will be his biggest Middle East challenge, outgoing White House national security adviser Stephen Hadley said on Wednesday.

AFP - Top Israeli ministers on Wednesday approved an even tougher war on Hamas despite warming to a new ceasefire initiative and briefly silencing its guns to let Gaza City residents hunt for food and fuel.

AFP - All deliveries of Russian gas through Ukraine were halted Wednesday, depriving tens of thousands of Europeans of heat in freezing weather and raising the stakes in a bitter dispute between Moscow and Kiev.