President Obama abruptly walks out of talks  —  President Barack Obama abruptly walked out of a stormy debt-limit meeting with congressional leaders Wednesday, a dramatic setback to the already shaky negotiations, according to GOP sources.  —  “He shoved back and said 'I'll see you tomorrow' and walked out …

Graham: GOP has no one ‘to blame but ourselves’  —  South Carolina Sen. Lindsey Graham conceded Wednesday that he and his fellow Republicans are now eating their own words as they try to convince the country they are working to stave off a federal default.  —  “Our problem is we made a big deal about this for three months.

Michele Bachmann's Church Says the Pope Is the Antichrist  —  The Iowa front-runner for the GOP nomination was a longstanding member of a strict Lutheran synod with controversial views of Catholicism  —  Michele Bachmann is practically synonymous with political controversy …

Bush trumps Barack in the Arab world: President Obama is proving an embarrassing flop in the Middle East  —  Today's eye-opening Zogby poll for the Arab American Institute Foundation should be a wake-up call to the White House on its failing foreign policy.  After two and a half years of bashing Israel …

Maid's ‘Fiancé’ Speaks  —  A call with an Arizona inmate tarnished the case of Strauss-Kahn's accuser.  The man, who says he's the maid's fiancé, gives his side of the story to The Daily Beast.  —  One of the most important and controversial characters in the complicated …

Manning-Lamo Chat Logs Revealed  —  A little more than a year ago, Wired.com published excerpts from instant messenger chats between accused WikiLeaks source Bradley Manning and Adrian Lamo, the ex-hacker in whom he confided and who reported him to the authorities.

The Debt Debate's Real Doomsday Scenario  —  On Tuesday, in the late morning, I asked a banker to explain what will happen if the debt ceiling is not raised on August 2.  He was not just any banker; he was and is the authority on the U.S. bond market at one of the biggest banks in the world.

The Republican Case for Compromise  —  I HAVE always been a conservative Republican, and I subscribe to the ideas of less government, lower taxes, innovation and entrepreneurship.  But I also believe that, in the face of a possible debt default by the federal government, Republicans need to embrace the principle of compromise.

Breast-feeding mother ‘told to leave council headquarters because she would offend Muslim visitors’  —  A mother was ordered not to breastfeed her baby in public because she was in a ‘multicultural building’.  —  Emma Mitchell, 32, was about to feed 19-week-old son Aaron when a receptionist at a town hall warned her to stop.

Religious right rushes to Bachmann's defense following ‘ex-gay’ reports  —  Several religious right groups — including those listed as anti-gay hate groups by the Southern Poverty Law Center — rushed to Michele Bachmann's defense following reports that she and her husband Marcus' Christian …

The Kenneth Gladney Charade Collapses  —  It took a St. Louis County jury less than 50 minutes to return a not guilty verdict in the assault trial featuring Kenneth Gladney and two union members who were charged with attacking him outside a two hall event during the tumultuous summer of 2009.

Time is of the essence, any US budget deal will do  —  As the debt negotiators square off in Congress, much attention will focus on the size of the 10-year budget deal they come up with.  As almost everyone agrees, there is much more risk of doing too little than too much given the scale of America's fiscal challenge.

Debt ceiling: Moody's puts U.S. on notice  —  By: CNNMoney.com Senior Writer Jeanne Sahadi  —  NEW YORK (CNNMoney) - The public pressure on lawmakers to raise the debt ceiling was ratcheted up Wednesday when a major rating agency said it would put the sterling bond rating of the United States on review for possible downgrade.