Aide: Obama on track to nominate Clinton (AP)

US president-elect Barack Obama (L) and New York Senator Hillary Clinton address supporters during a rally at Amway Arena in Orlando, Florida, in October 2008. Signs that Barack Obama may make once bitter foe Hillary Clinton his secretary of state are provoking a flurry of questions over the president-elect's motivation and vision for foreign policy.(AFP/File/Emmanuel Dunand)AP - President-elect Barack Obama is on track to nominate Hillary Rodham Clinton as secretary of state after Thanksgiving, an aide to his transition said Thursday.


Dems delay auto bailout vote, seek plan from Big 3 (AP)

Sen. Carl Levin, D-Mich., at podium gestures during a  news conference on Capitol Hill in Washington, Thursday, Nov. 20, 2008, to discuss the auto industry bailout. From left are Sen. Arlen Specter, R-Pa., Sen. Christopher Bond, R-Mo., Sen. Sherrod Brown, D-Ohio, Levin, Sen. Debbie Stabenow, D-Mich., and Sen. George Voinovich, R-Ohio. (AP Photo/Gerald Herbert)AP - The $25 billion rescue plan for the auto industry, desperately sought by Detroit's beleaguered Big Three, collapsed Thursday as Congress drew the line at one more bailout and Democrats said they wouldn't even consider it until the companies produced a convincing plan for rebuilding their once-mighty industry.


Congress extends jobless benefits, stocks sink (AP)

A trader works on the floor of the New York Stock Exchange, November 20, 2008. (Shannon Stapleton/Reuters)AP - Jarred by new jobless alarms, Congress raced to approve legislation Thursday to keep unemployment checks flowing through the December holidays and into the new year for a million or more laid-off Americans whose benefits are running out.


Gates more likely to remain Secretary of Defense under Obama (AP)

Defense Secretary Robert Gates, right, and Joint Chiefs Vice Chairman Gen. James Cartwright arrives on Capitol Hill in Washington, Wednesday, Nov. 19, 2008, for a closed session meeting with Senate Foreign Affairs Committee members regarding the new Iraq security pact. (AP Photo/Gerald Herbert)AP - What Robert Gates once called "inconceivable to me" ? his remaining as defense secretary beyond Inauguration Day ? is looking a bit more conceivable to the rest of Washington.


Judge orders release of five terror suspects at Guantanamo (AP)

In this image reviewed by the U.S. Military, a Guantanamo detainee, photographed through a glass window with a U.S military guard seen reflected on it,  sleeps on a mattress on the floor of his cell, at the Camp 5 detention facility, at the U.S. Naval Base, in Guantanamo Bay, Cuba, Wednesday, Nov. 19, 2008. A federal judge on Thursday, Nov. 20 ordered the release of five Algerians held at Guantanamo Bay, Cuba, and the continued detention of a sixth in what is being called a blow to the Bush administration's policy to keep terror suspects locked up without charges. (AP Photo/Brennan Linsley)AP - A federal judge on Thursday ordered the release of five Algerians held at Guantanamo Bay, Cuba, and the continued detention of a sixth in a major blow to the Bush administration's strategy to keep terror suspects locked up without charges.