• Obama's performance czar has tried to improve IRS 1/8/2009, 3:49 a.m. EST
WASHINGTON (AP) — Nancy Killefer, the management consultant chosen by President-elect Barack Obama to make federal agencies work better for the public, has a lot of experience trying to improve the agency taxpayers love to hate, the Internal Revenue Service.

• Obama's pick to lead on health care gets hearing 1/8/2009, 3:49 a.m. EST
WASHINGTON (AP) — Showing the emphasis that some lawmakers are putting on health care issues this year, former Sen. Tom Daschle will be the first of President-elect Barack Obama's Cabinet choices to undergo a hearing.

• Melting snow causes heavy flooding in Wash. state 1/8/2009, 3:48 a.m. EST
SNOQUALMIE, Wash. (AP) — Rain and high winds lashed Washington state Wednesday, causing widespread avalanches, mudslides, flooding and road closures as the heavy snowfall that has buried parts of the state began to rapidly melt.

• INSIDE WASHINGTON: GOP lays down marker on Holder 1/8/2009, 3:48 a.m. EST
WASHINGTON (AP) — Eric Holder Jr., President-elect Barack Obama's pick for attorney general, brings to his confirmation hearing next week a dream resume and a bull's-eye target with his picture in the middle.

• Lebanon looking for who fired rockets into Israel 1/8/2009, 3:48 a.m. EST
BEIRUT, Lebanon (AP) — A Lebanese government official says his country is trying to determine who launched rockets from southern Lebanon into Israel.

• Report: US had unrealistic goals in Afghanistan 1/8/2009, 3:45 a.m. EST
WASHINGTON (AP) — The United States and its partners have shortchanged Afghanistan by focusing on short-term goals pursued without a cohesive strategy or a clear understanding of the way the poor, decentralized country works, an independent study concludes.

• More species invasions feared for Great Lakes 1/8/2009, 3:43 a.m. EST
TRAVERSE CITY, Mich. (AP) — Dozens of foreign species could spread across the Great Lakes in coming years despite policies designed to keep them out, causing significant environmental and economic damage, a federal report says.

• Sri Lankan military captures rebel base in north 1/8/2009, 3:42 a.m. EST
COLOMBO, Sri Lanka (AP) — Sri Lankan forces sweeping down from the north captured an important Tamil Tiger base on the Jaffna peninsula on Thursday, further boxing in the retreating rebel group, the military said.

• Malaysia: Catholic paper that used Allah can print 1/8/2009, 3:22 a.m. EST
KUALA LUMPUR, Malaysia (AP) — Malaysia will allow the Malay edition of a Catholic newspaper to resume publication, lifting a ban imposed for its use of the word "Allah," an official said Thursday — a move likely aimed at assuaging the anger of minorities in this Muslim-majority country.

• Fla. couple share tale of accidental trip to Cuba 1/8/2009, 3:17 a.m. EST
TAMPA, Fla. (AP) — Robert Vassallo and Angellette Smith never meant to spend the holidays in Cuba.

• ML APNewsAlert 1/8/2009, 3:14 a.m. EST
BEIRUT, Lebanon (AP) — Lebanon says it's trying to determine who fired rockets on Israel, is committed to truce

• Pakistan: National security adviser fired 1/8/2009, 3:14 a.m. EST
ISLAMABAD, Pakistan (AP) — Pakistan fired its national security adviser amid tensions with India over the Mumbai attacks, a sign of strain on the weak civilian administration as it responds to growing pressure to track down and punish the alleged masterminds.

• Fatal Calif. train station shooting sparks anger 1/8/2009, 3:12 a.m. EST
OAKLAND, Calif. (AP) — Protests over the fatal shooting of an unarmed man by a Bay Area Rapid Transit police officer turned violent Wednesday night with windows broken, fires set and train stations closed.

• Attack on Israel from Lebanon threatens 2nd front 1/8/2009, 3:10 a.m. EST
JERUSALEM (AP) — Lebanese militants fired at least three rockets into northern Israel early Thursday, threatening to open a second front for the Jewish state as it pushed forward with its offensive in the Gaza Strip. Gaza militants fired a rocket barrage into southern Israel almost simultaneously.

• Israelis to arrive in Egypt for cease-fire talks 1/8/2009, 3:10 a.m. EST
UNITED NATIONS (AP) — Israeli representatives were expected to arrive in Cairo Thursday for Egyptian-brokered talks on a cease-fire proposal after the U.N. Security Council failed to agree on action to end the escalating crisis in Gaza.

• US rabbi spearheads care package campaign 1/8/2009, 3:04 a.m. EST
AN ARMY BASE IN SOUTHERN ISRAEL (AP) — Troops won't have to dry their underwear on tank carriers thanks to a New York rabbi who raised more than $100,000 in two days to buy care packages for soldiers involved in Israel's offensive against Gaza militants.

• Roadside bombs kill 5 Iraqi soldiers in Diyala 1/8/2009, 3:02 a.m. EST
BAGHDAD (AP) — Police say two roadside bombs have struck an Iraqi army patrol north of Baghdad, killing five soldiers and injuring eight.

• West Bank feels remote from Gaza fighting 1/8/2009, 2:56 a.m. EST
RAMALLAH, West Bank (AP) — While one part of the Palestinian territories faces the fiercest Israeli onslaught in years, there is little to remind people in the other part of the war except for news reports, requests for blood donations and flags flying at half-staff.

• Venezuela to keep sending free fuel to US poor 1/8/2009, 2:37 a.m. EST
CARACAS, Venezuela (AP) — President Hugo Chavez will keep donating heating oil for poor American families in a costly decision that suggests the Venezuelan leader wants to keep to his pledges — and buttress his image — in spite of falling oil prices.

• Feds say inauguration attractive terrorist target 1/8/2009, 2:30 a.m. EST
WASHINGTON (AP) — The upcoming inauguration of Barack Obama is an attractive target for international and domestic terrorists, but U.S. intelligence officials have no information about specific threats to the Jan. 20 event.

• Obama hails 'extraordinary' moment with presidents 1/8/2009, 2:22 a.m. EST
WASHINGTON (AP) — Confronting a grim economy and a Middle East on fire, Barack Obama turned Wednesday to perhaps the only people on the planet who understand what he's in for: the four living members of the U.S. presidents' club. In an image bound to go down in history, every living U.S. president came together at the White House on Wednesday to hash over the world's challenges with the president-elect. There they stood, shoulder-to-shoulder in the Oval Office: George H.W. Bush, Obama, George W. Bush, Bill Clinton and Jimmy Carter.

• Obama taps spending watchdog, eyes Social Security 1/8/2009, 2:19 a.m. EST
WASHINGTON (AP) — Pointing with concern to "red ink as far as the eye can see," President-elect Barack Obama pledged Wednesday to tackle out-of-control Social Security and Medicare spending and named a special watchdog to clamp down on other federal programs — even as he campaigned anew to spend the largest pile of taxpayer money in history to revive the sinking economy.

• Chinese democracy activist sentenced to 6 years 1/8/2009, 2:11 a.m. EST
BEIJING (AP) — A 65-year-old veteran democracy activist who tried to set up an opposition party in China has been sentenced to six years in jail, a human rights group said Thursday.

• NATO: Bomb kills soldier in southern Afghanistan 1/8/2009, 2:10 a.m. EST
KABUL, Afghanistan (AP) — NATO says that a bomb attack has killed one of its soldiers in southern Afghanistan.

• Australia to allow anti-whaling ship to dock 1/8/2009, 2:07 a.m. EST
SYDNEY, Australia (AP) — The Australian government said Thursday that radical conservationists who have been pursuing Japanese whalers in Antarctic waters can refuel their ship in Australia, despite Japan's objections that they are tantamount to terrorists.