USA

In his first speech about Cuba in four years, President Bush was to call on the international community Wednesday to participate in a "freedom fund" to help Cuba's rebuilding once Fidel Castro is out of power. The address at the State Department also laid out plans to offer scholarships and computer access to Cuban youth.

Navajo officials asked Congress Tuesday for $500 million to complete a cleanup of toxic uranium-mining waste left from the cold-war era on the nation's largest tribal homeland, which encompasses parts of Arizona, Utah, and New Mexico.

In discussions with airlines about relieving the nation's growing flight delays, federal regulators focused Tuesday on congestion at New York's John F. Kennedy International Airport. Delays at heavily-used JFK tend to ripple across the country.

Responding to a furor over last month's deadly Baghdad shooting involving Blackwater USA, a security contractor, Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice announced Tuesday plans to step up oversight and investigations of private guards who protect US diplomats in Iraq.

The Senate locked horns with President Bush Tuesday by convincingly passing a $600 billion appropriations bill (by a 75-to-19 vote) that the White House has threatened to veto. The measure reverses a raft of cuts Bush sought to make to education, health research, and community antipoverty groups.

The wives of five presidential candidates participated Tuesday in a forum about juggling family and campaign duties that was part of the annual California Women's Conference held in Long Beach. Above, Ann Romney (l.) made a point as Michelle Obama listened.

Vermont was named America's greenest state by Forbes magazine, in its first-ever ranking of states based on their air and water quality, consumption patterns, and other environmental measures. Oregon, Washington, and Hawaii followed Vermont.