President Bush ordered the new sanctions to intensify pressure on President Robert Mugabe two weeks after failing to win United Nations support for them.

Democrats failed to force the Bush administration to tap the National Petroleum Reserve to lower gasoline prices as Republicans stuck to their demands for a vote on an expansion of offshore drilling.

Documents reveal that when C.I.A. interrogators used waterboarding and other techniques, they were required to keep records of each method used, its duration and the names of everyone present.

The House voted Thursday to triple financing to fight AIDS, malaria and tuberculosis, giving new life to a program credited with saving or prolonging millions of lives in Africa alone.

Carolyn Cheeks Kilpatrick of the Congressional Black Caucus.

The Senate is investigating whether insurance companies are forcing able-bodied people to apply for Social Security disability benefits.

Jeffrey C. Sprecher, the founder of the IntercontinentalExchange, which has faced heated criticism.

Senator Barack Obama spoke at the Tiergarten in Berlin on Thursday.

John McCain in Columbus, Ohio, with small-business leaders, including Duane Hickerson, partner and founder of Relay Gear.

The department’s internal watchdog will investigate allegations that officials did nothing to stop a deal that undermined both American policy and the Iraqi central government.

Former lawmakers were named to four of the six seats on the Committee on Standards of Official Conduct, a new independent panel that will review ethics complaints against House members.

The Environmental Protection Agency announced that it intended to ban the use of the pesticide carbofuran, citing its harmful effects on children and the environment.

Eugene A. Foster

The operator of a collapsed Utah mine violated safety protocols by cutting coal pillars that should have been left standing to prevent cave-ins.

Richard C. Wade in 1985.

Paul Bentley, right, with Lee Harvey Oswald in custody outside the Texas Theater in Dallas.

Here are summaries of the most important decisions from the court’s 2007-2008 term.