AP - President-elect Barack Obama's vast list of donors is being asked to donate to Hillary Rodham Clinton as she scrambles to reduce her massive campaign debt before she becomes secretary of state and federal ethics rule limit her fundraising, an Obama adviser said Thursday night.

AP - For the final time as president, George W. Bush led the countdown Thursday night to lighting the nearly 42-foot Christmas tree that overlooks the White House.

AP - A central California couple was charged Thursday with kidnapping and torturing a teenager that authorities say was sometimes kept shackled inside their home and abused with a baseball bat, belt and knife. The boy's one-time guardian was charged with similar allegations.

AP - Democrats are growing impatient with President-elect Barack Obama's refusal to inject himself in the major economic crises confronting the country. Obama has sidestepped some policy questions by saying there is only one president at a time. But the dodge is wearing thin. "He's going to have to be more assertive than he's been," House Financial Services Committee Chairman Barney Frank, D-Mass., told consumer advocates Thursday.

AP - A Pakistani militant group apparently used an Indian operative as far back as 2007 to scout targets for the elaborate plot against India's financial capital, authorities said Thursday, a blow to Indian officials who have blamed the deadly attacks entirely on Pakistani extremists.