WASHINGTON (AP) -- Roland Burris tried to take President-elect Barack Obama's Illinois Senate seat Tuesday but failed in a scripted piece of political theater staged just before the opening of the 111th Congress. "Mr. Burris is not in possession of the necessary credentials from the state of Illinois," declared Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid of Nevada....

WASHINGTON (AP) -- President-elect Barack Obama has approached CNN's chief medical correspondent, Sanjay Gupta, to be the country's next surgeon general, the cable news network said Tuesday....

GAZA CITY, Gaza (AP) -- Israeli mortar shells struck outside a U.N. school where hundreds of Palestinians had sought refuge Tuesday, killing at least 30 people - many of them children whose parents wailed in grief at a hospital filled with dead and wounded....

WASHINGTON (AP) -- The new Congress opened for business at the stroke of noon on Tuesday, eager to join President-elect Barack Obama in tackling the worst economic crisis in generations. Democrats celebrated last fall's election gains in the House and Senate....