The latest news on Bank Bailouts, Budget, Stimulus and Governors, Polls, Abortion, Freed Detainee in U.K., Pakistan, Israel, Darfur, Iraq, Canada, and Select Op-eds.

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Bank bailouts. U.S. Clears Path to Bank Takeovers "The Obama administration yesterday revamped the terms of its emergency aid to troubled financial firms, setting a course that could culminate with the government nationalizing some of the country's largest banks by taking a controlling ownership stake." U.S. Pressed to Add Billions to Bailouts "The government faced mounting pressure on Monday to put billions more in some of the nation's biggest banks, two of the biggest automakers and the biggest insurance company, despite the billions it has already committed to rescuing them."

Budget. President Barack Obama plans 'straight-up' budget "Following eight years of budget practices that often camouflaged the full extent of federal spending, President Barack Obama is planning a new strategy of putting as many of the expected costs on the books as possible, senior White House officials say, in order to make clear the full extent of the challenges facing the country." Health Care Tops Fiscal Need List "President Obama will make reforming the U.S. health-care system his top fiscal priority this year, administration officials said yesterday, contending that reining in skyrocketing medical costs is critical to saving the nation from bankruptcy." Recession to push more into public health coverage "Six million Americans are expected to lose private health coverage by the end of next year, while Medicaid, the national health program for low-income Americans, will beef up its enrollment to pick up much of the slack, federal health analysts reported Monday." Public to feds: Help regular folks first "As President Obama outlines his priorities to a joint session of Congress tonight, Americans overwhelmingly support new spending to help individuals - including creating jobs and rescuing struggling homeowners - but oppose bailouts for automakers and banks."

Stimulus and governors. Calif., Fla. governors buck GOP opposition to stimulus "California Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger, who's in Washington for the National Governors Association winter meetings, went out of his way to praise the stimulus. Also Monday, Florida's Gov. Charlie Crist embraced Obama's economic plan." Reject stimulus money? No way, Strickland says "As a frigid wind blew outside the White House yesterday, Gov. Ted Strickland emerged from a governors meeting with President Barack Obama declaring that it would be wrong for Ohio to leave anyone out in the economic cold by turning down one-time federal stimulus dollars." GOP governor: Congressional leadership 'inconsequential' "The Republican governor of Utah on Monday said his party is blighted by leaders in Congress whose lack of new ideas renders them so 'inconsequential' that he doesn't even bother to talk to them."

Polls. Obama's Job Approval Ratings High, but Poll Finds Bipartisan Support Eroding "As President Obama prepares to address a joint session of Congress tonight, he is receiving strong reviews for his first full month in office, but deep partisan fault lines are quickly reemerging." Survey Reveals Broad Support for President "President Obama is benefiting from remarkably high levels of optimism and confidence among Americans about his leadership, providing him with substantial political clout as he confronts the nation's economic challenges and opposition from nearly all Republicans in Congress, according to the latest New York Times/CBS News poll."

Abortion. Taxpayer-funded family planning averts need for 800,000 abortions per year "Publicly funded family planning prevents nearly 2 million unintended pregnancies and more than 800,000 abortions in the United States each year, saving billions of dollars, according to new research intended to counter conservative objections to expanding the program."

Freed detainee in U.K. Freed detainee arrives back in U.K. "A British resident detained at Guantanamo Bay for more than four years has arrived back in the U.K. Ethiopian-born Binyam Mohamed, 30, landed at RAF Northolt in London on Monday afternoon, accompanied by Metropolitan Police officers." British resident is first to be released from Guantanamo under Obama administration "A British resident who spent seven years in U.S. captivity and was allegedly tortured under questioning became the first prisoner Monday to be released from Guantanamo Bay by the Obama administration."

Pakistan. Pakistani Taliban unite against U.S. "Three major Pakistani Taliban commanders have joined forces, a development that poses a significant threat to Pakistan's stability and could hamper U.S. efforts to flush out al Qaeda from a safe haven in the country's lawless borderlands." Indefinite ceasefire for Swat valley "Militants in Pakistan's Swat valley declared an indefinite ceasefire today, suggesting they are poised to accept a controversial government peace offer." Confusion hangs over Pakistan's pact with Taliban "A week after Pakistani authorities struck a controversial accord with Taliban militants in a violence-plagued valley in Pakistan's northwest, the terms of the deal remained clouded amid a Pakistani diplomatic push to gain American support." Pakistan's slump creates openings for extremists "The lingering tensions in Faisalabad highlight how, in the early days of the Obama administration, the global economic crisis is making combustible countries such as Pakistan even more of a security risk to the United States and its troops abroad."

Israel. Netanyahu plans to make Livni another offer for unity coalition "Likud chair Benjamin Netanyahu still hopes to form a unity government with Kadima, and is planning to offer its leader Tzipi Livni to help him draft the criteria that other parties must accept in joining the coalition." Israeli-Palestinian prisoner swap could free Fatah leader likely to shake up Mideast politics "While a possible Israeli-Palestinian prisoner swap focuses on a famous Israeli soldier, the prisoner most likely to affect the direction of Mideast peace is a brash and chubby Palestinian long seen as a potential successor to his people's aging president. Marwan Barghouti is the most popular Palestinian leader since Yasser Arafat." U.S. to Give $900 Million in Gaza Aid "In an early sign of how the administration plans to deal with Hamas, the militant Islamist group that controls Gaza, an official said that the aid would not go to Hamas but that it would be funneled through nongovernmental organizations."

Darfur. Darfur rebel leader vows to topple President al-Bashir "The leader of the most powerful rebel group in Darfur said that his forces will redouble their efforts to topple the Sudanese Government the moment an international arrest warrant is issued against President al-Bashir."

Iraq. Iraq's National Museum to Reopen Nearly 6 Years After Being Looted Early in War "Iraq's National Museum, once one of the world's leading repositories of Islamic culture and artifacts from other eras, is scheduled to reopen Tuesday, nearly six years after looters plundered it following the U.S.-led invasion." Iraq Museum That Was Looted Reopens, Far From Whole "Well over half the exhibition halls in Iraq's National Museum are closed, darkened and in disrepair. And yet the museum, whose looting in 2003 became a symbol of the chaos that followed the American invasion, officially reopened on Monday."

Canada. Canada seeks strategic ties by focusing aid on Americas "Canada will shift foreign aid dollars toward the Americas in a move aimed at backing Prime Minister Stephen Harper's desire to be a bigger player in the hemisphere."

Editorial. What Part of 'Stimulus' Don't They Get? (New York Times) "Imagine yourself jobless and struggling to feed your family while the governor of your state threatens to reject tens of millions of dollars in federal aid earmarked for the unemployed. That is precisely what is happening in poverty-ridden states like Louisiana and Mississippi where Republican governors are threatening to turn away federal aid rather than expand access to unemployment insurance programs in ways that many other states did a long time ago."

Opinion. Commentary: Religious organizations are key to Mideast peace (Imam Feisal Abdul Rauf, McClatchy News) "A peace agreement signed reluctantly by secular governments will have a hard time succeeding. Any agreement must be built from the ground up by engaging civil society groups, especially religious organizations, to provide a broad base of support." The mendacity of hope (Ralph Peters, a retired Army officer and member of USA TODAY's board of contributors) "The conflict in Afghanistan is the wrong war in the wrong place at the wrong time. Instead of concentrating on the critical mission of keeping Islamist terrorists on the defensive, we've mired ourselves by attempting to modernize a society that doesn't want to be - and cannot be - transformed."