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• Other key matchups are in Colorado, Florida, Ohio and Virginia. Obama carried these four states four years ago while losing to Republican John McCain in the individual counties that make up the districts.
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• WASHINGTON (AP) -- Andy Pettitte, the reluctant witness who was supposed to bolster the government's case against Roger Clemens, appears to have instead substantially aided his former teammate and friend when he readily conceded he might have misunderstood their conversation about human growth hormone.
• The doubt Pettitte acknowledged on cross-examination Wednesday sounded like a significant step back from his testimony the day before that "Roger had mentioned to me that he had taken HGH."
• Clemens, a seven-time Cy Young Award winner, is accused of lying to Congress in 2008 when he said he never used steroids or HGH.
• Prosecutors had hoped Pettitte, with no apparent motive to lie, would reinforce a case that otherwise relies heavily on Brian McNamee, a former strength coach for both Pettitte and Clemens who says he injected Clemens with steroids and human growth hormone.
• So Pettitte's concession weakens the prosecution's effort to prove Clemens guilty beyond a reasonable doubt, University of Iowa law professor James Tomkovicz said in an email interview.
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• TOKYO (AP) -- Another long, stupefyingly hot summer is looming for Japan just as it shuts down its last operating nuclear power reactor, worsening a squeeze on electricity and adding urgency to calls for a green energy revolution.
• On Saturday, the last of the country's 50 usable nuclear reactors will be switched off, completely idling a power source that once supplied a third of Japan's electricity. At a time when temptation to set the aircon to deep freeze is at its greatest, companies and ordinary Japanese will be obliged to economize amid temperatures that can climb above 40 degrees Celsius (104 Fahrenheit).
• Nuclear energy seemed a steady mainstay of Japan's power supply until the

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