Your customized headlines for Tue, Aug 7, 2012

The United States has won an impressive string of victories against China at the World Trade Organization in the past few years but U.S. companies have seen only limited benefits, according to a review of the cases and interviews with analysts and officials familiar with them.

Are canned pears the nutritional equivalent of a juicy fruit off the tree? House Republicans seem to think so. And their proposal to tinker with a program that serves fresh fruit and vegetables to children in select schools has touched off the ultimate food fight.

The central difficulty of covering this presidential campaign — which is to say, of explaining Barack Obama and Mitt Romney's disparate plans for the country — is the continued existence of what we might call the policy gap. The policy gap, put simply, is this: Obama has proposed policies. Mitt Romney hasn't.

The founder of Best Buy, who stepped down as chairman of the company's board just two months ago, is now trying to buy back the company he started.

On Monday, Richard Schulze, who owns 20 percent of the company, submitted a written proposal to the electronics retailer's board of directors offering to buy all of the remaining shares at a price of $24 to $26 a share, which represented a 36 percent to 47 percent premium on the company's closing price before the offer was made. He plans to finance the proposed acquisition with the help of private-equity firms, debt financing and the reinvestment of roughly $1 billion of his own equity, a news release said. Best Buy confirmed the receipt of the proposal, calling it "highly conditional." Shares leapt 15 percent on the news Monday morning.

London-based Standard Chartered Bank on Monday became the latest major international financial institution accused of evading money-laundering controls to move billions of dollars through the U.S. financial system on behalf of Iranian banks and corporations.

The United States has won an impressive string of victories against China at the World Trade Organization in the past few years but U.S. companies have seen only limited benefits, according to a review of the cases and interviews with analysts and officials familiar with them.

More than 1,300 children living in the United States were victims of international parental abductions in 2011 — taken to a foreign country and kept there without one parent's permission.

As a member of the State Department's Bureau of Consular Affairs, it is Scott Renner's job to provide assistance to the parent whose child has been taken away without their consent to either Mexico or Canada.

Mitt Romney continued his fundraising dominance over President Obama for a third straight month in July, with both campaigns shaping their schedules to pursue a steady stream of donations as the race heads into its final 90 days.

This could come from the "why mess with a good thing" department.

The Obama administration is considering fundamental changes to the Federal Employees Health Benefits program (FEHB), which is generally regarded as something Uncle Sam does right.

Mitt Romney appears to have narrowed his short list of potential running mates, as national Republicans announced Monday that at least four people once thought to be under consideration for the No. 2 spot will speak at this month's Republican National Convention — all but ruling them out of contention for the vice presidential slot.