Front-running Democrat Hillary Clinton, a New York senator seeking to be the first female president, won an effusive welcome at a mainly black Baptist church in snowy Waterloo, Iowa, where she criticized the Bush administration for failing to expand health care coverage and alienating foreign allies.

"Do we take a leap of faith and once again bind the wounds of those who hurt, create a country that we're proud of, assume the leadership and moral authority of the world that we should or will we continue to just slowly but surely fall backwards?" she said, also touching on the upcoming Christmas holiday.

Religion plays a big role in politics in the United States, where levels of belief and church attendance are much higher than in Europe.

Other issues weighing on the minds of voters in the run-up to the November 2008 presidential election include health care, immigration, the war in Iraq and a mortgage crisis.

Clinton's main rival, Sen. Barack Obama, also toured Iowa, bolstered by a new poll showing him alongside her in New Hampshire -- another early contest in the state-by-state process to nominate both parties' candidates for president.

Republican hopeful Rudy Giuliani, a survivor of prostate cancer, returned to the campaign trail in New Hampshire after being hospitalized overnight last week with what he said was a "headache worse than I've ever had."

"I feel great now, I feel terrific. I've been tested out, everything came back 100 percent," Giuliani, a former New York mayor, said on ABC News' "This Week" program, adding his doctor would address the episode after Christmas.

"There's always the issue of cancer, so I'm going to have him put out a statement and then, you know, make everyone really comfortable that I'm OK."

Giuliani's battle with prostate cancer prompted him to drop out of the 2000 Senate race in New York against Clinton.

OBAMA SURGES, GIULIANI SLIPS

Giuliani, who plays heavily on his leadership in New York after the September 11 attacks in 2001, has led national polls of Republican voters but trails in New Hampshire and Iowa, which holds the nation's first nomination contest on January 3.

In New Hampshire's primary vote on January 8, Giuliani is fighting to keep up with former Massachusetts Gov. Mitt Romney and Sen. John McCain of Arizona.

The sale in small markets will leave News Corp. with 27 stations in major markets including New York, Boston and Los Angeles.

The media conglomerate, which owns the New York Post, a controlling stake in BSkyB satellite TV service, and 20th Century Fox movie studio, recently closed a $5.6 billion deal to buy the Wall Street Journal publisher, Dow Jones.

The sale will probably be completed in the third quarter, News Corp. said in a statement Saturday. The purchase will help Oak Hill, the buyout firm founded two years ago by Robert Bass, a Texas oil billionaire, create a broader U.S. network. In May it paid $575 million to acquire stations in Oklahoma, Pennsylvania, Iowa and Arkansas from The New York Times Co.

"It is part of News Corp.'s strategic decision to shed low-growth, noncore assets," said Richard Dorfman, managing director of the investment firm Richard Alan.

Brenda White, 55, of Plaistow, N.H., won the $200,000 on a Massachusetts State Lottery $5 scratch ticket appropriately called "Bah Hum Bucks" during a Yankee swap party on Dec. 15 in Haverhill.

In a Yankee swap, participants have the option of either keeping a gift they choose, or swapping for a gift selected by someone who preceded them.

White swapped for the lottery ticket originally selected by Franco Sapia, 39, of Derry, N.H.

Before scratching the ticket, she promised to split any winnings with Sapia, according to a complaint Sapia filed in Essex Superior Court. She didn't, and Sapia is claiming half the jackpot in his lawsuit, saying there were several witnesses to the promise.

A judge has agreed to freeze the jackpot until the matter is resolved.

The company said it won a 1.15 billion dollar contract to build two semi-submersible floating drilling rigs by September 2010 for an unidentified Russian client.

Separately, clients in Africa and in the Americas ordered two oil drilling ships worth 1.26 billion dollars which will be delivered by May 2011, it said.

South Korea, home to seven of the world's top 10 shipyards, clinched record orders last year because of strong demand for crude carriers and offshore exploration equipment as oil prices remained high.

The trend continued in the first six months of this year, when local shipbuilders secured a record 33.2 billion dollars' worth of orders -- up 51.3 percent from a year earlier.

A Washington, D.C., tax corruption case that has resulted in tens of millions of dollars being stolen from D.C. government coffers now allegedly involves an IRS manager who is said to have been involved in the fraud scheme.

Robert Steven and his wife, Patricia Steven, were arrested in Maryland Thursday and charged with receiving stolen property and aiding and abetting in the fraud.

According to an affidavit prepared by FBI Agent Matthew Walsh, Robert Steven had an apparent affinity for Jaguars, saying, "Records obtained from a local automobile dealership indicate that between 2003 and the present, Robert O. Steven purchased four Jaguar automobiles for a total of $257,866, the most recent being a 2007 Jaguar convertible for $96,770.95."

The affidavit also notes that Steven worked as a division director for the Modernization Information Technology Systems at the IRS and had an annual salary of $143,471.

The case came to light when a bank employee tipped off the FBI to an alleged scheme run by Harriette Walters, a manager at the D.C. Real Property Tax Administration Adjustments unit and Diane Gustus at the D.C. Office of Tax Revenue.

The pair allegedly approved and issued fraudulent property tax refund checks that averaged $388,000 per check. Investigators say the funds were used to buy luxury goods, including jewelry, homes and clothing.

According to affidavits filed in the case, Walter's annual salary as a District of Columbia employee was $81,000, but from September 2000 to the present, she is said to have spent more than $1.4 million at Neiman Marcus.

Court records and an affidavit filed in the case allege that 11 checks totaling almost $2.8 million were issued and deposited into a bank account held and used by Robert and Patricia Steven. The documents claim that a check authorized by Walters on June 30, 2006, for the sum of $490,000 was deposited into the Steven's bank account July 10, 2006.

"Agents and prosecutors in Washington, D.C., and Maryland are working diligently to trace every dollar that was stolen from the D.C. Tax Office. My advice to anyone who profited from this scheme is to call the FBI today, and don't wait for us to contact you," said Rod Rosenstein, U.S. attorney for Maryland.

The case has been prosecuted by the U.S. Attorneys for Maryland and District of Columbia working with agents from the FBI and IRS Criminal Investigation. Court documents filed in November revealed that in addition to allegedly spending more than $1.4 million at Neimen Marcus, Walters also purchased several properties, including a $420,000 house in Washington and two homes in New Jersey.

The New Jersey homes include a $389,000 home in Washington and a $855,000 property in Bridgeport purchased by Walters.

Devlin is already serving multiple life terms for kidnapping and assaulting Shawn Hornbeck and another Missouri boy, Ben Ownby. This time around, a federal judge went well beyond the sentencing guideline of 30 years.

The sentence came on a guilty plea in October from Devlin to four counts of making pornographic photos and videotapes of Shawn, who was abducted at age 11 in 2002, and two counts for taking Shawn across state lines on trips to Illinois and Arizona with the intent of sexually assaulting him.

The Associated Press generally does not identify victims of sexual assaults, but the identities of Devlin's victims became widely known in the coverage of his arrest and prosecution.

Devlin, 42, was sentenced to multiple life sentences in October after admitting to crimes in Franklin, Washington and St. Louis counties connected to the abductions of Shawn and 13-year-old Ben Ownby in January. Both boys were found four days after Ben was abducted at Devlin's apartment in the St. Louis County town of Kirkwood.

At the federal sentencing hearing Friday, Devlin appeared thinner, with a heavier beard. He showed no emotion, except for an occasional twitch of his shackled hands.

Shawn's parents, Craig and Pam Akers, were at the hearing. Craig Akers appeared noticeably pained when Devlin's attorney, Michael Kielty, told the judge that by pleading guilty, Devlin spared the boys and their families "the torture of going to trial."

The Akers told the judge Devlin had shown their son, and those who love him, no mercy and spoke of how they were without him for 1,558 days.

"I don't think any parent can bear the thought of their child being tortured for one day, yet alone four years," Pam Akers said.

Authorities still haven't determined where Devlin will serve his time. Missouri prison officials are so concerned about his safety because of the nature of his crimes that they have said he may be moved to an out-of-state prison or placed in protective custody.

Despite news reports that Devlin might be provided a different identity, Department of Corrections spokesman Brian Hauswirth said that had never been planned and questioned whether it would be legally permitted.