ORANGEBURG, S.C. — Democratic presidential hopefuls flashed their anti-war credentials Thursday night, heaping criticism on President Bush’s Iraq policy in the first debate of the 2008 campaign.

ANTIOCH — An ex-convict who befriended an ailing World War II veteran and was then named as beneficiary of his estate was sentenced to 10 years in state prison for elder fraud.

SAN FRANCISCO  — Seven-year-old Kebin Reyes was taken from his bed during an immigration raid and illegally held for 10 hours, according to a civil rights lawsuit filed Thursday against federal officials.

COLUMBIA, S.C. — Republican presidential contender John McCain called the Iraq war “a great tragedy” on Thursday, yet still decried a timetable for a U.S. withdrawal as the Senate voted to begin pulling out troops by Oct. 1.

WASHINGTON — Democratic presidential candidates on Wednesday rebuked Republican rival Rudy Giuliani for suggesting that the United States could face another major terrorist attack if a Democrat is elected in 2008. The former New York mayor did not back down.

SACRAMENTO — The California Legislature on Thursday approved a $6.1 billion prison package that will add beds for inmates and provide a jolt to rehabilitation, a move designed to avoid a federal takeover of the severely overcrowded system.

NEW YORK — The diary is a spiral notebook with candy wrappers and used chopsticks taped inside. A Donna Summer picture is glued to its cover next to a scratch-and-sniff pizza sticker that — after 27 years — still smells like pepperoni. The diary’s cursive-scrawled pages hold Becky Ciletti’s most intimate pubescent thoughts and secrets.

WASHINGTON — The Justice Department released a list of internal documents Thursday focusing on lawmakers’ concerns and media questions about the firings of eight federal prosecutors, but the department resisted congressional demands for copies of the memos.

BAGHDAD — A U.S. officer has been accused of aiding the enemy — a charge that carries the death penalty — for allegedly providing an unmonitored cell phone to detainees while he commanded an MP detachment at the jail that held Saddam Hussein, the military said Thursday.

WASHINGTON — Call it mission accomplished for the new Democratic-controlled Congress after 113 days in power.

MOSCOW — President Vladimir Putin threatened on Thursday to suspend Russia’s compliance with a key European arms control treaty, accusing the United States and NATO of undermining regional stability with its plan to extend an American missile shield to central Europe.