At a Fourth of July reception at U.S. Ambassador Christopher R. Hill's home in Baghdad, Vice President Joe Biden implored Iraqi leaders to move forward with forming a government, invoking the divisions among America's Founding Fathers: “When they signed that declaration, many of them did not even like one another,” he said. "My plea to you is to continue what you started." In a clear reference to Iran's meddling in Iraq's post-election politics, Biden added, “You should not, and I’m sure you will not, let any state, from the United States to any state in the region, dictate what will become of you all." Biden also met with various Iraqi leaders, including Prime Minister Nuri Kamal al-Maliki; in a statement Khalid al-Assadi, a member of al-Maliki's party said that “process of forming a government is going on quietly.”

While BP has insisted it will pay to clean up the oil spill wreaking havoc on the Gulf of Mexico, documents show that last month the energy giant demanded almost $400 million—or 40 percent of the $1 billion it spent in May—from it partners in the well. It asked for $272 million from Anadarko Petroleum Corp. and $111 million from the Mitsui Oil Exploration Co. of Japan. The amounts follow the joint operating agreement among the three companies, which gives each a share of liability equivalent to its share of ownership (BP owns 65 percent of the well, Anadarko owns 25, and Mitsui owns 10). “We would expect the various parties involved in this to live up to their responsibilities,” said BP spokesman Toby Odone. BP's partners, however, aren’t on the same page: Anadarko says that BP engaged in “gross negligence” and “willful misconduct," and if this was proved in court, Anadarko could pass back liability to BP. Mitsui has not been as aggressive, stating that "because we do not have the expertise required to fully evaluate the possible causes of the accident, we have decided to retain our own outside engineering experts to advise us on the matter.”

Calls for GOP Chairman Michael Steele to reconsider his post continue to be heard—and they’re coming from increasingly high-profile colleagues. On Sunday, Senator John McCain became the latest and most visible Republican yet to question Steele’s leadership, saying on ABC’s This Week that the gaffe-prone leader of the Republican National Committee “is going to have to assess as to whether he can still lead the Republican Party.” Steele is under fire for being caught on tape calling the conflict in Afghanistan “a war of Obama’s choosing” and bucking his party’s position by suggesting that it cannot be won. McCain called his words “wildly inaccurate.”

We (almost) have a winner: According to exit polls, Bronislaw Komorowski appears to have beaten out his more traditionalist opponent, Jaroslaw Kaczynski of the Law and Justice Party, to win Poland's presidential election. Polls broadcast on the Polish public television station TVP reveal that Komorowski garnered 53.1 percent of the vote, while Kaczynski finished with 46.9 percent. On Sunday, Kaczynski, the identical twin brother of the late President Lech Kaczynski, who died in a plane crash in April, conceded and congratulated Komorowski on his win. "Polish democracy has won," Komorowski announced, urging Poland to forge a "national unity" in a nation where "divisions are too great.” With Komorowski’s likely victory, Poland's president will now be of the same party as its prime minister, a dynamic that will allow the PM to push forward with its legislative agenda.

A day after Vice President Joe Biden and his wife, Dr. Jill Biden, landed in Iraq, a loud blast shook the U.S. embassy compound in Baghdad. “There was a small explosion in the International Zone,” said a U.S. official. “The incident is being investigated. There were no injuries or property damage.” An aide assured media that the Bidens are “safe and unharmed.” As at least five mortar rounds fell in what was formerly known as the Green Zone, according to Iraqi police, as sirens rang and a loudspeaker blasted: "Duck and cover. Get away from the window. Take cover and await further instructions.” Biden’s holiday weekend trip to Iraq was unannounced until he arrived yesterday, when officials said he was on a mission to assess the state of the country leading up to Obama’s planned end to the U.S. "combat mission" in Iraq at the end of August. He was also tasked with encouraging Iraqi leaders to break the four-month stalemate that has followed March’s parliamentary elections.

Two horses pulling a wagon at Bellevue, Iowa's Heritage Day Celebration Parade went out of control, running into crowds and injuring dozens. A total of 24 people were taken to area hospitals, five in critical condition and five in severe condition. The injured range in age from 2 to 62 years old, and according to local authorities more than half the injured are younger than 12. "I am especially saddened because the accident occurred during the events celebrating Independence Day, which is a day that should be filled with pride and joy for all Iowans and Americans," said Iowa Gov. Chet Culver in a statement.

On Sunday evening, a terminal at New York City's John F. Kennedy Airport was evacuated due to a bomb scare. A Port Authority officer noticed an unattended bag in the terminal, and according to Port Authority spokesman John Kelly, shortly thereafter officials received an anonymous call warning of a bomb in the terminal. The terminal was evacuated, and CNN reports that it has been reopened.

Gaga, ooh-la-la: On Friday chameleon-esque pop heavyweight Lady Gaga became the first living person to amass more than 10 million Facebook fans, or so says Famecount.com, a British group that measures online popularity. As of Sunday, the 24-year-old singer boasted 10,333,791 fans, eclipsing President Barack Obama's 9,670,042. Gaga thanked “all the little monsters” who shot her to the top in a video posted on the popular social-networking site. She still has a way to go to reach Michael Jackson's 14 million Facebook fanbase, or those of Texas Holdem Poker, which has a whopping 20 million admirers.

One of America's greatest annual competitive events has named a victor. Joey "Jaws" Chestnut and his iron stomach won Sunday's 95th Nathan's Hot Dog Eating Contest at Brooklyn's Coney Island—his fourth consecutive triumph. Chestnut downed a whopping 54 hot dogs in 10 minutes, outshining his competitor Tim "Eater X" Janus' 45—but Chestnut was still several dogs shy of the record-breaking 68 that he consumed last year. "I came out and knew what I had to do," he said, adding, "I was slower than I wanted to be.” The event did not lack drama, as six-time champion and Chestnut archrival (and last year's second-place eater) Takeru "The Tsunami" Kobayashi bum-rushed the stage and was arrested. Kobayashi did not compete this year after refusing to sign a contract with Major League Eating (yes, that exists), hoping to compete in events sponsored by other groups. As police hand-cuffed Kobayashi, crowds chanted “Let him eat! Let him eat!”

After months of pent-up demand led Eclipse, the latest installment of the Twilight franchise, to a record Wednesday opening, the film slowed its pace throughout the weekend but still landed on top of the box office with a hefty $162 million five-day take. While impressive, the figure registers on the lower end of expectations, and ranks about $3 million lower than the previous Twilight flick. Finishing in the second spot is director M. Night Shyamalan’s latest thriller, The Last Airbender, which overcame fiercely negative reviews to score a middling $40 million debut. One notch below, Pixar’s family hit Toy Story 3 crossed the $300 million mark and is expected to slip past Finding Nemo as the studio’s highest-grossing film.

There’s nothing like a dynastic wedding celebration to energize a sleepy town of 8,000. Recently leaked as the site of Chelsea Clinton’s July 31 nuptials, Rhinebeck, New York, is now a hotbed of speculation, activity, and anticipation. “It’s crazy. There’s this insane buzz,” said one local resident. “You can’t walk down the street without someone asking about Chelsea’s wedding.” Though none of the details are officially confirmed, rumor has it that the affair will take place at the private former estate of John Jacob Astor, a tucked-away mansion with a well-maintained 50-acre lawn. Secretary of State Hillary Clinton confessed on Polish television that preparations are keeping her busy. “It’s truly the most important thing in my life right now,” said the mother of the bride.

Aren’t fireworks fun on the Fourth of July? Now imagine if every day were the Fourth of July. That’s what life is like all summer for the residents of Anaheim, CA, who live near Disneyland. "The good part is I don't have to leave the living room to see fireworks," said one retiree who has lived a few blocks from the park for 30 years. "The bad part is that it's so loud." But it isn’t just the nightly crackling and flashing that get on residents’ nerves, even though they have added double-paned windows and extra insulation to soundproof their walls. Activists claim the fireworks send their dogs into howling frenzies and pollute their lawns, roofs, swimming pools and cars with ash and corrosive sulfur. So maybe it’s not exactly the happiest place on Earth.

Authorities appear to have hit a drug-trafficking jackpot: For the first time ever, Ecuadorean officials—using U.S. Drug Enforcement Administration intel—have found and seized a huge submarine used by drug traffickers in South America. The 100-foot long, diesel-powered, air-conditioned craft could carry multi-ton shipments of cocaine. It was uncovered in Ecuador, on a tributary that leads to the Pacific Ocean. One arrest was made in conjunction with the case, as the DEA continues its investigation.

Can we expect a new generation of raucous town halls in the near future? The Obama administration has announced that it will hold its first official public meeting about the Gulf disaster on July 12 and 13 in New Orleans. The panel investigating the crisis hopes to "hear directly from the people of the Gulf Coast whose lives and livelihoods have been so profoundly affected by the BP Deepwater Horizon spill,” said former U.S. Senator Bob Graham and William Reilly, former head of the Environmental Protection Agency, in a statement. The commission has six months to investigate and make recommendations for new rules, to make sure that “any offshore drilling is done safely.”

Promising news in the fight against HIV/AIDS: Scientists may be seeing progress in the effort to use gene therapy to fight the virus that causes the disease. After inserting human stem cells into mice, researchers discovered that the cells multiplied into immune cells that provided protection against HIV infection. "That's like nature telling us how to cure AIDS," said Paula Cannon, one of the study’s co-authors. The idea is "to engineer a patient's own cells so they'd be resistant to HIV." The process, which has only been conducted on mice so far—research on humans won’t be done for another four years—was written about in Nature Biotechnology.

Did you ever think that a less audible car engine would be a bad thing? As hybrid vehicles rapidly increase in popularity, advocates for the blind and several safety groups are voicing concerns that the comparative silence of the green cars could cause an uptick in accidents. In fact, government research has shown that hybrid cars are twice as likely to be involved in pedestrian crashes at low speeds than other types, as they can approach unnoticed by unsuspecting walkers or people with vision problems. Congress is even considering a law requiring hybrid manufacturers to add an artificial sound to their engines, and many auto plants are already testing out ideas. “This is an example of too much of a good thing,” said one advocate of adding sounds. “Cars got quieter, that was good. Suddenly they got to be so quiet that it added an element of danger.”

Is a new “iron curtain” lowering on democracies around the globe? Speaking in Krakow, Poland, Secretary of State Hillary Rodham Clinton described intolerant governments like a “steel vise” that is “slowly crushing civil society and the human spirit"—as social activists and advocates are being harassed, prosecuted, jailed, or killed internationally. Without these groups, she said, democracies are in jeopardy. Clinton singled out counties including Zimbabwe, the Democratic Republic of Congo, Ethiopia, Cuba, China, Iran, and Russia, among others. "Democracies don't fear their own people,” Clinton said. “They recognize that citizens must be free to come together, to advocate and agitate."

A year after Rafael Nadal watched the Wimbledon final from home, where he was nursing an injury, he stormed back to take his second title at the All-England Club. He defeated the hard-hitting Tomas Berdych of the Czech Republic 6-4, 7-5, 6-4 in a little over two hours Sunday. The 24-year-old Spaniard now has eight Grand Slam titles to his name, including the French Open crown he won in May. Nadal did not need to play his best tennis to win, committing 21 unforced errors. But over and over again, Berdych let him off the hook—he failed to convert any of his four break points and won just 24 points on Nadal's serve all day.

Mexicans in nearly half of the country’s states will head to the polls today to elect new governors and local officials. But many of the candidates they might once have voted for never made it to the ballot after the bloodiest campaign in 15 years. In Tamaulipas, the favorite for the governor’s seat was gunned down in his car this week. And elsewhere, a mayoral candidate was shot dead, many others stepped down, and some 550 electoral officials resigned. The drug cartels that have wreaked havoc across the country are being blamed for the chaos. "We're a bit nervous, but we have to go out to vote because it's our only weapon for the future," said one voter in Nuevo Laredo. The vote is also being seen as a referendum on President Felipe Calderon’s crackdown on gangs, which began over three years ago and sparked an unending string of attacks.

As the federal government tries to figure out what it will take to restore the Gulf of Mexico to its state before the massive oil spill, BP has become its most significant ally. To some, it simply represents a marriage of convenience, combining local expertise with federal oversight. But with BP well aware that it will be footing the bill for cleanup operations, voices in Congress are arguing that the relationship is too close for comfort. "I want this to be independent, for the credibility of the information," said Sen. Ben Cardin, chair of the Environment and Public Works Subcommittee on Water and Wildlife. Currently, BP has a say in every decision, which experts say is more productive than the approach after the Exxon Valdez spill, when Exxon hired its own experts to follow federal officials and replicate every test to have their own analysis.

Though they may be spending much of their campaign defending his policies, Democrats on the ballot this November won’t have President Obama’s name at the top of their ticket to draw in voters. And many are beginning to worry about it. So with control of the House and Senate in play, many Democratic hopefuls find themselves relying heavily on a strategy that hinges on re-invigorating the many young and first-time voters that ushered Obama to victory in 2008. In tight races, the increased turnout could be decisive. “If you believed in hope in 2008, if you believed in change in 2008, this election is about delivering on that change,” said Steve Driehaus, an incumbent congressman from Ohio. The prevailing Republican counter-attack seems to be turning even a local House election into a national referendum on major issues.

Capping a dramatic two weeks that saw General Stanley McChrystal swept out of his role as top U.S. military commander in Afghanistan, his replacement David Petraeus was formally sworn in on Sunday in Kabul. Petraeus, now officially in charge of NATO’s International Security Alliance, had kind words for his predecessor and promised to maintain what he saw as the progress of recent months. “We must help Afghan leaders develop their security forces and governance capacity,” he said, calling this period a “critical moment” in the war effort. “And, in performing these tasks,” he continued, “we must clearly pursue the insurgents relentlessly.”