OSCAR DAY  —  On this holiest of Hollywood days, conservatives are obsessing about an awards ceremony devoted to movies they pride themselves on not seeing and indulging in a nostalgia that belongs in the back row of the bingo hall.  Imagine having such deprived mental existence that you sit around …

US envoy hints at strike to stop Iran  —  · Bolton says nuclear plant can be 'taken out'  —  · UN agency meets to send report to security council  —  Julian Borger Washington  —  The US ambassador to the United Nations, John Bolton, has told British MPs that military action …

Scant Drop Seen in Abortion Rate if Parents Are Told  —  For all the passions they generate, laws that require minors to notify their parents or get permission to have an abortion do not appear to have produced the sharp drop in teenage abortion rates that some advocates hoped for, an analysis by The New York Times shows.

President Bush losing support among Hoosiers  —  Survey: Bush's approval rating has dropped 18 points in Indiana over the past year  —  Indiana voted twice to elect George W. Bush to the White House, but an Indianapolis Star poll indicates more than half of Hoosiers now disapprove of the job he's doing as president.

Guards Fault Homeland Security Protection  —  WASHINGTON - The agency entrusted with protecting the U.S. homeland is having difficulty safeguarding its own headquarters, say private security guards at the complex.  —  The guards have taken their concerns to Congress, describing inadequate training …

Court upholds "Solomon Amendment"  —  In a sweeping legal victory for the U.S. military, the Supreme Court ruled unanimously on Monday that Pengtaon recruiters must be assured an equal opportunity with other employers to sign up students at the nation's law schools.

Majority of Americans Believe Iraq Civil War is Likely  —  Washington Post-ABC News Poll Finds Sharp Decline in Optimism About Iraq War  —  An overwhelming majority of the public believe fighting between Sunni and Shiite Muslims in Iraq will lead to civil war and half say the U.S …

Kabuki Congress  —  Imagine being stopped for speeding and having the local legislature raise the limit so you won't have to pay the fine.  It sounds absurd, but it's just what is happening to the 28-year-old law that prohibits the president from spying on Americans without getting a warrant from a judge.

Denying al-Qaida  —  The issue is historical now, but still worth exploring.  Why, for two distinct groups of Americans, has it become a matter of conviction held with religious intensity that there cannot have been any relationship between al-Qaida and Saddam Hussein's regime in Iraq?

Taliban Man at Yale  —  University officials are embarrassed—but not embarrassed enough.  —  Are there no limits to how arrogant and out-of-touch America's Ivy League schools can get?  Last week it emerged that Sayed Rahmatullah Hashemi, former deputy foreign secretary of the Taliban …

Watchdog: What Ever Happened to the Civil Liberties Board?  —  'Outrageous': Kean has been frustrated by the response to commission recommendations  —  March 13, 2006 issue - For more than a year, the Privacy and Civil Liberties Oversight Board has been the most invisible office in the White House.

For Democrats, Many Verses, but No Chorus  —  WASHINGTON, March 5 — From Arizona to Pennsylvania, from Colorado to Connecticut, Democratic candidates for Congress are reading from a stack of different scripts these days.  —  At the Capitol in Hartford the other morning …

Levee Fixes Falling Short, Experts Warn  —  Corps Rejects Claim Of Substandard Soil  —  NEW ORLEANS — The Army Corps of Engineers seems likely to fulfill a promise by President Bush to rebuild New Orleans's toppled flood walls to their original, pre-Katrina height by June 1 …