Dubai Port Company to Divest Itself of American Holdings  —  The United Arab Emirates company that was attempting to take over management operations at six U.S. ports announced today that it will divest itself of all American interests.  —  The announcement appears to head off a major confrontation …

Report posits that Chris Matthews has accepted hefty speaking fees from conservative groups  —  A new report advanced to RAW STORY Thursday suggests that Chris Matthews, the star of the Sunday talk show circuit's Hardball, has accepted hefty speaking fees from an array of conservative trade associations.

Faith Hill, Tim McGraw Blast 'Humiliating' Katrina Cleanup  —  Country Stars Lash Out in Anger Over Conditions in Storm-Ravaged States  —  March, 8, 2006 — Faith Hill and Tim McGraw — two stars who usually stay out of politics — blasted the Hurricane Katrina cleanup effort …

Senator Resumes Lobbyist Huddles  —  After saying in January that he would end his regular meetings with lobbyists, Sen. Rick Santorum (Pa.), the third-ranking GOP leader in the Senate, has continued to meet with many of the same lobbyists at the same time and on the same day of the week.

Boy in a Bubble  —  What George Clooney doesn't know about life.  —  Memo to: The Academy  —  From: Just another viewer  —  Re: Advice, as if you wanted more  —  I cannot remember a time when, in the days after the Academy Awards show, it was not criticized, and even blasted.

Official Says Shiite Party Suppressed Body Count  —  BAGHDAD, March 8 — Days after the bombing of a Shiite shrine unleashed a wave of retaliatory killings of Sunnis, the leading Shiite party in Iraq's governing coalition directed the Health Ministry to stop tabulating execution-style shootings …

Zarqawi Was Here  —  BIARA, IRAQ - The PUK's Minister of the Interior ordered 20 heavily armed Peshmerga soldiers to go with me to the borderland mountain village of Biara.  For years the village was occupied by Ansar Al Islam, the Kurdish-Arab-Persian branch of Al Qaeda in Northern Iraq.

Unholy Alliance  —  Iran secretly agreed to assist the Taliban in its war against U.S. forces in October 2001, according to the transcript of a high-level Taliban official's tribunal session at Guatanamo Bay, Cuba.  The seven-page transcript, as well as thousands of pages of similar documents …

Iran Is Building A Nuclear Weapon  —  A Nuclear Composition based on one of my favorite El Greco's "An Allegory with a 'Believer' Lighting a Candle in the Company of an Ape and a Fool (Fábula)" ca.  1589-92; National Gallery of Scotland, Edinburgh  —  For some months now …

South Dakota's Top Paper Refuses To Editorialize On Abortion Ban  —  NEW YORK Although the biggest abortion rights story in 33 years is taking place in its own backyard, South Dakota's largest newspaper will not editorialize on the controversial statewide abortion ban just recently approved by its legislature.