Myths of Iraq  —  During a recent visit to Baghdad, I saw an enormous failure.  On the part of our media.  The reality in the streets, day after day, bore little resemblance to the sensational claims of civil war and disaster in the headlines.  —  No one with first-hand experience of Iraq …

For Bush's Ex-Aide, Quick Fall After Long Climb  —  WASHINGTON, March 13 — Claude A. Allen often said his religious upbringing took him from a two-room apartment in a poor neighborhood of Washington to a post at the White House.  —  "Probably the vast majority of the kids who grew …

Bush's Approval Ratings Slip In the Latest Harris Poll  —  President Bush's job-approval ratings continue to slip, according to a recent Harris Interactive poll, while job-approval ratings for most of his key cabinet members also remain low.  —  Mr. Bush's current job-approval ratings stand at 36% in March …

Iraqis Find 85 Bodies in 24-Hour Period  —  BAGHDAD, Iraq - Police in the past 24 hours have found the bodies of at least 85 people killed by execution-style shootings — a gruesome wave of apparent sectarian reprisal slayings, officials said Tuesday.  —  The dead included at least 27 bodies stacked …

Isaac Hayes Quits 'South Park'  —  NEW YORK - Isaac Hayes has quit "South Park," where he voices Chef, saying he can no longer stomach its take on religion.  —  Hayes, who has played the ladies' man/school cook in the animated Comedy Central satire since 1997, said in a statement Monday that he feels a line has been crossed.

Web Magazine Raises Doubts Over a Symbol of Abu Ghraib  —  The online magazine Salon is challenging the identity of a man profiled by The New York Times in a front-page article on Saturday who says he is the iconic hooded figure in a published photograph who was abused by Americans at Abu Ghraib prison in 2003 and 2004.

Study Links Ambien Use to Unconscious Food Forays  —  The sleeping pill Ambien seems to unlock a primitive desire to eat in some patients, according to emerging medical case studies that describe how the drug's users sometimes sleepwalk into their kitchens, claw through their refrigerators …

US postwar Iraq strategy a mess, Blair was told  —  Senior British diplomatic and military staff gave Tony Blair explicit warnings three years ago that the US was disastrously mishandling the occupation of Iraq, according to leaked memos.  —  John Sawers, Mr Blair's envoy in Baghdad …

Sudden Jihad Syndrome  —  "Individual Islamists may appear law-abiding and reasonable, but they are part of a totalitarian movement, and as such, all must be considered potential killers."  I wrote those words days after 9/11 and have been criticized for them ever since.

Judge Calls Halt to Penalty Phase of Terror Trial  —  ALEXANDRIA, Va., March 13 — An angry federal judge delayed the sentencing trial of Zacarias Moussaoui on Monday and said she was considering ending the prosecution's bid to have him executed after the disclosure that a government lawyer had improperly coached some witnesses.

Drop Out of the College  —  The Electoral College is an antidemocratic relic.  Everyone who remembers 2000 knows that it can lead to the election of the candidate who loses the popular vote as president.  But the Electoral College's other serious flaws are perhaps even more debilitating for a democracy.