Secrets of the CIA  —  A former colleague says the fired Mary McCarthy 'categorically denies' being the source of the leak on agency renditions.  —  April 24, 2006 - A former CIA officer who was sacked last week after allegedly confessing to leaking secrets has denied she was the source …

Police: Many casualties in Egyptian resort blasts  —  Three explosions rocked the Sinai resort city of Dahab on Monday night leaving at least 100 dead and wounded, according to the doctor who runs Egypt's rescue squad in the peninsula.  —  Dr. Said Essa said he was headed to the scene of the blasts …

Bush's approval ratings slide to new low  —  Poll: Only one-third say he's handling his job well  —  WASHINGTON (CNN) — President Bush's approval ratings have sunk to a personal low, with only a third of Americans saying they approve of the way he is handling his job, a national poll released Monday said.

Transcript: Bin Laden accuses West  —  The following is an edited translation of an audiotape attributed to al-Qaeda leader Osama bin Laden, parts of which were aired by Aljazeera on April 23, 2006.  (It is not known where or when the recording was made.)  —  Praise be to Allah …

Cole Fire  —  Yale is set to ditch Taliban Man and may hire a notorious anti-Israel professor.  —  Sayed Rahmatullah Hashemi's luck is running out.  Eight weeks ago the Taliban diplomat turned special Yale student made a media splash on the cover of the New York Times magazine in which he proclaimed …

INTRODUCING HOT AIR  —  I'm excited to introduce you today to Hot Air—a conservative Internet broadcast network I founded with a team of multi-talented bloggers.  (Press release here.)  —  Internet video is booming.  Apple's iTunes store has sold a gazillion videos since its debut.

The Sad Case Of Andrea Clarke  —  Yesterday, as I was perusing the Democratic Underground, I ran across a very troubling story.  I'm reposting it here, so that you can read it just as I did last night (the phone numbers present are x'd out, although you can read them in the original post)...

A Religious Push Against Gay Unions  —  WASHINGTON, April 23 — About 50 prominent religious leaders, including seven Roman Catholic cardinals and about a half-dozen archbishops, have signed a petition in support of a constitutional amendment blocking same-sex marriage.

An Experiment in Journalism  —  I went to the Middle East for six months so I could expand my freelance writing portfolio.  But I found, after a few months, there may be a better way forward than publishing disconnected dispatches here and there for low pay.  —  The mainstream media is an industry in decline.

Iran President: Israel Is a 'Fake Regime'  —  TEHRAN, Iran - Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad on Monday renewed his criticism of Israel, calling it a "fake regime" that cannot continue to exist.  —  "Some 60 years have passed since the end of World War II.

Bush Admits Mistakes in Iraq, Defends Tactics  —  President Bush today said mistakes were made in planning for the Iraq invasion, but he defended the troop level he ordered in the initial strike, saying he would have committed the same number if given a second chance.

Dissident President  —  George W. Bush has the courage to speak out for freedom.  —  There are two distinct marks of a dissident.  First, dissidents are fired by ideas and stay true to them no matter the consequences.  Second, they generally believe that betraying those ideas would constitute the greatest of moral failures.