Democrats Suggest Double Standard on Leaks  —  Key Democratic legislators yesterday joined Republicans in saying they do not condone the alleged leaking of classified information that led to last week's firing of a veteran CIA officer.  But they questioned whether a double standard exists …

Bin Laden Tape: U.S. Is at War With Islam  —  CAIRO, Egypt — Usama bin Laden issued new threats in an audiotape broadcast on Arab television Sunday and accused the United States and Europe of supporting a "Zionist" war on Islam by cutting off funds to the Hamas-led Palestinian government.

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 …

Been there, done that  —  Talk of a U.S. strike on Iran is eerily reminiscent of the run-up to the Iraq war.  —  IRAN'S ANNOUNCEMENT that it has enriched a minute amount of uranium has unleashed urgent calls for a preventive U.S. airstrike from the same sources that earlier urged war on Iraq.

Inspectors Find More Torture at Iraqi Jails  —  Top General's Pledge To Protect Prisoners 'Not Being Followed'  —  BAGHDAD — Last Nov. 13, U.S. soldiers found 173 incarcerated men, some of them emaciated and showing signs of torture, in a secret bunker in an Interior Ministry compound in central Baghdad.

Democrats Hope to Divide G.O.P. Over Stem Cells  —  COLUMBIA, Mo., April 19 — Democrats are pressing their support for embryonic stem cell research in Congressional races around the country, seeking to move back to center stage an issue they believe resonates with voters and to exploit …

Bush's Thousand Days  —  The Hundred Days is indelibly associated with Franklin D. Roosevelt, and the Thousand Days with John F. Kennedy.  But as of this week, a thousand days remain of President Bush's last term — days filled with ominous preparations for and dark rumors of a preventive war against Iran.

Canadian forces face continued rocket attacks  —  Kandahar, Afghanistan — Suspected Taliban militants launched a daring, daylight attack on the main coalition base in southern Afghanistan Sunday.  No casualties were reported.  —  Military officials confirmed that rockets were fired …

President Lincoln 'Lied' Us Into War Too  —  The President "lied" us into war.  Much of the pre-war intelligence was wrong.  The civilian defense chief was detested as "brusque, domineering and unbearably unpleasant to work with."  Civil liberties were abridged.

Can The New Sheriff Tame The West Wing?  —  Josh Bolten started by shaking up the staff.  Next comes a five-point White House "recovery plan"  —  At the George W. Bush campaign headquarters in Austin, Texas, in 1999, policy director Josh Bolten was a low-key Washingtonian in a building full of brash Texans.

As schools struggle, ends don't always meet  —  Rich districts do fundraisers, poor districts do without  —  Parents resort to fundraisers to boost teacher salaries, buy library books and even replace classroom doors.  —  Bond elections once reserved for new schools or fancy stadiums …

At Los Angeles Times, a Columnist Who Used a False Web Name Loses His Blog  —  In the last few years, newspapers around the country have been testing the waters of the seldom-restrained, often scrappy world of Web-based journalism by setting their reporters loose to write their own blogs.

Parade for 'warriors'  —  Thousands downtown welcome 278th Regimental Combat Team home after deployment to Iraq  —  Up to 20,000 people turned out Saturday for a parade to welcome home the National Guard's 278th Regimental Combat Team, providing a big-city atmosphere powered by small-town values.

Vote for Mayor Points to Change in New Orleans  —  NEW ORLEANS, April 23 — Mayor C. Ray Nagin may have led Saturday's mayoral election, but he now faces a popular and better-financed opponent on a political landscape utterly changed by Hurricane Katrina, one in which the long-running dominance …

"No Poop to Scoop...What Will We Do?"  —  Globalization has its downside.  There is nothing that humans do (or don't do) that doesn't have a downside.  But I often find myself amused by how people misidentify precisely which parts of the process it might be that are so awful.