Senate to tackle gay marriage ban  —  WASHINGTON - President Bush and congressional Republicans are aiming the political spotlight this week on efforts to ban gay marriage, with events at both ends of Pennsylvania Avenue — all for a constitutional amendment with scant chance of passage but wide appeal among social conservatives.

Army Manual to Skip Geneva Detainee Rule  —  The Pentagon's move to omit a ban on prisoner humiliation from the basic guide to soldier conduct faces strong State Dept. opposition.  —  WASHINGTON — The Pentagon has decided to omit from new detainee policies a key tenet of the Geneva Convention …

In Bomb Plot News Coverage, a Toronto Newspaper Shines  —  TORONTO, June 4 — The competition between Toronto's four major daily newspapers is often intense, particularly over crime news.  But its results are rarely as one-sided as the coverage that followed the arrests of 17 Ontario residents …

Islamic Militants Declare Victory in Mogadishu  —  NAIROBI, Kenya, June 5 — Islamic militias declared victory today over Somalia's traditional warlords in the battle for control of Mogadishu, quelling months of fierce fighting in the lawless capital but raising new questions about whether this regime …

Reward for the Hereditary Elite . . .  It doesn't matter if you are liberal or conservative, Democrat or Republican.  There is no possible excuse for doing what Congress is poised to do this week: Abolish the estate tax.  —  The federal government faces a future of expanding deficits.

Iran's China Syndrome  —  In the middle of a tirade about the pointlessness of talking with the Bush administration, a senior Iranian official I met in Tehran last month abruptly paused and asked if he could speak off the record.  Then he said: "What we need is an American president …

Uncovering Iraq's Horrors in Desert Graves  —  ON THE EDGE OF THE ASH SHAM DESERT, Iraq, June 3 — Among experts on the American-led team investigating Iraq's mass graves, the skeletal remains lying face-up at the rear of the tangled grave here have been given a name — the Blue Man …

500 Conspiracy Buffs Meet to Seek the Truth of 9/11  —  CHICAGO, June 4 — In the ballroom foyer of the Embassy Suites Hotel, the two-day International Education and Strategy Conference for 9/11 Truth was off to a rollicking start.  —  In Salon Four, there was a presentation under …

And Now For Some Good News  —  By now Americans know the litany: The nation is engaged in a difficult and costly war in Iraq; Iran is trying to build a nuclear weapon; gas prices are high; the costs of reconstructing the Gulf Coast region are huge; illegal immigration is a major problem — and more.

All or Nothing  —  The quest for a moderate Islam may be futile.  —  Islamic Imperialism: A History, by Efraim Karsh (Yale University Press, 288 pp., $30)  —  The week following the Muslim protests in London against the Danish cartoons—with marchers carrying signs calling for the beheading of infidels …