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 …

Show Me the Bodies  —  FOR war photography, Vietnam remains the bloody yardstick.  During the Tet offensive, on Feb. 9, 1968, Time magazine ran a story that was accompanied by photos showing dozens of dead American soldiers stacked like cordwood.  The images remind that the dead are both the most patient and affecting of all subjects.

Bush press secretary says gay marriage amendment civil rights measure; Stumbles when asked to define civil rights  —  At the White House press briefing today, Bush press secretary Tony Snow signaled that Bush considers an amendment barring same-sex marriage a "civil rights" matter …

Supreme Court to hear schools race case  —  WASHINGTON - The Supreme Court agreed Monday to decide whether public schools can consider skin color in student assignments, reopening the contentious issue of affirmative action in a major case that will turn on the votes of President Bush's new justices.

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.

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 …

US confronts brutal culture among its finest sons  —  In the wake of the Haditha massacre come further allegations of outlaw killings in Iraq.  They add to growing unease about US military culture that fails to distinguish civilian from insurgent  —  Paul Harris in New York, Peter Beaumont in London, and Mohammed al-Ubeidy in Baghdad

Cavuto: Media biased if they cover Iraqi insurgency, biased if they don't … On the June 1 edition of Fox News' Your World, host Neil Cavuto complained that "the media is all over" the alleged killings of Iraqi civilians by U.S. Marines in Haditha, Iraq, but that there has been …

McKinney probe enters 3rd month  —  Police unions criticize U.S. attorney  —  Washington - The grand jury investigation of 4th District Congresswoman Cynthia McKinney enters its third month today with no hint from the federal prosecutor about how much longer it will take to settle a case …

Bush Knows His History  —  Two weeks ago, I pointed out that we live in something close to the best of times, with record worldwide economic growth and at a low point in armed conflict in the world.  Yet Americans are in a sour mood, a mood that may be explained by the lack of a sense of history.

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 …