Lieberman To Start Petition Drive  —  Sen. Joseph I. Lieberman is to announce today he will petition for a place on the November ballot as an "independent Democrat," giving him a chance to stay alive politically should he lose an Aug. 8 primary for the Democratic nomination.

Bush Directed Cheney To Counter War Critic  —  President Bush told the special prosecutor in the CIA leak case that he directed Vice President Dick Cheney to personally lead an effort to counter allegations made by former Ambassador Joseph C. Wilson IV that his administration …

C.I.A. Closes Unit Focused on Capture of bin Laden  —  WASHINGTON, July 3 — The Central Intelligence Agency has closed a unit that for a decade had the mission of hunting Osama bin Laden and his top lieutenants, intelligence officials confirmed Monday.  —  The unit, known as Alec Station …

Mexico conservative creeps toward slim victory  —  MEXICO CITY (Reuters) - Mexico's conservative presidential candidate Felipe Calderon declared victory on Monday in a bitterly contested election and official returns appeared to show his leftist rival could no longer catch him.

N. Korea warns of nuclear war if attacked  —  SEOUL, South Korea - North Korea vowed on Monday to respond with an "annihilating" nuclear strike if its atomic facilities are attacked pre-emptively by the United States.  —  The Bush administration responded sternly, saying while it had no intention …

DISSENT IS PATRIOTIC, II  —  It was a small, but stalwart crowd outside the D.C. offices of the NY Times this afternoon.  Free Republic co-organizer Kristinn Taylor told me he wasn't aware of any Times reporters or photographers covering the event outside their doorstep.

'Army of Islam': From now on, no new information on soldier  —  The deadline made by Cpl. Gilad Shalit's captors on Monday, stating that they would kill the soldier at 6:00 a.m., came and went Tuesday without concrete word or new information.  —  Army Radio reported, however …

Court intervenes in Calif. cross fight  —  SAN DIEGO - The U.S. Supreme Court intervened Monday to stop, at least for now, the removal of a large cross from city property in Southern California.  —  A lower court judge had ordered the city of San Diego to remove the cross or be fined $5,000 a day.

The Great Pro-America Steak-Out  —  On Thursday we noted that Diane Wilson planned to start a hunger strike tomorrow: "I'm just a shrimper whose gonna stop eatin' to stop the war," she said in an interview with Code Pink.  Wilson urged others to join her, and said you don't even have to stop eating altogether …

Al-Zarqawi's cell phone reportedly yields surprises  —  BAGHDAD, Iraq (AP) — Abu Musab al-Zarqawi had the phone numbers of senior Iraqi officials stored in his cell phone, according to an Iraqi legislator.  —  Waiel Abdul-Latif, a member of former Prime Minister Ayad Allawi's party …

Foam Mishap Won't Delay Shuttle Launch  —  CAPE CANAVERAL, July 3 — NASA engineers cleared space shuttle Discovery late Monday for an Independence Day launch after technicians used a makeshift inspection probe to show that the loss of a small piece of foam insulation from the external fuel tank did not pose a safety threat for liftoff.

Ex-GI charged with rape of Iraqi, deaths  —  CHARLOTTE, N.C. - A former soldier discharged because of a "personality disorder" was accused in federal court Monday of executing an Iraqi family so he and other troops could rape and murder a young woman they had been eyeing at a traffic checkpoint.