Japan pushes for sanctions on N. Korea  —  UNITED NATIONS - Over Chinese and Russian objections, Japan introduced a draft Security Council resolution Friday that would impose sanctions on North Korea for its series of rocket test-launches and also order a halt to its development of ballistic missiles.

New Links Between Abramoff, White House  —  Lobbyist Jack Abramoff had a half-dozen White House appointments in the early months of the Bush administration, according to logs released yesterday by the U.S. Secret Service.  —  The appointments included a meeting with a domestic policy aide …

Plot to Attack N.Y. Foiled  —  A terrorist plot to attack transit tunnels under New York's Hudson River was broken up in its early planning stages, U.S. authorities said yesterday, with three suspects arrested overseas, including a Lebanese man the FBI said was an al-Qaeda follower.

white flag  —  I wrote some inflammatory comments at a blog by a guy named Jeff Goldstein called protein wisdom that infuriated many bloggers and commenters.  Many of these bloggers emailed my boss at the University of Arizona to tell on me.  —  In hindsight, the things I wrote were over the line of nastiness.

Justices Tacitly Backed Use of Guantánamo, Bush Says  —  WASHINGTON, July 7 — In his most detailed comments to date on the Supreme Court's rejection of his decision to put detainees on trial before military commissions, President Bush said Friday that the court had tacitly approved …

Rudy for President?  —  Well-connected public figures report that they have been told recently by Rudolph Giuliani that, as of now, he intends to run for the Republican presidential nomination in 2008.  —  The former mayor of New York was on top of last month's national Gallup poll measuring …

The Big-Bang Story of U.S. Private Business  —  Did you know that just over the past 11 quarters, dating back to the June 2003 Bush tax cuts, America has increased the size of its entire economy by 20 percent?  In less than three years, the U.S. economic pie has expanded by $2.2 trillion …

DeLay Suggests He Might Not Retire  —  SUGAR LAND, Texas (AP) - Former U.S. Rep. Tom DeLay suggested Friday that he may not be ready for retirement just yet, a day after a federal judge ruled that his name must remain on the November ballot even though he resigned from Congress.

Signs of Detainees' Planning Alleged  —  Three suicides at the U.S. detention facility at Guantanamo Bay, Cuba, may have been part of a broader plot by detainees who were using confidential lawyer-client papers and envelopes to pass handwritten notes their guards could not intercept …

General Faults Marine Response to Iraq Killings  —  WASHINGTON, July 7 — The second-ranking American commander in Iraq has concluded that some senior Marine officers were negligent in failing to investigate more aggressively the killings of 24 Iraqi civilians by marines in Haditha last November …

The New York Jihad flood starts in Lebanon?  —  More information has transpired about one of the designated participants in the alleged plot, which according to the Federal Bureau of Investigation, was to bomb the Holland Tunnel, connecting New Jersey with Manhattan, with the ostensible goal …

U.S. and Russia to Enter Civilian Nuclear Pact  —  Bush Reverses Long-Standing Policy, Allows Agreement That May Provide Leverage on Iran  —  President Bush has decided to permit extensive U.S. civilian nuclear cooperation with Russia for the first time, administration officials said yesterday …

Israeli leader rejects Palestinian truce  —  GAZA CITY, Gaza Strip - The Hamas-led Palestinian government called for a cease-fire Saturday in its violent two-week standoff with Israel, but Israel rejected the offer because it did not call for releasing a soldier held by Hamas militants.

Gays at Globe told to marry or lose benefits  —  Memo to Boston Globe gay and lesbian Guild employees: Get married or lose your domestic partner benefits.  —  Globe staffers have been told that health and dental benefits for gay employees' domestic partners are being discontinued.

rich brown  —  I first met rich when I was 17 years old.  It was at a Fanoclast meeting in New York City.  I was young and impressionable, and he took a mischievous delight in plonking me: by pretending that he was a real representative of Ayn Rand's "John Galt Society."

Get Your Priorities Right  —  A rationalist crusader does the math on global warming.  —  NEW YORK—Bjorn Lomborg is a political scientist by training, but the charismatic, golden-haired Dane is offering me a history lesson.  Two hundred years ago, he explains, sitting forward in his chair …