Contender Alleges Mexico Vote Was Rigged  —  Populist's Plan for Legal Challenge Ignites Boisterous Crowd at Massive Rally in Capital  —  MEXICO CITY, July 8 — Downtown Mexico City swelled Saturday with the accumulated frustration and rage of the poor, who were stoked into a sign-waving …

Hoekstra's Threat  —  I had a feeling there was something more—a lot more—to the Lichtblau-Shane story reporting a surveillance program that Peter Hoekstra hadn't been briefed on.  Only I wasn't sharp enough to do what texas dem did—look for the letter referenced in the article.

Police Abuses in Iraq Detailed  —  Confidential documents cover more than 400 investigations.  Brutality, bribery and cooperation with militia fighters are common, a report says.  —  BAGHDAD — Brutality and corruption are rampant in Iraq's police force, with abuses including the rape of female prisoners …

The Straining Of The Center In Connecticut  —  It was a debate watched all over the country.  Political partisans from the state (and visiting the state) watched their man take on the hated incumbent with bated breath so strong that Sea World's Shamu drooled.

UN blames Israel for humanitarian crisis, hard to children in Gaza  —  JERUSALEM (AP) - The United Nations blamed Israel for a burgeoning humanitarian crisis, including deaths, injuries and harm to children, from its offensive in Gaza in a strong statement released Saturday.

SECRET WAR VS. EVIL KIM  —  TARGETING NUKES  —  July 9, 2006 — SEOUL, South Korea - A program of covert action against nuclear and missile traffic to North Korea and Iran is to be intensified after last week's missile tests by the North Korean regime.  —  Intelligence agencies …

The Immigration Equation  —  The day I met George Borjas, cloistered in his office at the John F. Kennedy School of Government at Harvard while graduate students from Russia, India, China and maybe Mexico mingled in the school cafe, sipping coffee and chattering away in all their tongues …

That's What Friends in High Places Are For  —  LOS ANGELES, July 7 — Although collaborations happen all the time in pop music, they do not generally involve R & B hitmakers and Senator Orrin G. Hatch.  —  But the release of a music producer from a Dubai jail this week …

What's an Iraqi Life Worth?  —  In Iraq, lives differ in value — and so do deaths.  In this disparity lies an important reason why the United States has botched this war.  —  Last November in Haditha , a squad of Marines, outraged at the loss of a comrade, is said to have run amok …

Note to Dense Mainstream Media — Why We Hate Lieberman  —  I am constantly amazed by how uninformed people are when their job is to inform others.  Every press article or editorial I've seen on the Lieberman issue completely misses the point.  We are not against Joe Lieberman because we are leftists who require ideological purity.

Recent Arrests in Terror Plots Yield Debate on Pre-emptive Action by Government  —  WASHINGTON, July 8 — In Miami last month and now in New York, terror cases have unfolded in which suspects have been apprehended before they lined up the intended weapons and the necessary financing or figured …

An Unlikely GOP Comeback Kid?  —  Indicted former House Majority Leader Tom DeLay plans to run for his old seat  —  Could Tom DeLay be headed back to the House?  —  A source close to the ex-Congressman tells TIME that DeLay is planning an aggressive campaign to retake the House seat he quit …

Children among 40 'massacre' dead  —  DEVELOPING STORY  —  A mother with her young boy wounded in crossfire.  —  At least 40 people, including women and children, were killed Sunday in a rampage of violence against Sunnis in a Baghdad neighborhood, emergency police told CNN.

A few words on the Frisch matter, presented in convenient list form (updated)  —  1) I don't feel victimized.  Debbie Frisch is as nutty as the ring around a squirrel's crapper, but I don't think she's a threat.  She's more of an object lesson in having too many cats.

Joking Muslim cleric mocks victims of London blasts  —  A SPEECH by an extremist Muslim cleric praising the London bombers and mocking victims of suicide attacks has been broadcast on the internet to coincide with the anniversary of the July 7 attacks.  —  The audience laughs as Omar Brooks …

Investors Lead Home Sale Boom in New Orleans  —  NEW ORLEANS, July 8 — In a market spurred by speculators and bargain hunters, an extraordinarily large number of houses in the flood-ravaged metropolitan area here are being sold, according to real estate analysts, who say volume and sales prices exceed levels before Hurricane Katrina.

Hollyweirdo of the week - and a salute to old-style masculinity (SUN AM UPDATE)  —  The ST Hollyweirdo of the week award goes to actor Ethan Hawke, who, in light of the war in Iraq (which he opposes) and seeing the President in a cowboy hat and boots, urges men onward to a 'new kind' of masculine identity: