Tide of Arab Opinion Turns to Support for Hezbollah  —  DAMASCUS, Syria, July 27 — At the onset of the Lebanese crisis, Arab governments, starting with Saudi Arabia, slammed Hezbollah for recklessly provoking a war, providing what the United States and Israel took as a wink and a nod to continue the fight.

Pander and Run  —  After years of struggling to define their own approach to post-Sept. 11 foreign policy, Democrats seem finally to have hit on one.  It's called pandering.  In those rare cases when George W. Bush shows genuine sensitivity to America's allies and propounds a broader …

Detainee Abuse Charges Feared  —  An obscure law approved by a Republican-controlled Congress a decade ago has made the Bush administration nervous that officials and troops involved in handling detainee matters might be accused of committing war crimes, and prosecuted at some point in U.S. courts.

Execution of a teenage girl  —  A television documentary team has pieced together details surrounding the case of a 16-year-old girl, executed two years ago in Iran.  —  On 15 August, 2004, Atefah Sahaaleh was hanged in a public square in the Iranian city of Neka.

Congress to Adopt Scaled-Down Rules on Lobbying  —  Unable to agree on major lobbying and ethics legislation, Senate and House leaders have made plans to adopt vastly scaled-back versions of the measures as part of their rules so that lawmakers can claim that they responded to recent congressional scandals.

Bin Laden's "Brothers"  —  The conventional wisdom is that Hezbollah and al Qaeda are rivals, not partners.  The conventional wisdom is wrong.  —  THE LATEST ZAWAHIRI TAPE, his tenth in the last year, will leave some al Qaeda watchers perplexed.  In it, Zawahiri refers to his "brothers" …

A New Direction  —  In my home state of Nevada, in Reno, families are paying $3.12 for the gas they need to drive to work - more than double the price they were paying in 2001.  That means they have hundreds of dollars less each month to spend on food, medicine, and their other needs.

Las Vegas Makes It Illegal to Feed Homeless in Parks  —  LAS VEGAS, July 21 — Gail Sacco pulled green grapes, bread, lunch meat and, of course in this blazing heat, bottles of water from a cardboard box.  A dozen homeless people rose from shady spots in the surrounding city park and snatched the handouts from her.

Wife, Friend Tie Congressman to Consulting Firm  —  Company's Clients Say They Get Access to Va. Republican  —  Two months before Rep. Thomas M. Davis III (R-Va.) became chairman of the powerful House Government Reform Committee in January 2003, one of his close friends formed ICG Government …

Republicans Near a Vote to Increase U.S. Wage  —  WASHINGTON, July 27 — Under intense pressure from their moderate wing, House Republican leaders moved on Thursday toward allowing a vote Friday on an increase in the minimum wage before sending anxious lawmakers home for a month of campaigning in the battle for control of Congress.