Lieberman Assails Lamont Over Supporter's Blog Post  —  The bitter Democratic Senate primary in Connecticut erupted in fresh controversy Wednesday over a doctored photo of Sen. Joseph I. Lieberman (D-Conn.) in blackface that was posted by a blogger who has been an influential promoter of challenger Ned Lamont.

Iraq civil war warning for Blair  —  Civil war is a more likely outcome in Iraq than democracy, Britain's outgoing ambassador in Baghdad has warned Tony Blair in a confidential memo.  —  William Patey, who left the Iraqi capital last week, also predicted the break-up of Iraq along ethnic lines.

Lebanese hospital: Number of casualties from Qana air strike is 28, not 52  —  A Tyre hospital on Thursday revised the number of casualties resulting from Israel's air strike on the south Lebanese village of Qana from 52 down to 28.  —  On Wednesday, Human Rights Watch questioned the death toll in the Qana attack.

Senate votes to fund the fence  —  The Senate did an abrupt about-face yesterday, voting overwhelmingly to begin paying for 370 miles of fencing and 500 miles of vehicle barriers on the U.S.-Mexico border, just three weeks after voting against the same spending.

Iran frees bin Laden son -German newspaper  —Text+BERLIN (Reuters) - Iran has freed a son of al Qaeda leader Osama bin Laden from house arrest, a German newspaper reported on Wednesday.  —  Die Welt said the Iranian Revolutionary Guard released Saad bin Laden on July 28 with the aim of sending him to the Syria-Lebanon border.

Harry Reid May Ask Senator Clinton to Preempt Presidential Ambitions to Succeed Him as Senate Majority/Minority Leader  —  Some high level Democratic Party political insiders have shared with TWN details of a potential shift in vectors for several of the major political stars in that party.

Israel resumes strikes in Beirut suburbs  —  BOURJ AL-MULOUK, Lebanon - Israeli war planes renewed strikes against Beirut's southern suburbs on Thursday for the first time in nearly a week and an Israeli missile killed three in a border village, a day after Hezbollah launched its biggest rocket attacks yet against Israel.

Ground to a Halt  —  ISRAEL has finally conceded that air power alone will not defeat Hezbollah.  Over the coming weeks, it will learn that ground power won't work either.  The problem is not that the Israelis have insufficient military might, but that they misunderstand the nature of the enemy.

In Iraq, It's Hard to Trust Anyone in Uniform  —  A Baghdad tailor worked on military and police uniforms.  The government plans to introduce new uniforms that will be difficult to copy.  —  The camouflaged Iraqi commandos who kidnapped 20 people from a pair of central Baghdad offices …

Evolution Fight Shifts Direction in Kansas Vote  —  Less than a year after the Kansas Board of Education adopted science standards that were the most wide-reaching in the nation in challenging Darwin's theory of evolution, voters on Tuesday ousted the conservative majority on the board that favored those guidelines.

Ohio Man Claims Right To Have Sex With Boys  —  Admitted Pedophile Says Children Can Consent  —  CLEVELAND — It was probably not a defense the court had heard before.  —  A suburban Cleveland man accused of sexually assaulting nine disabled boys told a judge Wednesday that his apartment …

Grief and Sacrifice Reach Into the Halls of Congress  —  "We loved him dearly, and we'll miss him more than words can ever express," said a man from Montana on Tuesday upon learning that his nephew had been killed in Iraq.  —  Words like those have been uttered thousands of times in big cities …

Doubling Two Bad Bets?  —  If you think there is an echo in the air when officials discuss the twin crises in Iraq and Lebanon, you're not hearing things.  In both cases the argument for carrying on the destructive current policy comes down to a claim that "we can't afford to let the other guy win."

Video: Hezbollah Terrorist Fires Rockets on Israeli Cities from Civilian Position  —  This is a video that was shot yesterday by Israeli forces in Lebanon.  It shows a Hezbollah terrorist driving up to a home, parking his car, walking next door to another civilian building where he proceeds to fire several rockets on Israeli cities.

Hezbollah claims of combat successes become less and less believable  —  If Hezbollah-run media are to be believed, then 35 Israel Defense Forces soldiers were killed or wounded in Ayta a-Shab , militants downed an Israeli helicopter and destroyed a house in which IDF soldiers were hiding …

White House Asks Congress to Define War Crimes  —  Attorney General Alberto R. Gonzales pressed Congress on Wednesday to refine the definition of war crimes prohibited under the Geneva Conventions, as the Bush administration and lawmakers continued to debate the rules for treatment and trials of terror suspects.