Israel's Lost Moment  —  Israel's war with Hezbollah is a war to secure its northern border, to defeat a terrorist militia bent on Israel's destruction, to restore Israeli deterrence in the age of the missile.  But even more is at stake.  Israel's leaders do not seem to understand how ruinous …

Lieberman rival owns stock in Wal-Mart  —  Connecticut millionaire businessman Ned Lamont, who sharply criticized the employment practices of Wal-Mart this week in his campaign to unseat Sen. Joe Lieberman in the Democrat primary, owns stock in the company, Senate records reveal.

GOP Bid On Wages, Estate Tax Is Blocked  —  Senate Democrats blocked a Republican bid to combine a tax cut for the wealthy with a wage increase for the working poor last night, adding a volatile economic issue to this fall's congressional campaigns.  —  GOP leaders fell three votes short …

Ahmadinejad's call to destroy Israel draws French condemnation  —  Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad said Thursday the solution to the Middle East crisis was to destroy Israel, Iranian state media reported.  —  In a speech during an emergency meeting of Muslim leaders in Malaysia …

Iraqi Shiites chant 'Death to Israel'  —  BAGHDAD, Iraq - Hundreds of thousands of Shiites chanting "Death to Israel" and "Death to America" marched through the streets of Baghdad's biggest Shiite district Friday in a show of support for Hezbollah militants battling Israeli troops in Lebanon.

More Frequent Heat Waves Linked to Global Warming  —  U.S. and European Researchers Call Long Hot Spells Likely  —  Heat waves like those that have scorched Europe and the United States in recent weeks are becoming more frequent because of global warming, say scientists who have studied decades …

Video - Clinton to Rumsfeld: Why should we believe your assurances now?  —  United States Senator Hillary Clinton (D-NY) tore into Secretary of Defense Donald Rumsfeld today as he testified before a Senate hearing.  —  Yesterday, Clinton wrote Rumsfeld urging him to appear in open proceedings …

Unlikely Trail Boss  —  Tom Swan is mumbling into his cellphone as he speeds down Route 8.  —  That's nothing new.  These days the phone seems to be permanently affixed to his head, like a nose or an ear, and Swan's barely audible, fragmented speech patterns have been rued by Connecticut's political reporters for years.

The End Of the Right?  —  Is conservatism finished?  —  What might have seemed an absurd question less than two years ago is now one of the most important issues in American politics.  The question is being asked — mostly quietly but occasionally publicly — by conservatives themselves …

Clinton The Fighter  —  Kevin Drum writes: … People have rather weird ideas about Bill Clinton.  Remember that he didn't enter the 1988 race because he worried that the Reagan revolution hadn't yet run its course.  And remember, too, that his 1992 campaign was supposed to do nothing …

Bush's fundamentalism seen as a decisive, negative factor in his policies  —  Former White House reporter Saul Friedman says that, for the first time in modern American history, a president's religion is determining policies, and the press should do a better job reporting it.  —  saulfriedman@comcast.net

Officials Say Kerik Faces a Second Investigation  —  Former Police Commissioner Bernard B. Kerik is under federal investigation for possible financial improprieties unrelated to the crimes he pleaded guilty to last month in state court, two law enforcement officials said yesterday.