Iran ready for 'serious' nuclear talks  —  TEHRAN, Iran - Iran's top nuclear negotiator said Tuesday that Tehran was ready to enter "serious negotiations" over its disputed nuclear program but did not say whether it was willing to suspend uranium enrichment — the West's key demand.

Missing Fox News crew: Blogburst  —  Fox News Channel reporter Steve Centanni and freelance cameraman Olaf Wiig are still missing.  It has now been more than a week since their kidnapping at gunpoint in Gaza by unknown terrorists.  FNC top management, the journalists' families …

CT-Sen: New Rasmussen Poll Shows Closer Race  —  I became a subscriber to Rasmussen reports yesterday in order to increase the amount of information I have available to make Senate and Governor forecasts.  They may be a Republican firm, but I am already finding the information worth it.

Poll: GOP up after terror arrests  —  WASHINGTON — The arrest of terror suspects in London has helped buoy President Bush to his highest approval rating in six months and dampen Democratic congressional prospects to their lowest in a year.  —  In a USA TODAY/Gallup Poll taken Friday through Sunday …

Washington Whispers  —  Don't laugh, but a loaner training kayak in the pool of the House of Representatives gym made the difference in President Bush's House victory for a pork-busting line-item veto.  "That's spot on," says Colorado Rep. Mark Udall, who helped talk 34 other Democrats into backing the measure 247 to 172.

The Fertility Gap  —  Liberal politics will prove fruitless as long as liberals refuse to multiply.  —  The midterm election looms, and once again efforts begin afresh to increase voter participation.  It has become standard wisdom in American politics that voter turnout is synonymous …

A Case for Accountability  —  (White House photo by David Bohrer, under the header "President Bush, Secretary Rumsfeld Discuss Progress in Iraq," from August 2003.)  —  That was then: … This is now: … What we have here, ladies and gentlemen, is a President who has had to face …

Obsessed Bin Laden wanted to kill Whitney Houston's husband  —  Terror mastermind Osama bin Laden is so obsessed with singer Whitney Houston he thought about killing her husband, Bobby Brown, it was claimed last night.  —  The suggestion is made by Sudanese poet and novelist Kola Boof …

Too Few Overachievers  —  Academically Stressed Students Aren't the Country's Norm  —  Be careful when you visit Walt Whitman High School in Bethesda.  It is full of unhappy, overworked teenagers.  Julie went into a tailspin when her private admissions advisertold her she had no chance of getting into Stanford.

President on Another Planet  —  For a moment there, I was almost encouraged.  George W. Bush, the most resolutely incurious and inflexible of presidents, was reported last week to have been surprised at seeing Iraqi citizens — who ought to be grateful beneficiaries of the American occupation …

Who's the senator who wants spending kept secret?  —  The Washington DC Examiner Newspaper, The Examiner  —  WASHINGTON - A Senate staffer — who shall remain nameless here — must have awakened on the wrong side of the bed Monday morning.  Said staffer exploded in response …

Throwing in the Towel  —  The constant calls, the people frightening his children, and the demonstrations in front of his home apparently became a little too much.  —  Dario Ringach, an associate neurobiology professor at the University of California at Los Angeles, decided this month to give …

How We Ended Welfare, Together  —  TEN years ago today I signed the Personal Responsibility and Work Opportunity Reconciliation Act.  By then I had long been committed to welfare reform.  As a governor, I oversaw a workfare experiment in Arkansas in 1980 and represented the National Governors Association …