Breaking: Group claims responsibility for Centanni abduction (Video added)  —  The "Holy Jihad Brigades"?  Whose very first act of holy jihad is to kidnap a reporter and a cameraman?  —  That's a shrewd way to get press, but at the rather large expense of antagonizing the Palestinian terror …

12 arrested after Northwest Airlines turned back  —  Passengers 'looked into plastic bags, passed cell phones'  —  AMSTERDAM, Netherlands (CNN) — Dutch police said Wednesday that 12 passengers were in custody after a Northwest Airlines flight bound for Mumbai, India, returned to Amsterdam when several people on board aroused concern.

A Law Unto Herself  —  TO end her opinion in American Civil Liberties Union v. National Security Agency — the case that enjoins President Bush's warrantless surveillance program — Judge Anna Diggs Taylor quoted Earl Warren (referring to him as "Justice Warren," not "Chief Justice Warren," …

Don't Marry Career Women  —  Guys: A word of advice.  Marry pretty women or ugly ones.  Short ones or tall ones.  Blondes or brunettes.  Just, whatever you do, don't marry a woman with a career.  —  Why?  Because if many social scientists are to be believed, you run a higher risk of having a rocky marriage.

"Rockey I": If it sounds too good to be true...  The good news is that CNN seems to have finally stop obsessing over John Mark Karr.  Instead, they've found a new soap opera to go ga-ga over, Katrina survivor Rockey Vaccarella, who drove his FEMA trailer from his home in ravaged St. Bernard Parish …

E&P editor attacks bloggers over Reutersgate  —  I was going to make the title, "E&P editor attacks bloggers over Reutersgate, misrepresents pretty much everything," but his article's only the first of two parts.  So perhaps the misrepresentations will be addressed in today's exciting conclusion.

Alaska Gov. Murkowski Concedes Defeat in GOP Gubernatorial Primary  —  ANCHORAGE, Alaska — Republican Gov. Frank Murkowski, whose perceived missteps over the past four years have turned him into one of the most unpopular governors in state history, soundly lost his bid for re-election …

L'Affaire GoldFrisch III: We All Knew This Was Coming  —  This post was co-written with Tim Dreier of The One-Handed Economist; both of us are graduates of the University of Oregon in Eugene, where Deb Frisch now lives.  As a matter of full disclosure, we've had a few scrapes with Frisch of our own …

Comments Haunt Another Senator  —  In a moment of unusual candor for a veteran senator fighting for his political life, Conrad Burns (R-Mont.) offered this blunt self-assessment a few months ago: "I can self-destruct in one sentence," he told supporters.  "Sometimes in one word."

Is the Bush Doctrine Dead?  —  The president's critics are wrong.  That includes the neocons.  —  In recent months, we have been bombarded with reports of the death of the Bush Doctrine.  Of course, there have been many such reports since the doctrine was first promulgated at the start …

On the Trail of the Fast-Food Jihadists  —  They came from successful immigrant families and their English neighbors described them as nice boys who seemed harmless.  So what turned the British Muslim youth behind this month's massive terror plot into extremists?

Pope sacks astronomer over evolution debate  —  Pope Benedict XVI has sacked his chief astronomer after a series of public clashes over the theory of evolution.  —  He has removed Father George Coyne from his position as director of the Vatican Observatory after the American Jesuit priest …

McCain faults administration on Iraq  —  COLUMBUS, Ohio - Republican Sen. John McCain (news, bio, voting record), a staunch defender of the Iraq war, on Tuesday faulted the Bush administration for misleading Americans into believing the conflict would be "some kind of day at the beach."

The Battle of Baghdad  —  Rampant insecurity—and a detailed plan to combat it.  —  BAGHDAD—Although there has been much good news to report about security progress in Iraq this summer—the killing of Abu Musab al-Zarqawi, the handover of security responsibility for Muthanna province …

Bush clings to a lost cause in Iraq  —  George W. Bush sounds increasingly like your average defiant teenager.  The teenager won't clean his room, and the president won't leave Iraq.  —  The president's latest news conference was another installment of rebel with a cause that a shrinking number of Americans believe in.