14 held in terror police swoop  —  Armed police have arrested 14 men overnight following anti-terror raids in London, which included 12 arrests at a restaurant in the Borough area.  —  Two people were held elsewhere in the city, in what Scotland Yard described at a pre-planned, intelligence-led operation.

Pentagon Releases Grim Report on Iraq  —  Iraqi casualties soared by more than 50 percent during the roughly three-month period ending in early August, the product of spiraling sectarian clashes and a Sunni-based insurgency that remains "potent and viable," the Pentagon noted today in an comprehensive assessment of security in Iraq.

Number of Republicans declines to 32-month low  —  The number of Americans calling themselves Republican has fallen to its lowest level in more than two-and-a-half years.  Just 31.9% of American adults now say they're affiliated with the GOP.  That's down from 37.2% in October 2004 and 34.5% at the beginning of 2006.

Rumsfeld reaches out to Democrats  —  WASHINGTON - Defense Secretary Donald H. Rumsfeld reached out to Democrats late Friday, opening up the door for them to retract their stinging indictment of him as Pentagon chief.  —  In a letter to Congress's top Democrats, Rumsfeld said recent remarks …

New Questions About Inquiry in C.I.A. Leak  —  An enduring mystery of the C.I.A. leak case has been solved in recent days, but with a new twist: Patrick J. Fitzgerald, the prosecutor, knew the identity of the leaker from his very first day in the special counsel's chair …

Saudi gets long sentence  —  Man was convicted of sexual assaults on housekeeper  —  CENTENNIAL - Sniffles and sobs resonated in a packed courtroom Thursday as a Saudi man convicted of sexually assaulting his Indonesian housekeeper was sentenced Thursday to 20 years to life in prison.

Israel Finds and Collapses Tunnel Beneath Gaza  —  KARNI TERMINAL, ISRAEL-GAZA BORDER — The Israeli Defense Forces found and collapsed a 200 meter-long and 12 meter-deep tunnel one kilometer inside the Gaza Strip that terrorists intended to reach all the way into Israel.

GEORGE BUSH: THE LAST BARRIER AGAINST FASCISM!  —  We haven't commented on the new movie, Death of a President, which pretends to be a retrospective look at the assassination of President George Bush and its consequences over the ensuing years.  Tonight, though, I caught up with this account …

Mexican Lawmakers Block Fox's Speech  —  MEXICO CITY (AP) — Vicente Fox was forced to forego the last state-of-the-nation address of his presidency Friday after leftist lawmakers stormed the stage of Congress to protest disputed July 2 elections.  —  It was the first time in modern Mexican history …

Israel's Defense Chief Supports War Inquiry  —  Bowing to rebels in his own Labor Party, Defense Minister Amir Peretz of Israel called today for a full independent inquiry into the recent war in Lebanon, changing his previous position and putting him publicly at odds with Prime Minister Ehud Olmert.

Joe Wilson responds to WaPo hatchet job  —  Joe Wilson responds to WaPo hatchet job  —  Via email:  —  You may have seen this morning's editorial in the Post.  It manages to recycle pretty much every lie and smear over the past three years in a last ditch effort to divert attention from the facts …

Ned Lamont Is No Clare Boothe Luce  —  The year was 1942.  —  After more than a decade of losing elections to Democrats, after three straight presidential losses to Franklin D. Roosevelt — the man conservative Republicans loved to hate — the scent of victory was at last in the air for the GOP.

Top scientist's fears for climate  —  One of America's top scientists has said that the world has already entered a state of dangerous climate change.  —  In his first broadcast interview as president of the American Association for the Advancement of Science, John Holdren told the BBC …