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.

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 …

Target Intercepted In Anti-Missile Test  —  In First Such Success Since 2002, U.S. Simulates North Korean Attack  —  The U.S. military shot down a target missile using its long-range missile defense system yesterday, the first time such a test has intercepted a mock enemy warhead since 2002, officials said.

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.

Workers Of The World, Rise Up Against Your (Democratic) Oppressors!  —  With the Democrats demanding a raise in the federal minimum wage and campaigning on the issue to highlight their sympathy for American workers.  That sympathy, as Power Line noted earlier this evening, doesn't even extend beyond their own payroll.

Pentagon Cites Spike In Violence in Iraq  —  Rising sectarian bloodshed has pushed violence in Iraq to its highest level in more than two years, and preventing civil war is now the most urgent mission of the growing contingent of 140,000 U.S. troops in the country, according to a new Pentagon report released yesterday.

Coda on Siegel  —  We all owe Lee Siegel a moment of grateful silence.  His blog may be gone, his reputation wrecked — but "blogofascism" is a term that will endure, bringing great joy and happiness to generations who'll never know the first thing about its originator.  Three cheers for you, Lee Siegel.

Martyrs wanted  —  I was planning to maintain a tasteful silence about the forced conversion of Fox newsmen Steve Centanni and Olaf Wiig.  I expressed my gratitude at their release, and was going to let the humiliating subject lie.Others haven't, however, so let's go:

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.

Muslims must come forward  —  My proudest day as an American Muslim came in 1999 when I was sworn in at the State Department to be this nation's ambassador to Fiji and its Pacific island neighbors Tonga, Tuvalu and Nauru.  —  Almost 30 years earlier I had come to the United States as a student from my native Bangladesh.

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 …