Pakistan Denies Bin Laden Gets a Pass  —  Brian Ross Reports:  —  The government of Pakistan today denied it would allow Osama bin Laden to avoid capture under terms of a peace agreement it signed with Taliban leaders in the country's North Waziristan area.

Republican Rift Over Wiretapping Widens  —  Party at Odds on Surveillance Legislation  —  Deepening Republican divisions over the future of President Bush's warrantless wiretapping program may jeopardize GOP leaders' hopes of making terrorism surveillance legislation a centerpiece of their final legislative push this month.

Time for Answers  —  For three years, Washington has been periodically consumed with the question of who unmasked a covert C.I.A. agent to the columnist Robert Novak.  It has been a huge distraction for the White House, resulted in the unjustified jailing of one reporter …

Romney bars state security for Iranian's Harvard visit  —  Cites unacceptable use of funds on `a terrorist'  —  Governor Mitt Romney declared yesterday he would not allow any state resources to be used to protect a former Iranian president during his visit to the Boston area this weekend …

Harris wins Fla. GOP Senate nomination  —  MIAMI - U.S. Rep. Katherine Harris (news, bio, voting record) overcame a campaign ridiculed even by her own party to easily claim the GOP nomination for the Senate on Tuesday, and Rep. Jim Davis (news, bio, voting record) won the Democratic nomination to succeed popular Gov. Jeb Bush.

Vast Oil Pool Tapped in Gulf of Mexico  —  WASHINGTON (AP) — A trio of oil companies led by Chevron Corp. has tapped a petroleum pool deep beneath the Gulf of Mexico that could boost the nation's reserves by more than 50 percent.  —  A test well indicates it could be the biggest …

Bush Compares Iran to Al-Qaeda  —  President Renews Pledge to Attain Victory Over Terrorism  —  President Bush today renewed his pledge to accept nothing less than "complete victory" in the war on terrorism and delivered a strong warning to Iran, which he described as the leader of a strain …

In Bellwether District, G.O.P. Runs on Immigration  —  AURORA, Colo. — It was not by chance that Republicans brought their summer tour of hearings on illegal immigration to this growing community just outside Denver.  —  Not only is Aurora bearing the costs of schooling and providing …

To Stay Alive, Iraqis Change Their Names  —  Men waited for new ID cards recently in Baghdad.  Iraqis fear their names, which reveal them as Sunni or Shiite, could become a death sentence.  —  There was nothing out of the ordinary about the young man clutching a sheaf of papers …

Lobbying Probe Looks at Payments To DeLay's Wife  —  WASHINGTON — The Justice Department's congressional lobbying-and-bribery investigation is looking into whether former House Majority Leader Tom DeLay's wife received money from a lobbying firm for a no-show job, recent FBI interviews indicate.

Judge Hears Arguments on Federal Spying Program  —  In a lively oral argument lasting almost three hours, a federal judge in Manhattan indicated yesterday that he had serious reservations about the legality of a National Security Agency surveillance program that monitors the international communications of people in the United States.

Ahmadinejad proposes debate with Bush  —  TEHRAN, Iran - Iran's president proposed Wednesday that he and President Bush should hold a public debate, and suggested that the U.N. General Assembly later this month would be the perfect place.  —  President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad first proposed …

Analysis: Terror war may need name change  —  The United States should rethink the label it uses for what is known as the "global war on terror," the chief of strategic planning on the Pentagon's Joint Staff said Tuesday.  —  What is needed, said Army Col. Gary Cheek, is to recast terrorists as the criminals they are.

Once a Progressive State, Minnesota Is Now a Fief of the N.R.A.  —  A couple of weeks ago, I checked into a hotel in Bloomington, a Minneapolis suburb framed by the airport and the Mall of America.  On the hotel door was a sign: "Firearms Banned on These Premises."

Princess Kiko of Japan Has a Boy  —  Princess Kiko, the wife of the emperor's younger son, gave birth to a boy on Wednesday morning, securing the succession of Japan's imperial throne for another generation.  —  In an event that had been anticipated for months, the princess gave birth …

Hezbollah doubtful over German role in UN force  —  BERLIN - The Shiite Hezbollah militia has expressed "reservations" about Germany's involvement in the multinational UN force deploying for Lebanon, owing to German demands that its troops be allowed to stop and search boats bound for the country.