Pope 'deeply sorry' for reaction to comments … CASTEL GANDOLFO, Italy (CNN) — Pope Benedict XVI on Sunday said he was "deeply sorry" for the reaction to comments he made last week when he quoted from a 14th-century emperor regarding Muslims.  —  "These in fact were quotations from a medieval text …

A very rushed post  —  Just outside Westminster Cathedral today...  I thought I'd refrain from posting anything substantial about this uproar about the Pope's speech, since I'm sure other bloggers can put things more eloquently than me.  ( here and here and here : "If the Pope does not appear …

Bush Untethered  —  Watching the president on Friday in the Rose Garden as he threatened to quit interrogating terrorists if Congress did not approve his detainee bill, we were struck by how often he acts as though there were not two sides to a debate.  We have lost count of the number …

The Path to Hysteria  —  My sin was to write a screenplay accurately depicting Bill Clinton's record on terrorism.  —  I am neither an activist, politician or partisan, nor an ideologue of any stripe.  What I am is a writer who takes his job very seriously, as do most of my colleagues …

'Meet the Press' hosts debate for Allen, Webb  —  U.S. Sen. George Allen, left, and challenger Jim Webb fielded concerns about remarks that, respectively, minorities and women took offense to.  —  WASHINGTON - U.S. Sen. George Allen and Democratic challenger Jim Webb argued about the Iraq War …

Narrow win for Swedish opposition  —  Sweden's centre-right opposition bloc has defeated the ruling Social Democrat party in the country's closest-fought general election for decades.  —  Moderate party leader Fredrik Reinfeldt declared victory as near-complete results gave him a 1% lead.

Major Problems At Polls Feared  —  Some Officials Say Voting Law Changes And New Technology Will Cause Trouble  —  An overhaul in how states and localities record votes and administer elections since the Florida recount battle six years ago has created conditions that could trigger a repeat …

Iraqi Tribes to Join Forces to Fight Insurgents  —  More than two-dozen tribes from Iraq's volatile Sunni Arab-dominated province west of Baghdad have agreed to join forces and fight Al Qaeda insurgents and other foreign-backed "terrorists," an influential tribal leader said today.

In Politics, Aim for the Heart, Not the Head  —  In 1935, researchers from Columbia University fanned out around the city of Allentown, Pa., and handed out leaflets ahead of local and state elections.  What residents did not know was that they were part of an experiment in political persuasion …

BUSH BASHING PIG HITS MADISON SQUARE GARDEN  —  ROGER WATERS [PINK FLOYD] CONCERT TOUR HITS NORTH AMERICA AND NYC WITH FLYING PIGS, URGING DEM VOTES IN ELECTION, 'IMPEACH BUSH' WRITTEN ON REAR OF PIG FLOATING OVER AUDIENCE... One concertgoer writes: 'Seeing Bush's name written across the pig's arse made me howl'... The pig had graffiti.

Bid to Stockpile Bioterror Drugs Stymied by Setbacks  —  The last of the anthrax-laced letters was still making its way through the mail in late 2001 when top Bush administration officials reached an obvious conclusion: the nation desperately needed to expand its medical stockpile to prepare for another biological attack.

Coverage of 9/11 anniversary was too wimpy  —  A lot of the 9/11 anniversary coverage struck me as distastefully tasteful.  On the morning of Sept. 12, I was pumping gas just off I-91 in Vermont and picked up the Valley News.  Its lead headline covered the annual roll call of the dead …

"Bella" wins top Toronto Film Festival award  —  TORONTO (Reuters) - "Bella," a romantic drama by Mexican director Alejandro Gomez Monteverde, won the top award at the Toronto Film Festival on Saturday, while the contentious "Death of a President" took home a critics' prize.

How Stock Options Muddle The Relationship Among Wages, Corporate Profits and Inflation  —  Scorekeepers at the Commerce Department last month discovered that American workers were earning far more than previously estimated — and that created an economic puzzle.

Hewlett Review Is Said to Detail Deeper Spying  —  A secret investigation of news leaks at Hewlett-Packard was more elaborate than previously reported, and almost from the start involved the illicit gathering of private phone records and direct surveillance of board members and journalists …

Italian nun shot dead in Somalia  —  Gunmen have shot dead a 65-year-old Italian nun and her bodyguard at a hospital in Somali capital, Mogadishu.  —  The attackers shot the nun three times in the back at the women and children's hospital in the south of the city before fleeing the scene.