U.S. doubts Korean test was nuclear  —  U.S. intelligence agencies say, based on preliminary indications, that North Korea did not produce its first nuclear blast yesterday.  —  U.S. officials, speaking on the condition of anonymity, said that seismic readings show that the conventional high explosives used …

Allen's Undisclosed Stock Options Were Worth Up to $1.1 Million  —  Oct. 10 (Bloomberg) — Stock options that Senator George Allen described as worthless were worth as much as $1.1 million at one point, according to a review of Senate disclosure forms and U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission filings.

Google To Acquire YouTube for $1.65 Billion in Stock  —  Combination Will Create New Opportunities for Users and Content Owners Everywhere  —  Google Inc. (NASDAQ: GOOG) announced today that it has agreed to acquire YouTube, the consumer media company for people to watch and share original videos through …

Woman: Saddam Guards Buried People Alive  —  BAGHDAD, Iraq (AP) - Prison guards under Saddam Hussein used to bury detainees alive and watch women as they bathed, occasionally shooting over their heads, a former female prisoner testified Monday in the genocide trial of the ex-president.

GOP Officials Brace for Loss Of Seven to 30 House Seats  —  Republican campaign officials said yesterday that they expect to lose at least seven House seats and as many as 30 in the Nov. 7 midterm elections, as a result of sustained violence in Iraq and the page scandal involving former GOP representative Mark Foley.

Streisand Has Outburst at NYC Concert  —  It was an evening that elicited tears, standing ovations, raucous laughter and shouts of joy from the audience _ and was just in the first few minutes.  —  Yes, Barbra Streisand's return to touring after a 12-year absence was the extravaganza that it promised to be.

Dynamic Capitalism  —  Entrepreneurship is lucrative—and just.  —  There are two economic systems in the West.  Several nations—including the U.S., Canada and the U.K.—have a private-ownership system marked by great openness to the implementation of new commercial ideas coming from entrepreneurs …

Ex-Page Aired Concerns About Foley to Congressman in 2000  —  A former Congressional page approached Representative Jim Kolbe, Republican of Arizona, as long as six years ago to report feeling uncomfortable by messages sent from Representative Mark Foley, but a spokeswoman for Mr. Kolbe …

Bad News In The Polls  —  Well, the media has been able to create the impression Mark Foley represents the GOP in some recent polls out.  The range of lead for the Dems is between 13 and 23 points (A href="http://i.a.cnn.net/cnn/2006/ images/10/09/rel24a.pdf">CNN, USA Today/Gallup, ABC News/WaPo, CBS News - H/T TCP).

What it means to be a liberal  —  For most of the past four decades, liberals have been in retreat.  Since the election of Richard Nixon in 1968, Republicans have controlled the White House 70 percent of the time and Republican presidents have made 86 percent of the U.S. Supreme Court appointments.

Shivering Alaskans to Hugo Chavez: Keep your oil  —  ANCHORAGE, Alaska (AP) — In Alaska's native villages, the punishing winter cold is already penetrating the walls of the lightly insulated plywood homes, many of the villagers are desperately poor, and heating-oil prices are among the highest in the nation.

F.B.I. Struggling to Reinvent Itself to Fight Terror  —  Last February, top F.B.I. officers from across the nation gathered in a high-security auditorium for the latest plan to reinvent the crime-fighting agency to take on terrorism.  —  Philip Mudd, who had just joined the bureau …

Frivolous Politics  —  With a war going on in Iraq and with Iran next door moving steadily toward a nuclear bomb that could change the course of world history in the hands of international terrorists, the question for this year's elections is not whether you or your candidate is a Democrat …

Mexico May Take Fence Dispute to U.N.  —  PARIS — Mexico's foreign secretary said Monday the country may take a dispute over U.S. plans to build a fence on the Mexican border to the United Nations.  —  Luis Ernesto Derbez told reporters in Paris, his first stop on a European tour …

Harvard study paints bleak picture of ethnic diversity  —  A bleak picture of the corrosive effects of ethnic diversity has been revealed in research by Harvard University's Robert Putnam, one of the world's most influential political scientists.  —  His research shows that the more diverse a community is …

Web sites remove videos mocking Muhammad  —  COPENHAGEN, Denmark - Videos showing anti-immigrant party members mocking the Prophet Muhammad were pulled from Web sites Monday as two youths seen in the clips were reported in hiding and the Foreign Ministry warned Danes against traveling to much of the Middle East.