Blind sheik's lawyer gets 28 months  —  NEW YORK - Civil rights lawyer Lynne Stewart was sentenced Monday to 28 months in prison on a terrorism charge for helping a client who plotted to blow up New York City landmarks communicate with his followers.  —  Stewart, 67, could have faced up to 30 years in prison.

Homes Raided In Rep. Weldon Influence Probe  —  FBI Looks at Business Run By Daughter, Political Ally  —  Federal agents raided the homes of Rep. Curt Weldon's daughter and one of his closest political supporters yesterday as part of an investigation into whether the veteran Republican congressman used …

Families Flee Iraqi River Towns On 4th Day of Sectarian Warfare  —  Families fled in search of safety Monday as open warfare raged for a fourth day between Shiite militias and armed Sunni men in Tigris River towns north of Baghdad.  Militias allied with Iraq's Shiite-led government held sway in Balad city …

Giant-Killer Lamont Stumbles  —  Democrat Will Need Republican Help to Unseat Lieberman  —  Democratic Senate nominee Ned Lamont and Sen. Joseph I. Lieberman (D-Conn.) met here Monday for their first general election debate, and the insurgent candidate did not get one direct question …

North Korean Fuel Identified as Plutonium  —  American intelligence agencies have concluded that North Korea's test explosion last week was powered by plutonium that North Korea harvested from its small nuclear reactor, according to officials who have reviewed the results of atmospheric sampling since the blast.

Can You Tell a Sunni From a Shiite?  —  FOR the past several months, I've been wrapping up lengthy interviews with Washington counterterrorism officials with a fundamental question: "Do you know the difference between a Sunni and a Shiite?"  —  A "gotcha" question?  Perhaps.

How Dare You Attack Me, And By The Way, Here Are A Couple More Disclosures  —  Harry Reid went on offense yesterday ... of a sort.  Claiming that his failure to properly disclose his partnership with Jay Brown — an attorney with ties to a zoning-commission bribery case and reported links …

Cheney Hits Heartland, and He Can Feel the Love  —  Grace Mosier lives with her mom and dad, goes to birthday parties, takes ballet classes and is just like a lot of other 6-year-old girls.  Except that she happens to be obsessed with Dick Cheney.  —  "I really, really like him," says Grace …

U.S. Faces Obstacles To Freeing Detainees  —  BERLIN — British Foreign Secretary Margaret Beckett last week issued the latest European demand to close down the U.S. military prison at Guantanamo Bay, Cuba.  The existence of the prison is "unacceptable" and fuels Islamic radicalism around the world …

MATIER AND ROSS  —  Has the mayor's new girlfriend, who is only 20, been drinking?  —  San Francisco Mayor Gavin Newsom's new squeeze, Brittanie Mountz, just turned 20 last month — and that raises a couple of questions about the couple's nights on the town.

Bush to sign law on terror suspects  —  WASHINGTON - President Bush is signing into law today new standards expediting interrogation and prosecution of terror suspects, a bill the White House says strengthens his hand in a time of war.  —  Bush's plan becomes law just six weeks after he acknowledged …

Poll: Support for Iraq war at all-time low  —  WASHINGTON (CNN) — A poll conducted for CNN over the weekend suggests support among Americans for the war in Iraq is dwindling to an all-time low.  Just 34 percent of those polled say they support the war, while 64 percent say they oppose it.

Wikipedia founder plans rival  —  One of the founders of Wikipedia is days away from launching a rival to the collaborative internet encyclopaedia, in an attempt to bring a more orderly approach to organising knowledge online.  —  Wikipedia - which is available to be written and edited …

March 2001: Iraqi IIS Wants To Attack American Assets  —  Joseph Shahda has continued his excellent work at the Free Republic forum in translating captured documents from the Iraqi government.  He has taken a close look at document CMPC-2003-006758, translating it from the Arabic and revealing …

Peretz: French UNIFIL say will fire at IAF overflights  —  Commanders of the French contingent of the United Nations force in Lebanon have warned that they might have to open fire if Israel Air Force warplanes continue their overflights in Lebanon, Defense Minister Amir Peretz told …

In Close House Races, GOP Incumbents Hold Advantage in Funds  —  Despite a rush of campaign donations to Democrats earlier this year, Republican incumbents in highly competitive races in the House have a substantial cash advantage going into the final weeks before the midterm elections.

Minnesota Poll: Wetterling is ahead of Bachmann 48% to 40%  —  The congressional page scandal might have influenced some respondents for the DFLer.  —  DFLer Patty Wetterling leads Republican Michele Bachmann 48 to 40 percent in the hot race for Congress in Minnesota's Sixth Congressional District …

Bono, Preacher on Poverty, Tarnishes Halo With Irish Tax Move  —  Oct. 16 (Bloomberg) — Bono, the rock star and campaigner against Third World debt, is asking the Irish government to contribute more to Africa.  At the same time, he's reducing tax payments that could help fund that aid.

I gotta go........  Many of you that have been reading this blog for a while have read my references to my past volunteer work.  What you may not know is why I stopped volunteering except for some Church activities.  Several years ago when I moved from Dallas to Houston I was burned out.

Hamas official: Is violence Palestinian "disease?"  —  GAZA (Reuters) - A senior figure in Hamas, the Islamist group that heads the Palestinian government, published an article on Tuesday condemning internal violence and questioning whether it had become a "Palestinian disease."