Pelosi 'will ensure' Murtha win, Murtha ally says  —  House Speaker-to-be Nancy Pelosi (D-Calif.) will ensure that Rep. John Murtha (D-Pa.) wins his race for majority leader, a key Murtha ally said Monday night.  —  "She will ensure that they [the Murtha camp] win.

Plutonium Found in Iran Waste Facility  —  International Atomic Energy experts have found unexplained plutonium and enriched uranium traces in a nuclear waste facility in Iran and have asked Tehran for an explanation, an IAEA report said Tuesday.  —  The report prepared for next week's meeting …

Answer to Iraq lies in Middle East, says Blair  —  Tony Blair has opened the prospect of a new partnership with Iran and Syria tonight as he insisted that the "answer to Iraq" lay in the wider Middle East.  —  But, while setting out a strategy to resolve tensions across the whole region …

The Military Commissions Act in action  —  The Bush administration's treatment of Ali Saleh Kahlah al-Marri ought to be shocking and horrifying.  Instead, it is now not only depressingly familiar, but also something that is formally sanctioned by the U.S. Congress.

Get Jim in Here, Pronto!  —  If I told you that there was something in Washington called the Baker commission but didn't tell you what it was about, you still could probably name many of its members.  If you are of a certain age, you might wonder, "Jim or Howard?"  And you might have a quibble or two.

Blogging for Bolton  —  The Democrats want John Bolton's scalp.  This is a moment for conservatives to stand up to the Left's empty, vindictive obstructionism and support a strong voice for America's interests at the corrupted, soft-on-jihad offices of Turtle Bay.  —  We're videoblogging for Bolton over at Hot Air.

Al-Qaida plotting nuclear attack on UK, officials warn  —  Vikram Dodd  —  British intelligence officials believe that al-Qaida is determined to attack the UK with a nuclear weapon, it emerged yesterday.  The announcement, from an officially organised Foreign Office counter-terrorism briefing …

Bring On the Seinfeld Congress  —  A do-nothing Congress is bad for the local economy.  But it's fine for the rest of the country.  —  To continue reading this article, you must be a subscriber to TimesSelect.  Log in now.  —  What is TimesSelect?  —  Newspaper subscribers, upgrade to TimesSelect for free now.

The Media Are the Enemy  —  You're not going to believe this one.  —  All our suspicions about mainstream media slanting and distorting the news from the Middle East are confirmed in a bombshell of a post by Bruno Stevens, at the Lightstalkers pro photographers' forum: The Lebanon 'garbage dump' story: complete explanation.

Lott running for whip post  —  After keeping his plans close to the vest since Election Day, Sen. Trent Lott (R-Miss.) formally declared his bid for minority whip on Monday evening.  —  Lott had refrained from openly discussing his intentions for the whip race even after GOP Conference …

Outrage as Church backs calls for severely disabled babies to be killed at birth  —  The Church of England has broken with tradition dogma by calling for doctors to be allowed to let sick newborn babies die.  —  Christians have long argued that life should preserved at all costs …

Iran 'is training the next al-Qa'eda leaders'  —  Iran is seeking to take control of Osama bin Laden's al-Qa'eda terror network by encouraging it to promote officials known to be friendly to Teheran, The Daily Telegraph can reveal.  —  According to recent reports received by Western intelligence agencies …