Lebanese Christian politician killed  —  BEIRUT, Lebanon (AP) — Prominent anti-Syrian Christian politician Pierre Gemayel was assassinated in a suburb of Beirut on Tuesday, his Phalange Party radio station and Lebanon's official news agency reported.  —  His fatal shooting will certainly heighten …

Baghdad Shias Believe Killings May Increase Once U.S.-led Forces Depart but Large Majorities Still Support Withdrawal Within a Year  —  Shias in the Capital—Unlike Those in the Rest of Iraq—Oppose Disarming Militias  —  Most Shia Arabs living in Baghdad have shifted in recent months …

Pelosi-Harman friction strains Democrats' unity  —  WASHINGTON — When Jane Harman left Congress in 1998 to run for governor of California, her colleague Nancy Pelosi threw her a party — a chocolate-fudge sundae "social" in the House members' dining room.  —  Two years later …

U.S. Considers Raising Troop Levels in Iraq  —  Pentagon officials conducting a review of Iraq strategy are considering a substantial but temporary increase in American troop levels and the addition of several thousand more trainers to work with Iraqi forces, a senior Defense Department official said Monday.

Democrats Plan Series of Votes on Ethics Reforms  —  Despite divisions among Democrats over how far to go in revising ethics rules, House leaders plan a major rollout of an ethics reform bill early next year to demonstrate concern about an issue that helped defeat the Republicans in the midterm elections.

'Seinfeld' Comic Richards Apologizes for Racial Rant  —  Michael Richards, who played the quirky Cosmo Kramer on "Seinfeld," apologized yesterday for using racist language in an angry exchange with an African American man at a comedy club on Friday.  —  Richards, 57, appeared on …

Clinton Won Easily, but Bankroll Shows the Toll  —  She had only token opposition, but Senator Hillary Rodham Clinton still spent more on her re-election — upward of $30 million — than any other candidate for Senate this year.  So where did all the money go?

Jihadis and whores  —  Wars are won by destroying the enemy's will to fight.  A nation is never really beaten until it sells its women.  —  The French sold their women to the German occupiers in 1940, and the Germans and Japanese sold their women to the Americans after World War II.

Brownback The Great Conservative Hope?  —  Calling himself a "full scale Ronald Reagan conservative," Senator Sam Brownback of Kansas tossed his hat into the ring for the 2008 GOP presidential nomination.  Brownback, who has a consistent record of conservative positions …

Washington Post Reporters to Join Politics Web Site  —  The Washington Post, which has long prided itself on the depth and breadth of its coverage of national politics, lost two of its top political reporters yesterday to a fledgling multiplatform news organization, albeit one with deep pockets.

Federal investigators questioning six Middle Eastern men removed from flight at MSP  —  5 EYEWITNESS NEWS has learned that federal investigators and airport police are questioning six Middle Eastern men who had to be escorted off of a plane Monday afternoon at Minneapolis/St. Paul International.

Israeli Map Says West Bank Posts Sit on Arab Land  —  An Israeli advocacy group, using maps and figures leaked from inside the government, says that 39 percent of the land held by Israeli settlements in the occupied West Bank is privately owned by Palestinians.

An Iraqi Solution, Vietnam Style  —  IRAQ'S prime minister, Nuri al-Maliki, is now saying that he wants the United States to stand back and let him use Iraqi forces to restore order.  Within six months, he asserts, the bloodletting will cease.  The United States must give this proposal very serious consideration.