Baghdad Braces For More Reprisals  —  Cellphones and Web Spread Threats, Fear  —  In the aftermath of one of the deadliest spasms of violence, a new level of fear and foreboding has gripped Baghdad, fueled in part by sectarian text messages and Internet sites, deepening tensions in an already divided capital.

In full: Litvinenko statement  —  Russian former spy Alexander Litvinenko dictated a statement two days before his death, which was read out by his friend Alex Goldfarb outside University College Hospital in London on Friday.  —  I would like to thank many people.

Rockets fire into Israel  —  Militants fired at least five rockets into southern Israel from Gaza Sunday on the first day of a cease-fire agreement.  —  No one was injured in the attacks.  —  Islamic Jihad claimed responsibility for the attacks and said it would not agree …

Another Massive Anti-Chavez Protest in Caracas  —  Amazing!  —  It was the largest protest in Venezuelan history!  —  V-Crisis has the story and more photos from the demonstration today in Caracas.  —  (Hat Tip Instapundit)  —  Venezuela News and Views has video!

AZHAR OUTLAWS FEMALE CIRCUMCISION  —  The Grand Sheikh of Al Azhar, the oldest and most highly respected institution in Sunni Islam; and the Grand Mufti of Egypt have released an official fatwa declaring the practice of female circumcision (also called female genital mutilation or female genital cutting) un-Islamic.

Iraq Group a Study In Secrecy, Centrism  —  In the history of U.S. foreign policy, there's been nothing like it: a panel outside government trying to bail the United States out of a prolonged and messy war.  —  The innocuously titled Iraq Study Group, which has evolved into a parallel policy establishment …

Science a la Joe Camel  —  At hundreds of screenings this year of "An Inconvenient Truth," the first thing many viewers said after the lights came up was that every student in every school in the United States needed to see this movie.  —  The producers of former vice president Al Gore's film …

Police Kill Man After a Queens Bachelor Party  —  Hours before he was to be married, a man leaving his bachelor party at a strip club in Queens that was under police surveillance was shot and killed early yesterday in a hail of police bullets, witnesses and the police said.

EASY PREY IN PARIS — "A jackpot, a Black and a Jew."  —  In which a French policeman protects a Jewish fan of Israeli soccer team assaulted by Paris St. Germain hooligans.  Score: 1 dead, 1 critically injured.  National state of anti-semitic denial continues in France unabated.

Holiday retail season starts strong  —  Packed parking lots, packed malls, packed shopping bags.  —  That was the scene Friday — and the prediction for today.  —  The traditional after-Thanksgiving day sale — known as Black Friday — is just the tip of the holiday shopping frenzy.

EXPANDED HOURS, DISCOUNTS LURE SHOPPERS  —  It was cold, it was dark and in some places it was foggy.  None of that would stop millions of bargain-seekers from climbing into their cars for a pre-dawn raid on their local malls, electronics retailers and discounters for the official start to the holiday season.

Sad Sunday: Iraq War Longer Than World War Two.  JFK Was Right, George Bush Is Wrong  —  The tragic milestone has arrived, the Iraq War lasted longer than the Second World War, with the President telling us that many more days are left in his tragedy drenched in blood..

U.S. Finds Iraq Insurgency Has Funds to Sustain Itself  —  The insurgency in Iraq is now self-sustaining financially, raising tens of millions of dollars a year from oil smuggling, kidnapping, counterfeiting, corrupt charities and other crimes that the Iraqi government and its American patrons …

Experts Concerned as Ballot Problems Persist  —  After six years of technological research, more than $4 billion spent by Washington on new machinery and a widespread overhaul of the nation's voting system, this month's midterm election revealed that the country is still far from able to ensure that every vote counts.