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.

Despite truce, Palestinian attacks go on  —  JERUSALEM - Israeli troops withdrew from the Gaza Strip as an unexpected truce took hold Sunday, but two major Palestinian militant groups, saying they had no intention of stopping their attacks, fired volleys of homemade rockets into Israel.

Spy death linked to nuclear thefts  —  An investigation was under way last night into Russia's black market trade in radioactive materials amid concern that significant quantities of polonium 210, the substance that killed former spy Alexander Litvinenko, are being stolen from poorly protected Russian nuclear sites.

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 …

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.

Presidential Politix & Mitt Romney's Underwear  —  I seldom blog on presidential politics (except to give John Kerry well deserved kicks in the slats) because it's tough to rise above the "horse race" aspect of who is running and what the competition is.  —  But as my TMV colleague Michael …

U.S. involved in Iraq longer than WWII  —  WASHINGTON - The war in Iraq has now lasted longer than the U.S. involvement in the war that President Bush's father fought in, World War II.  As of Sunday, the conflict in Iraq has raged for three years and just over eight months.

Here Come the Economic Populists  —  FOR years, the Clinton wing of the Democratic Party, exercising a lock on the party's economic policies, argued that the economy could achieve sustained growth only if markets were allowed to operate unfettered and globally.

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!  —  Wow!

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.

Rumsfeld okayed abuses says former U.S. general  —Text+MADRID (Reuters) - Outgoing Defense Secretary Donald Rumsfeld authorized the mistreatment of detainees at Abu Ghraib prison in Iraq, the prison's former U.S. commander said in an interview on Saturday.

THEY REPORT, YOU DECIDE  —  Most of our readers are aware of Mark Steyn's "Demography is Destiny" theme, which he has elaborated in much of his recent writing.  Steyn thinks that low birth rates among Europeans, in particular, will inevitably lead to their replacement on the European continent …

Why I Oppose Pork - And Why You Should Care  —  This morning, as I prepared for the annual Battle Between Good And Evil (also known as the Notre Dame - USC game), I received an e-mail from a Minnesota reader, Frank S, who scolded me for my insistence on fighting pork.

The Hillbilly "Christianists" Are Coming!  —  So was it our racial or religious bigotry?  I'm referring to the recent election in Tennessee between Harold Ford, Jr. and Bob Corker.  An Andrew Sullivan reader writes: … Maybe I have breathed in too much smoke from cross burnings …