Iraq Study Group Weighs Overture to Iran and Syria  —  A draft report on strategies for Iraq, which will be debated here by a bipartisan commission beginning Monday, urges an aggressive regional diplomatic initiative that includes direct talks with Iran and Syria but sets no timetables …

Romney's dance to the right  —  IT'S LIKE turning a ballerina into a right-leaning elephant.  —  For more than a decade, Mitt Romney has been dancing around some hot-button social issues.  Now, he is running hard to the right to position himself for the 2008 presidential contest.

Angry Shiites hurl stones at Maliki's motorcade  —  BAGHDAD — Angry Shiite Muslims pelted Prime Minister Nouri Maliki's motorcade with stones today after the Iraqi leader pleaded for national reconciliation at a memorial in Sadr City held for victims of a large-scale bombing attack last week.

Video: Rangel says men join the army only if they can't have "a decent career"  —  Hence his support for the draft.  If even our volunteers are there involuntarily, why shouldn't everyone be? … This won't get as much attention as what Lurch said (or was understood to have said) a few weeks ago.

Obama lifted by hand of God  —  Rising black star of Democrats connects with evangelicals  —  IN THE latest sign that the "God gap" between Republicans and Democrats is narrowing, one of America's biggest evangelical churches will this week welcome Senator Barack Obama …

Hurricane Predictions Off Track As Tranquil Season Wafts Away  —  More from this channel:  —  This feature requires the Macromedia Flash Plugin.  Please visit http://www.macromedia.com/go/ getflashplayer to download this plugin.  —  It was not the hurricane season we expected, thank you.

At the Inquirer, Shrink Globally, Slash Locally?  —  Brian Tierney, a onetime critic of the Philadelphia Inquirer who wound up buying the paper, is determined to take his new property in a different direction.  —  "We don't need a Jerusalem bureau," he says.  "What we need are more people in the South Jersey bureau."

'Makings of bomb' found in airport car  —  A worker discovered the device in the trunk of a returned rental car.  It didn't contain explosives but the FBI is investigating.  —  A bomb-like device was found in a rental car Sunday morning at the Minneapolis-St. Paul International Airport …

Bring back Saddam Hussein  —  Restoring the dictator to power may give Iraqis the jolt of authority they need.  Have a better solution?  —  THE DEBATE about Iraq has moved past the question of whether it was a mistake (everybody knows it was) to the more depressing question of whether it is possible to avert total disaster.

Woman faces fines for wreath peace sign  —  DENVER - A homeowners association in southwestern Colorado has threatened to fine a resident $25 a day until she removes a Christmas wreath with a peace sign that some say is an anti- Iraq war protest or a symbol of Satan.

UK scientists invent male 'pill' that can be taken hours before sex  —  British scientists have developed a revolutionary pill that men could take as a one-off contraceptive just before a date.  —  The tablet would prevent a man from being able to impregnate a woman, but within a few hours his fertility would return to normal.