Pelosi Passes on Hastings, Harman for House Intel Chair  —  House Speaker-elect Nancy Pelosi (D-Calif.) has decided against naming either Reps. Jane Harman (D-Calif.), the senior Democrat on the House intelligence committee, or Alcee Hastings (D-Fla.), the panel's No. 2 Democrat …

Bush Adviser's Memo Cites Doubts About Iraqi Leader  —  A classified memorandum by President Bush's national security adviser expressed serious doubts about whether Prime Minister Nuri Kamal al-Maliki had the capacity to control the sectarian violence in Iraq and recommended that the United States …

Son also rises in testy Webb-Bush exchange  —  President Bush has pledged to work with the new Democratic majorities in Congress, but he has already gotten off on the wrong foot with Jim Webb, whose surprise victory over Sen. George Allen (R-Va.) tipped the Senate to the Democrats.

Iraq exit via Iran?  —  The Iraq war, civil or not, is costing $226 million a day — or $8 billion a month, $76 billion a year.  It's hard to figure out what to call it when Iraqis are killing Iraqis by the score every day and when the U.S. has been fighting and dying there longer than its involvement in World War II.

Judge strikes down Bush on terror groups  —  LOS ANGELES - A federal judge struck down President Bush's authority to designate groups as terrorists, saying his post-Sept. 11 executive order was unconstitutionally vague, according to a ruling released Tuesday.

Prophets of Iraq defeat are rushing judgment  —  The Washington DC Examiner Newspaper, The Examiner  —  WASHINGTON - President Bush was right to declare yesterday in Latvia that he will not withdraw U.S. troops from Iraq until the "mission is complete" because "we can accept nothing less …

Sharia law is spreading as authority wanes  —  Islamic sharia law is gaining an increasing foothold in parts of Britain, a report claims.  —  Sharia, derived from several sources including the Koran, is applied to varying degrees in predominantly Muslim countries but it has no binding status in Britain.

Accept defeat by Taliban, Pakistan tells Nato  —  Senior Pakistani officials are urging Nato countries to accept the Taliban and work towards a new coalition government in Kabul that might exclude the Afghan president Hamid Karzai.  —  Pakistan's foreign minister, Khurshid Kasuri …

Europe must shoulder its share of the Nato burden  —  For too long we have relied on our US allies.  We must strengthen our national contributions, and boost the EU's role  —  Peace can never be taken for granted, and the first responsibility of any government is security.

Houston man admits trying to help Taliban  —  A second man, in U.S. illegally, faces similar conspiracy and weapons charges  —  One of two Houston men accused of training to fight with the Taliban pleaded guilty this afternoon in federal court.  —  Kobie Diallo Williams, 33 …

EXCLUSIVE: Pentagon Considers Moving Troops From al-Anbar Province to Baghdad  —  Major Strategic Shift Considered to Secure Iraqi Capital  —  ABC News has learned that Pentagon officials are considering a major strategic shift in Iraq, to move U.S. forces out of the dangerous Sunni-dominated …

America, Not Keith Ellison, decides what book a congressman takes his oath on  —  Keith Ellison, D-Minn., the first Muslim elected to the United States Congress, has announced that he will not take his oath of office on the Bible, but on the bible of Islam, the Koran.

JUDGE ORDERS TREASURY DEPARTMENT TO MAKE PAPER MONEY RECOGNIZABLE TO BLIND PEOPLE  —  WASHINGTON — American paper money represents an unfair impediment to the blind, and the Treasury Department must come up with new U.S. currency to help the visually impaired use cash, a federal judge ruled Tuesday.

Report: Syrian network planned to kill Lebanese officials  —  Al-Mustaqbal newspaper reports Lebanese security forces exposed network of 200 members which trained in refugee camps in Lebanon, planned to assassinate 36 senior Lebanese officials  —  The Lebanese security forces exposed a network …