Bloc Led by Shiite Cleric Quits Iraqi Government  —  Lawmakers Loyal to Moqtada al-Sadr Protest Prime Minister's Summit With Bush  —  A bloc of Iraqi lawmakers allied with militia leader Moqtada al-Sadr announced Wednesday that they were suspending their involvement in the government …

In Following His Own Script, Webb May Test Senate's Limits  —  At a recent White House reception for freshman members of Congress, Virginia's newest senator tried to avoid President Bush.  Democrat James Webb declined to stand in a presidential receiving line or to have his picture taken …

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 …

Stepping Into Iraq  —  Saudi Arabia Will Protect Sunnis if the U.S. Leaves  —  In February 2003, a month before the U.S.-led invasion of Iraq, the Saudi foreign minister, Prince Saud al-Faisal, warned President Bush that he would be "solving one problem and creating five more" if he removed Saddam Hussein by force.

Economics Experts Join Romney's PAC  —  He hasn't even formed his presidential exploratory committee, but Massachusetts Gov. Mitt Romney (R) has already signed up an economic brain trust to advise him, led by two former chairmen of President Bush's Council of Economic Advisers.

Losing the Enlightenment  —  A civilization that has lost confidence in itself cannot confront the Islamists.  —  Our current crisis is not yet a catastrophe, but a real loss of confidence of the spirit.  The hard-won effort of the Western Enlightenment of some 2,500 years that …

A Second American Civil War?  —  Is America in danger of civil war?  Not immediately, perhaps, but famed science fiction writer Orson Scott Card thinks that we're in enough danger that he's authored a cautionary tale entitled Empire that's set in more-or-less present times.

Witnesses detail Iraq burning deaths  —  BAGHDAD, Iraq - The attack on the small Mustafa Sunni mosque began as worshippers were finishing Friday midday prayers.  About 50 unarmed men, many in black uniforms and some wearing ski masks, walked through the district chanting "We are the Mahdi Army, shield of the Shiites."

O'Reilly falsely claimed to have "coined the term 'San Francisco values' " … In his November 22 nationally syndicated column, titled "Here Comes the Left," Fox News host Bill O'Reilly attacked the San Francisco Board of Education for "vot[ing] to ban Junior ROTC in the city's high schools" …

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.

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 …

Gingrich: Free Speech Should Be Curtailed To Fight Terrorism  —  A former House speaker, Newt Gingrich, is causing a stir by proposing that free speech may have to be curtailed in order to fight terrorism.  —  "We need to get ahead of the curve rather than wait until we actually literally lose a city …

Surge in Violence Shocks Even Weary Mexico  —  Drug Killings Nearly Doubled In Past Year  —  ZIHUATANEJO, Mexico — Andr?s Sauzo collects newspapers, astoundingly grisly newspapers.  —  There's the one with the close-up shot of a severed human head.  There's the one with the wide-angle of a man hacked to death with a machete.

Citizenship Agency Lost 111,000 Files  —  U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services has lost track of 111,000 files in 14 of the agency's busiest district offices and processed as many as 30,000 citizenship applications last year without the necessary files, congressional investigators reported yesterday.