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 …

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 …

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.

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.

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 …

White House Wages War of Words Over 'Civil' Term  —  The carnage in Iraq is "sectarian violence," President Bush says.  It's a "struggle for freedom," the "central front in the war on terror."  It is not, no matter how much it may look like it, a civil war.  —  Forget the debate over what to do about the war in Iraq.

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 …

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 …

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 …

Globalization Makes an Easy Scapegoat  —  WASHINGTON — We may be about to shoot ourselves in the foot — or maybe the chest — on trade.  In the name of "fair trade,'' we may punish our own exporters.  In 2005, worldwide exports exceeded $10 trillion.  Since 1980, they've more than tripled while the overall global economy doubled.

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.