Iraq Panel to Urge Pullout Of Combat Troops by '08  —  The bipartisan Iraq Study Group plans to recommend withdrawing nearly all U.S. combat units from Iraq by early 2008 while leaving behind troops to train, advise and support the Iraqis, setting the first goal for a major drawdown of U.S. forces …

Iraq ministry forms unit to monitor news  —  BAGHDAD, Iraq - Iraq's Interior Ministry said Thursday it had formed a special unit to monitor news coverage and vowed to take legal action against journalists who failed to correct stories the ministry deemed to be incorrect.

Litvinenko was victim of 'Russian rogue agents'  —  British intelligence sources increasingly suspect that Alexander Litvinenko, the former spy killed with a radioactive poison, was the victim of a plot involving "rogue elements" within the Russian state, the Guardian has learned.

McCain Courts Crucial Support of Governors  —  Last anyone checked, Senator John McCain of Arizona is not — and has never been — a governor.  —  But no matter.  Mr. McCain turned up on Thursday morning at the Doral Golf Resort and Spa here for a guerrillalike visit to the annual meeting of the Republican Governors Association.

Obama is going to go for it  —  Bottom line: I think Sen. Barack Obama, who is seriously considering a run for president, is going to jump into the 2008 race.  I predict the freshman Illinois Democrat will announce near the end of this year or the beginning of 2007, sometime after he returns from a holiday break in his native Hawaii.

It's losing we hate, not war  —  Those who compare the lengths of WWII and Iraq ignore the real thing we don't like in far-flung wars.  —  ONE THOUSAND three hundred and forty seven days.  —  That's how long the United States was involved in combat in World War II, and Monday …

THE LINEUP FOR 2008  —  Yesterday, Senate Majority Leader Bill Frist announced that he will not run for President in 2008.  You can read his statement here.  Frist's announcement didn't make a very big splash; many observers hadn't taken him seriously as a Presidential candidate in any event.

NBC Ignores Pelosi Flub, Relays Retort to Bush on Qaeda in Iraq  —  Asked by a reporter about how "President Bush today blamed the surge of violence in Iraq on al Qaeda," incoming House Speaker Nancy Pelosi responded with a disjointed answer about how "the 9/11 Commission dismissed that notion …

'Fair Trade' Foolishness  —  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.

Illegal immigrants toiled for governor  —  Guatemalans say firm hired them  —  This story was reported by Jonathan Saltzman and Maria Cramer of the Globe staff and by Globe correspondent Connie Paige and was written by Saltzman.  —  SUCHITEPEQUEZ, Guatemala — Outside his aqua-colored concrete house here …

Dollar slides as US business slows  —  The dollar suffered sharp falls on Thursday, hit by reports of weak US business activity and a benign inflation picture.  —  The euro rose .7 per cent against the dollar to $1.3247 by late afternoon in New York after data from Chicago purchasing managers indicated …

On Calling Bulls**t  —  Mainstream-media political journalism is in danger of becoming increasingly irrelevant, but not because of the Internet, or even Comedy Central.  The threat comes from inside.  It comes from journalists being afraid to do what journalists were put on this green earth to do.

U.N. Official Calls Violence in Darfur 'Horrific'  —  Rebuke Follows Rights Council's Rejection of Measure Seeking Prosecutions by Sudan  —  Atrocities in the Darfur region of Sudan are occurring daily at a "horrific" level, the top U.N. human rights official said yesterday …

Video: Dean bashes Fox News in Canada, reporter responds — in French!  —  Like I said, biting the hand that feeds you.  —  At the Canadian Liberal Leadership Convention last night, Howard Dean said Fox News would "hate this" following a remark about the Dems' victory in the states.