U.S. Considers Ending Outreach to Insurgents  —  The Bush administration is deliberating whether to abandon U.S. reconciliation efforts with Sunni insurgents and instead give priority to Shiites and Kurds, who won elections and now dominate the government, according to U.S. officials.

Radiation Hits Second Man  —  An Italian academic who met a former Russian spy on the day he was allegedly poisoned has tested positive for radiation.  —  Mario Scaramella was found to have isotope Polonium-210 in his body.  —  He had lunch with ex-security agent Alexander Litvinenko …

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.

TSA's revealing X-ray screening raises privacy concerns  —  WASHINGTON — The federal government plans this month to launch the nation's first airport screening system that takes potentially revealing X-ray photos of travelers in an effort to find bombs and other weapons.

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 …

U.S. warns of possible Qaeda financial cyber attack  —  WASHINGTON (Reuters) - The U.S. government warned American private financial services on Thursday of an al Qaeda call for a cyber attack against online stock trading and banking Web sites beginning on Friday, a source said.

Democratic Power Struggle  —  The most important tension within the new Democratic majority in the House of Representatives is not between liberals and conservatives or free traders and fair traders.  It is between older members who once enjoyed the power and perks of majority status …

Calderon takes oath as Mexican president amid catcalls … MEXICO CITY, Mexico (AP) — Felipe Calderon took the oath of office as Mexico's president Friday amid jeers and whistles in a chaotic ceremony reflecting a divided nation.  —  Physically protected by ruling party lawmakers and flanked …

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 …

MSM bias: "Everybody knows ..."  —  Michelle Malkin, Flopping Aces and many others have spent days chronicling how the Associated Press has been bamboozled into reporting an apparently fictitious (or, at least, greatly exaggerated) atrocity in Iraq.  Yet AP continues to defend both its dubious story and its equally dubious sources.

Political Constraints  —  Josh Marshall is chronicling the rapidly emerging rightwing "stab in the back" meme in which George W. Churchill was betrayed by both the American and Iraqi people.  Big surprise.  It's an interesting series of posts and I urge you to read them all.  Here's an excerpt from one:

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 …