Saudi-Iranian rift?  —  Did anybody really need a leaked memo from the National Security Agency to figure out that Iraqi Prime Minister Nouri al-Maliki is incapable of stopping the carnage in Iraq?  Given that his political power depends on factions allied with Shi'ite militias behind much of the carnage …

THE FAKING IMAMS — Pajamas Media Exclusive: Police Report, Passenger Reveals That Flying Imams Were Up to No Good  —  THE FAKING IMAMS — PAJAMAS MEDIA EXCLUSIVE: POLICE REPORT, PASSENGER REVEALS THAT FLYING IMAMS WERE UP TO NO GOOD  —  The Now Notorious Flying Imams Claim Their Only Crime Was …

Poison plotters claim their second victim  —  Police fear that the murder of a former Kremlin spy may have been part of a double killing plot after a second man was taken to hospital last night with radiation poisoning.  —  The Anti-Terror Group is examining whether the killers …

GSA Chief Seeks to Cut Budget For Audits  —  The new chief of the U.S. General Services Administration is trying to limit the ability of the agency's inspector general to audit contracts for fraud or waste and has said oversight efforts are intimidating the workforce, according to government documents and interviews.

He's The Worst Ever  —  Ever since 1948, when Harvard professor Arthur Schlesinger Sr. asked 55 historians to rank U.S. presidents on a scale from "great" to "failure," such polls have been a favorite pastime for those of us who study the American past.  —  Changes in presidential rankings reflect shifts in how we view history.

Anti-government protest swamps Beirut  —  A SEA of protesters swamped Beirut overnight in a mass outpouring led by the Shiite group Hezbollah which then set up camp around the premier's office to call for his Western-backed government to resign.  —  Brandishing Lebanese flags and white banners reading …

Forcing broadcasters to check for accuracy  —  There's no doubt that Harold Ford was the victim of some pretty scurrilous ads this year during his Senate campaign in Tennessee.  And I really don't blame him for wanting to do something to improve the system/process that allows dishonest ads to intentionally mislead the public.

Corruption: the 'second insurgency' costing $4bn a year  —  One third of rebuilding contracts under criminal investigation  —  The Iraqi government is in danger of being brought down by the wholesale smuggling of the nation's oil and other forms of corruption that together represent a …

Supporting Boys or Girls When the Line Isn't Clear  —  Until recently, many children who did not conform to gender norms in their clothing or behavior and identified intensely with the opposite sex were steered to psychoanalysis or behavior modification.  —  But as advocates gain ground …

Education and Entrepreneurship  —  "...we need a completely new stream of teachers to staff a new vision of what our high schools should look like."  — Carl J. Schramm, The Entrepreneurial Imperative, p. 181  —  I have been losing interest in the contests between Democrats and Republicans in Washington.

Out Go the Congressmen, Down Come the Plaques  —  Most of the Capitol was quieted by the lull of recess this week, but there was a certain frenzy in Room 2466 of the Rayburn House Office Building.  Inside, seven staff members employed for 34 more days by outgoing Rep. Curt Weldon were filling …

Phoenix Airport to Test X-Ray Screening  —  PHOENIX (AP) - Sky Harbor International Airport here will test a new federal screening system that takes X-rays of passenger's bodies to detect concealed explosives and other weapons.  —  The technology, called backscatter, has been around …