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 …

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 …

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 …

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.

Tancredo protesters turn violent  —  Violence erupted at a Michigan law school Thursday when protestors tried to block a speech by Colorado Congressman Tom Tancredo.  —  Police were called after protestors pulled a fire alarm prior to the speech on immigration policies.

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.

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 …

YOU ARE BEING WATCHED....You swat down one data mining project and it turns out there's another one waiting right behind it.  Say hello to ATS: … What kind of meal they ordered?  Note to Muslims: don't order special meals anymore.  Or, if you do, order the kosher meal.  That'll mess with their heads.

US markets must 'learn from London'  —  A new report highlights the reasons for the US financial markets' declining influence, but does the new Congress have the will to reform Sarbanes-Oxley?  —  Tumbleweeds are not yet blowing through Manhattan's vacant streets, but if New York is to hold onto …

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 …

Apocalypse on the US blogosphere  —  There is a world, increasingly driven by unreason, in which voices in the wilderness denounce each other as 'traitors', cry out that 'all I want is no more Islam near me', or allege that Prince Charles is 'waiting in the wings to declare the UK a Muslim country the minute QEII dies'.

The 10 Best Books of 2006  —  FICTION  —  Shteyngart's scruffy, exuberant second novel, equal parts Gogol and Borat, is immodest on every level - it's long, crude, manic and has cheap vodka on its breath.  It also happens to be smart, funny and, in the end, extraordinarily rich and moving.