Secret American talks with insurgents break down  —  SECRET talks in which senior American officials came face-to-face with some of their most bitter enemies in the Iraqi insurgency broke down after two months of meetings, rebel commanders have disclosed.  —  The meetings, hosted by Iyad Allawi …

Jefferson swarms back to win re-election  —  Confounding political pundits and a slew of rivals who had become confident of his defeat, U.S. Rep. William Jefferson, D-New Orleans, neatly sidestepped a roiling federal corruption probe to win re-election on Saturday to his ninth term in Congress.

Dairy Industry Crushed Innovator Who Bested Price-Control System  —  In the summer of 2003, shoppers in Southern California began getting a break on the price of milk.  —  A maverick dairyman named Hein Hettinga started bottling his own milk and selling it for as much as 20 cents a gallon less …

US bugged Diana's phone on night of death crash  —  The American secret service was bugging Princess Diana's telephone conversations without the approval of the British security services on the night she died, according to the most comprehensive report on her death, to be published this week.

ISG must stand for, uh, Inane Strategy Guesswork  —  Well, the ISG — the Illustrious Seniors' Group — has released its 79-point plan.  How unprecedented is it?  Well, it seems Iraq is to come under something called the "Iraq International Support Group."

What Would Jimmy Do?  —  Simon & Schuster.  264 pp.  $27  —  Jimmy Carter tells a strange and revealing story near the beginning of his latest book, the sensationally titled Palestine Peace Not Apartheid.  It is a story that suggests that the former president's hostility to Israel is, to borrow a term, faith-based.

POISON SPY: IT WAS IN HIS TEA  —  Cups were 'nuked'  —  POISONED former KGB spy Alexander Litvinenko WAS murdered by radioactive tea, it was revealed yesterday.  —  Scotland Yard detectives have quarantined cups and saucers which show signs of being heavily contaminated with polonium 210 …

UN downgrades man's impact on the climate  —  Richard Gray, Science Correspondent, Sunday Telegraph  —  Mankind has had less effect on global warming than previously supposed, a United Nations report on climate change will claim next year.  —  The UN Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change …

Wounded to get millions in compensation  —  Hundreds of troops wounded in Iraq and Afghanistan are to be awarded millions of pounds in compensation following a ruling by the Government that they are victims of crime not war.  —  Forty injured servicemen are to receive payments of up to £500,000 each in a series of test cases.

Aide: Democrat leader heard of Foley e-mails in 2005 … WASHINGTON (CNN) — The head of the House Democrats' campaign committee, Rep. Rahm Emanuel, had heard of former Rep. Mark Foley's inappropriate e-mails to a former male page a year before they became public, a campaign committee aide told CNN.

Bolton's successor  —  WASHINGTON — Zalmay Khalilzad, who was announced this week as leaving as U.S. ambassador to Iraq, is the leading prospect to replace John Bolton as envoy to the United Nations.  —  President Bush was reported by aides as looking for someone who approximates Bolton's combination …

ISG Prescribes Vietnam All Over Again  —  "...[Y]ou have my assurance of continued assistance in the post-settlement period and that we will respond with full force should the settlement be violated by North Vietnam."  —  That was a pledge by President Richard M. Nixon to Republic …

Shareef Followed Father Into Nation Of Islam  —  The young Muslim arrested for planning to bomb a Rockford Mall, Derrick Shareef aka Talib Abu Salam Ibn Shareef, was a Nation of Islam convert, and reports state his Father is also a member of the controversial group associated with Louis Farrakhan.