Talks under way to replace Iraq PM  —  BAGHDAD, Iraq - Major partners in Iraq's governing coalition are in behind-the-scenes talks to oust Prime Minister Nouri al-Maliki amid discontent over his failure to quell raging violence, according to lawmakers involved.

Chile's Gen Pinochet dies at 91  —  Chile's former military leader Augusto Pinochet has died, the Santiago hospital treating him after an earlier heart attack has announced.  —  The hospital said the condition of the 91-year-old general had suddenly worsened, AP news agency said.

WHAT WOULD JIMMY DO?  PART 2  —  This morning Newsweek publicist Natalia Labenskyj emailed us the political stories in Newsweek's new issue.  One of the items in Labeskyj's email is Eleanor Clift's softball interview with Jimmy Carter, which I happened to read.  Here is one question and answer that caught my attention:

An Unlikely Offensive  —  THE IRAQ Study Group's recommendations for shifting U.S. military tactics in the war are specific, focused and aimed at incremental improvement over the next few months; they are also close to what the Pentagon and Iraqi government already were hoping to achieve.

Suspicion about imams grows as terror links pile up  —  The grounded imams incident at the Minneapolis-St. Paul International Airport has been a public relations coup for the imams, their supporters and their claims that the group's only suspicious activity was saying evening prayers.

Rumsfeld, in Iraq, Bids Farewell to U.S. Troops  —  The outgoing secretary of defense, Donald H. Rumsfeld, paid a surprise visit to Iraq this weekend and said American troops should stay in the country until the insurgents were defeated.  —  "We feel great urgency to protect the American people …

Even If We Leave Now, We'll Be Back  —  Strategic redeployment.  Phased drawdown.  Exit strategy.  However one phrases it, Washington seems to be turning a page in the story of Iraq.  The midterm elections, the subsequent resignation of Defense Secretary Donald H. Rumsfeld and the release …

As Crowd Demands Change, Lebanese Premier Is Puzzled  —  The center of Beirut was packed Sunday with hundreds of thousands of pro-Hezbollah and allied demonstrators who, in a jubilant mass of protest and carnival, pressed their call for the government to resign.

GOP Laments Mixed Results As Control of Congress Ends  —  Demoralized Republicans adjourned the 109th Congress at 5 a.m. yesterday with a near-empty Capitol, closing the door on a dozen years of nearly unbroken GOP control by spending more time in the final days lamenting their failures …

New Radiation Traces Linked to Associate of Ex-Spy  —  German authorities said today that they had found traces of the radioactive substance polonium in a car and two homes in Hamburg used by a Russian business associate of the murdered ex-K.G.B. agent Alexander V. Litvinenko a few days before the men met in London.

a Krakow saturday  —  Can a Pole get a fresh perspective on her homeland by staying away for a while?  You think you can, but it's a myth.  You get off the train, you see X, Y and that's it.  Say no more, you, dear country, are as good (or as quirky) as I remember you.