Rapturous reception for Obama  —  Americans want new kind of leadership, Illinois senator says during visit  —  llinois Sen. Barack Obama made his first visit to New Hampshire yesterday, drawing the kinds of crowds and news media attention usually reserved for a sitting president or a presidential nominee.

What I've Learned  —  Nearly 50 years ago, when I arrived in Minnesota as a student fresh from Africa, I had much to learn — starting with the fact that there is nothing wimpish about wearing earmuffs when it is 15 degrees below zero.  All my life since has been a learning experience.

Holocaust conference begins in Teheran  —  Iran opened a conference on the Holocaust on Monday, saying it would not be an attempt to deny the World War II genocide but merely to discuss it in an unrestricted atmosphere.  —  However, the conference was initiated by President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad …

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.

Diana was bugged by secret service in U.S.  —  American intelligence agencies were bugging Princess Diana's telephone over her relationship with a US billionaire, the Mail's sister paper has learned.  —  Evening Standard reports that she was even forced to abandon a planned holiday with her sons …

Cow 'emissions' more damaging to planet than CO2 from cars  —  Meet the world's top destroyer of the environment.  It is not the car, or the plane,or even George Bush: it is the cow.  —  A United Nations report has identified the world's rapidly growing herds of cattle as the greatest threat to the climate, forests and wildlife.

Pinochet Dies.  His Legacy Lingers.  [Updated]  —  Update: After involuntarily living with Augusto Pinochet for 33 years of my life, I thought it only fair to respond to his death with three separate pieces of my own.  —  Click here to read my piece in Monday's Los Angeles Times on the passing of Pinochet.

LOOKING BACK.  In fall 2006, the United States turned on the NeoCommentators.  Infuriated by their smug, wrongheaded chatter had help lead the country into a catastrophic war and then, without missing a beat, turned to condemning those who sought to end it, readers nationwide began agitating …

The Fifth Annual Warblogger Awards (For 2006)  —  In order to recognize the excellent work some of our fellow bloggers have been doing, RWN has put together the "5th Annual Warblogger Awards".  More than 235 bloggers were invited to vote for their favorite blog in numerous categories and 41 responded.

Seeking Iran Intelligence, U.S. Tries Google  —  Internet Search Yields Names Cited in U.N. Draft Resolution  —  When the State Department recently asked the CIA for names of Iranians who could be sanctioned for their involvement in a clandestine nuclear weapons program, the agency refused …

Iraq Is Failing to Spend Billions in Oil Revenues  —  Iraq is failing to spend billions of dollars of oil revenues that have been set aside to rebuild its damaged roads, schools and power stations and to repair refineries and pipelines.  —  Iraqi ministries are spending as little as 15 percent …

Plagiarist reporter back in business  —  After a humiliating plagiarism scandal that rocked the New York Times [NYT], Jayson Blair is quietly resurrecting his journalism career by writing about the very subject he says brought him down: Bipolar disorder.  —  Blair, 30, has been lending …

Taliban and Allies Tighten Grip in North of Pakistan  —  PESHAWAR, Pakistan — Islamic militants are using a recent peace deal with the government to consolidate their hold in northern Pakistan, vastly expanding their training of suicide bombers and other recruits and fortifying alliances …

For Iraq's Sunnis, Conflict Closes In  —  Mixed Neighborhoods Unravel as Shiite Militiamen Expand Violence  —  A few blocks from Ali Farouk's three-story home, an empty house provides a glimpse of what he fears will be the future.  Once owned by a Sunni Muslim, the paint is peeling, the windows are blown out.

U.S. Report Rejected By Iraqi President  —  Iraqi President Jalal Talabani on Sunday strongly rejected a bipartisan U.S. panel's report on U.S. war strategy in Iraq, calling some of its recommendations "dangerous" and a threat to his country's sovereignty.  —  "The report does not respect …