Man sets self aflame in Calif. protest  —  BAKERSFIELD, Calif. - A man used flammable liquid to light himself on fire, apparently to protest a San Joaquin Valley school district's decision to change the names of winter and spring breaks to Christmas and Easter vacation.

From Thong to Thesis: Monica Lewinsky Flashes Her Intellect  —  There are moments that make you question your fundamental assumptions about the world.  One of them took place a few days ago, when news emerged that Monica Lewinsky had just graduated from the London School of Economics.  —  She did not!!

Channel tunnel is terror target  —  The Channel tunnel has been targeted by a group of Islamic militant terrorists aiming to cause maximum carnage during the holiday season, according to French and American secret services.  —  The plan, which the French DGSE foreign intelligence service became aware …

Commander Said to Be Open to More Troops  —  The American military command in Iraq is now willing to back a temporary increase in American troops in Baghdad as part of a broader Iraqi and United States effort to stem the slide toward chaos, senior American officials said Saturday.

Putin to remain leader after leaving Kremlin: senior politician  —  President Vladimir Putin will retain a leadership role in Russia even if he steps down in 2008, as required by the constitution, a senior politician has said.  —  "He will not leave," Sergei Stepashin, head of Russia's accounting chamber …

A Real-World Army  —  Military reality finally broke through the Bush administration's ideological wall last week, with President Bush publicly acknowledging the need to increase the size of the overstretched Army and Marine Corps.  —  Larger ground forces are an absolute necessity for the sort …

Gender Pay Gap, Once Narrowing, Is Stuck in Place  —  Throughout the 1980s and early '90s, women of all economic levels — poor, middle class and rich — were steadily gaining ground on their male counterparts in the work force.  By the mid-'90s, women earned more than 75 cents for every dollar …

The Way to Keep House  —  CORRUPTION was widely considered a principal cause of Republican losses in November.  Now that Democrats are preparing to take charge of the House of Representatives for the first time since 1994, they would do well to adopt a reform agenda that will help keep …

When Resolve Turns Reckless  —  There's something much worse than being accused of "flip-flopping": refusing to flip when it's obvious that your course of action is a flop.  —  I say this to President Bush as someone who learned the hard way how embracing the world's complexity can be twisted into a crude political shorthand.

DNA Witness Jolted Dynamic of Duke Case  —  The moment that may have changed the course of the Duke lacrosse rape case came in a packed courtroom two Fridays ago.  —  On the stand at a pretrial hearing was Brian W. Meehan, director of a private laboratory that performed extensive DNA testing …

GOP Turns Anger on Campaign Committee  —  WASHINGTON (AP) — Narrowly defeated in his bid for a fourth term, Montana Sen. Conrad Burns turned his anger on the National Republican Senatorial Committee and commercials it had run months before the election.  —  ''The ads hurt me more than they helped.