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.

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.

U.N. unanimously approves Iran sanctions  —  Tehran immediately rejects Security Council resolution on nuke activity  —  UNITED NATIONS - The U.N. Security Council voted unanimously Saturday to impose economic sanctions on Iran for refusing to end a uranium enrichment program that the United States …

Islamic Group Has Mastered Victimization Game, Critic Says  —  (CNSNews.com) - The Republican lawmaker who sparked a storm with comments about Muslims and the need to tighten immigration laws is the latest target of an Islamic advocacy group's "victimization game," a political analyst said Thursday.

Iraqi Shiites resist isolating Sadr  —  Politicians and clerics support the leader and view U.S. opposition to him as interference.  —  NAJAF, Iraq — One of Iraq's most influential Shiite clerics rejected a U.S.-backed proposal to isolate Shiite extremists in the national government …

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 …

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.

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 …

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 …

How Free Trade Hurts  —  Fewer and fewer Americans support our government's trade policy.  They see a shrinking middle class, lost jobs and exploding trade deficits.  —  Yet supporters of free trade continue to push for more of the same — more job-killing trade agreements …

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 …

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.

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 …

Major Blow For Taliban  —  The Taliban has taken a body blow in its continuing war with NATO and democratic Afghan forces.  Coalition forces killed their chief of operations, Mullah Akhtar Mohammad Osmani, in fighting near the border this week: … Osmani has run the Taliban's military …

Wars of the Worlds  —  When an emerging science-fiction writer's work earns him comparisons to Robert A. Heinlein, should he take them as a compliment?  Don't misunderstand me: I have no reason to doubt that the old master's classic novels "Stranger in a Strange Land" and "The Cat Who Walks Through Walls" …

Christians suffer for Iraq, says archbishop  —  Christians in the Middle East are being put at unprecedented risk by the Government's "shortsighted" and "ignorant" policy in Iraq, The Archbishop of Canterbury, Dr Rowan Williams, says today.  —  In an extraordinary attack …