Somali troops capture Islamic stronghold  —  KISMAYO, Somalia - Somali government troops backed by Ethiopian tanks and fighter jets captured the last major stronghold of a militant Islamic movement Monday, while hundreds of Islamic fighters — many of them Arabs and South Asians — fled the town.

Hard Choices Over Video of Execution  —  Confronted with a second, unofficial and more graphic video account of the moments leading up to the execution of Saddam Hussein, and the hanging itself, executives at television news organizations made a series of what one executive …

Universal Health Care Run by Psychotics  —  I'm glad there's widespread liberal discussion about the health care system and the need to fix it.  Paul Krugman made a forceful argument about it today in his Op-Ed, but it's really the same argument that heroic blogger nyceve makes on a regular basis …

'Israel-Palestinian conflict key to Mideast problems'  —  Ban Ki-Moon, the new secretary-general of the United Nations, said on Monday that the Israeli-Palestinian issue was at the core of solving all the problems in the Middle East.  —  In an interview with the South Korean Hankyoreh newspaper …

SIX TERRORISTS KILLED DURING BAGHDAD RAID  —  MULTI-NATIONAL FORCE-IRAQ  —  COMBINED PRESS INFORMATION CENTER  —  BAGHDAD, Iraq  —  703.270.0320 / 0299  —  Release A070101a  —  SIX TERRORISTS KILLED DURING BAGHDAD RAID  —  BAGHDAD, Iraq - Coalition Forces killed six terrorists …

Rose Parade Features 'Star Wars' Tribute  —  Nature's grandeur was on full display at the 118th Rose Parade on Monday, featuring a bounty of floral creations that included a fire- breathing dragon protecting a castle, hummingbirds hovering over blossoms and a frog trying to lap up some water.

Middle Stance Emerges in Debate Over Climate  —  Amid the shouting lately about whether global warming is a human-caused catastrophe or a hoax, some usually staid climate scientists in the usually invisible middle are speaking up.  —  The discourse over the issue has been feverish since Hurricane Katrina.

Chief Justice Advocates Higher Pay for Judiciary  —  WASHINGTON, Dec. 31 — Chief Justice John G. Roberts Jr. made judicial pay the sole topic of his second annual report, issued on Sunday, declaring that the failure by Congress to raise federal judges' salaries in recent years has become a …

"SURGE" QUERY  —  The Keane/Kagan duo write in the Weekly Standard that a meaningful "surge" has to consist of at least 30,000 men and for at least 18 months.  OK, nothing surprising there, this has been a Fred Kagan type outlook for many moons now.  What caught my eye, however, was this snippet at the concluding graf:

Labelling cheese as junk food 'unfair'  —  New advertising rules that will officially label cheese as "junk food" were condemned yesterday by the dairy industry as unfair, misleading and counter-productive.  —  Under regulations coming into force this month, broadcasters will be banned …

From Father to Son, Last Words to Live By  —  He drew pictures of himself with angel wings.  He left a set of his dog tags on a nightstand in my Manhattan apartment.  He bought a tiny blue sweat suit for our baby to wear home from the hospital.  —  Then he began to write what would become …

Veil-wearing Muslim women are part of our fight - al-Qaeda chief  —  AL-QAEDA'S deputy leader said yesterday that any Muslim woman who wears the veil in Western countries is a supporter in what he described as a fight between Islam and "Zionist Crusaders".  —  Ayman al-Zawahri issued …

Iraqis learn the art of legal "workarounds"  —  (updated below)  —  This depressing New York Times article by John Burns and Marc Santora details the frantic, reckless manner in which Saddam Hussein was shoved into the noose in clear violation of Iraqi law.  We can't even get a hanging right.