Give us guns - and troops can go, says Iraqi leader  —  Listen to the interview with Nouri al-Maliki  —  America's refusal to give Baghdad's security forces sufficient guns and equipment has cost a great number of lives, the Iraqi Prime Minister said yesterday.

Court to Oversee U.S. Wiretapping in Terror Cases  —  The Bush administration, in a surprise reversal, said on Wednesday that it had agreed to give a secret court jurisdiction over the National Security Agency's wiretapping program and would end its practice of eavesdropping without warrants on Americans suspected of ties to terrorists.

Bush Faces Deepening War Opposition, Demand for Congress to Act  —  Jan. 18 (Bloomberg) — President George W. Bush failed to rally public support with his nationally televised speech announcing plans to send more soldiers to Iraq, as most Americans say they want Congress to find a way to stop the troop increase.

Congressional Procession of Iraq Proposals Likely to Lead Nowhere  —  "You cannot run a war by committee," Vice President Cheney said over the weekend.  —  Oh?  Just watch them.  —  Lawmakers were introducing Iraq legislation at a mad pace yesterday, at one point in the afternoon scheduling news conferences in half-hour intervals.

Area Readers Get the Joke  —  The Onion, the Gen-X satiric newspaper, is coming to Washington and will partner with The Washington Post, which will print the paper and sell local ads.  —  The Onion, which also maintains a Web site, will be distributed free in news boxes and by hawkers in Washington beginning the first week in April.

Obama's Past Offers Ammo for Critics  —  SPRINGFIELD, Ill. — Democratic presidential candidate Barack Obama may have a lot of explaining to do.  —  He voted against requiring medical care for aborted fetuses who survive.  He supported allowing retired police officers to carry concealed weapons …

Newspaper Columnist Art Buchwald Dies at 81  —  Art Buchwald, 81, the newspaper humor columnist for more than a half-century who found new comic material in the issues that come up at the end of life, died of kidney failure last night at his son's home in Washington, his family announced today.

Mao was cruel - but also laid the ground for today's China  —  The crimes of communist China's founder shouldn't blind us to achievements which paved the way for its current modernisation  —  Nobody wants to be an apologist for Mao.  Even the Communist party, five years after his death …

Van Hollen and Dean bury hatchet  —  Rep. Chris Van Hollen (D-Md.), the new chief election strategist for the House Democrats, welcomed Democratic Party Chairman Howard Dean to his office Tuesday for a "jovial" meeting in which the two pledged to work together during the 2008 election cycle.

Update: Specter Admits Role in Expanding WH Powers  —  Sen. Arlen Specter (R-PA) confirmed that as Judiciary Committee chairman last year he made a last-minute change to a bill that expanded the administration's power to install U.S. Attorneys without Senate approval.

Cancer Deaths Decline For Second Straight Year  —  The number of Americans who died of cancer has dropped for a second straight year, marking a milestone in the war on the disease, officials said yesterday.  —  More than 3,000 fewer Americans died from cancer in 2004 than in 2003 …

McCain no longer rocks in Granite State  —  As Mitt, Hillary, Barack and a dozen others jump into the presidential stampede, something interesting is happening in New Hampshire.  —  For seven years, conventional wisdom has said that the state's pivotal independent voters would line …