Dixie Chicks could bring political edge to Grammys  —  LOS ANGELES (Reuters) - The Grammys could take a rare step into the political arena on Sunday if the Dixie Chicks win the coveted album-of-the-year award, as observers of the music industry's biggest honors are predicting.

U.S. Says Arms Link Iranians to Iraqi Shiites  —  After weeks of internal debate, senior United States military officials on Sunday literally put on the table their first public evidence of the contentious assertion that Iran supplies Shiite extremist groups in Iraq with some of the most lethal weapons in the war.

Iraq war debate shifts to the House  —  GOP lawmakers will be in a tough position as Democrats push a resolution that dissents from Bush's strategy.  —  WASHINGTON — As the House this week launches its first major debate over the Iraq war since the November elections …

Obama Plan Has a Critic in Australia  —  On his first trip to Iowa as a presidential candidate, Senator Barack Obama, Democrat of Illinois, found himself responding to an unexpected critic: John Howard, Australia's prime minister.  —  Mr. Howard, a conservative leader who is a close ally of the White House …

Giuliani praises Bush's Iraq policy, foresight  —  He disparages a Senate nonbinding rebuke on a visit to California to build a GOP campaign base for the presidency.  —  SACRAMENTO — Republican presidential hopeful Rudolph W. Giuliani praised President Bush's war leadership on Saturday …

Cheney Testimony in Libby Trial Would Carry High Risk  —  One figure has dominated the trial of I. Lewis Libby Jr. without even showing up in the courtroom.  Day after day, the jury has heard accounts of the actions of Vice President Dick Cheney, watched as his handwritten notes were displayed …

Entrepreneurial Culture  —  Why European economies lag behind the U.S.  —  The nations of Continental Western Europe, in the reforms they make to try to raise their economic performance, may prove to be a testing ground for the view that culture matters for a society's economic results.

Iran Softens Tone, Declares Readiness To Resume Talks  —  President and Top Negotiator Reject U.N. Call to Freeze Nuclear Program  —  Facing the prospect of broader international sanctions, Iran's president and national security chief on Sunday offered to resume negotiations …

A menace to science  —  For years, 'Dr' Gillian McKeith has used her title to sell TV shows, diet books and herbal sex pills.  Now the Advertising Standards Authority has stepped in.  Yet the real problem is not what she calls herself, but the mumbo-jumbo she dresses up as scientific fact, says Ben Goldacre

The Limits Of Sunniness  —  In this winter of their discontents, nostalgia for Ronald Reagan has become for many conservatives a substitute for thinking.  This mental paralysis — gratitude decaying into idolatry — is sterile: Neither the man nor his moment will recur.

SUNDAY NIGHTS IN BAGHDAD — REPORT FROM IRAQ  —  SUNDAY NIGHTS IN BAGHDAD — REPORT FROM IRAQ  —  Of things that go bump in the night.  —  by PJM Baghdad Editor Omar Fahdil of Iraq the Model  —  Last night was a sleepless one for me.  It dragged on until around 4 in the morning and though exhausted I couldn't sleep.