The Rape of Sabrine...  It takes a lot to get the energy and resolution to blog lately.  I guess it's mainly because just thinking about the state of Iraq leaves me drained and depressed.  But I had to write tonight.  —  As I write this, Oprah is on Channel 4 (one of the MBC channels we get on Nilesat) …

McCain: Iraq War Mismanaged for Years  —  BLUFFTON, S.C. (AP) — Republican presidential candidate John McCain said Monday the war in Iraq has been mismanaged for years and former Defense Secretary Donald Rumsfeld will be remembered as one of the worst in history.

Clinton Courts S.C.'s Black Voters  —  COLUMBIA, S.C. — Hundreds waited in line outside Allen University's Adams Gymnatorium here for the chance to hear Sen. Hillary Rodham Clinton speak in her first visit to South Carolina as a presidential candidate.  —  After a marching band …

Army Fixing Patients' Housing  —  Walter Reed Army Medical Center began repairs yesterday on Building 18, a former hotel that is used to house outpatients recuperating from injuries suffered in Iraq and Afghanistan and that has been plagued with mold, leaky plumbing and a broken elevator.

The Libby-Cheney Connection  —  Libby Testimony Raises More Questions About Cheney's Role In The CIA Leak Case  —  In the fall of 2003, as a federal criminal probe was just getting underway to determine who leaked the identity of CIA officer Valerie Plame to the media, I. Lewis "Scooter" …

MARK STEYN RESPONDS to bogus charges that he favors genocide: … That Steyn was warning of a future, not advocating one, has always been obvious to me.  And it's a serious warning, especially given that the current civil authorities in most European countries are ineffectually waffling in full Weimar mode.

Lawmaker Tries To Ban Naked Lady Mudflaps  —  State House Refuses To Restrict Splash Guard Images  —  PHOENIX — It's still going to be legal in Arizona for trucks to have splash guards with racist terms and silhouettes of naked women.  —  The state House on Thursday rejected …

Israel's oldest kibbutz votes for privatisation  —  Nearly a century after it was founded, Israel's first and most famous kibbutz has voted to give up its early socialist ideals and to privatise itself.  —  The changes at Degania, which was founded where the Sea of Galilee meets the river Jordan …

MUSLIM CABBIE CHARGED WITH RUNNING OVER STUDENTS AFTER RELIGIOUS DISPUTE  —  NASHVILLE, Tenn. — A Muslim cabdriver from Somalia ran over two college students near Vanderbilt University after getting into an argument with them about religion, police said.  —  Ibrahim Ahmed, 37 …

Can a Saudi Dealmaker Rescue Bush?  —  For 22 years Prince Bandar bin Sultan wheeled and dealed his way through Washington as Saudi Arabia's ambassador.  By his account — provided expansively to favored journalists — he had a hand in most of America's major initiatives in the Middle East over a generation.

Accused Terrorist Is Big GOP Donor  —  Justin Rood Reports:  —  The National Republican Congressional Committee (NRCC) won't say what it plans to do with thousands of dollars in campaign donations it received from an accused terror financier.  —  Abdul Tawala Ibn Ali Alishtari gave $15,250 …

Lincoln Resumes Position as Americans' Top-Rated President  —  Reagan and Clinton lead among members of their respective parties  —  PRINCETON, NJ — Since noted historian Arthur M. Schlesinger Sr. declared Abraham Lincoln to be the country's best president in his 1948 poll of 55 historians …

Red All Over  —  Is there any hope for the future of newspapers?  —  The news about newspapers could hardly be more dismal: falling circulation, repeated rounds of layoffs, disappearing ads and a chain of bad earning reports.  It's an unsavory stew of ills, one that shows little prospect of becoming more appetizing.

Almost Everyone Lies, Often Seeing It as a Kindness  —  The perjury trial of I. Lewis "Scooter" Libby goes to the jury this week.  The case speaks to several issues — how the Bush administration deals with critics of the war in Iraq, and the games that Washington's reporters and politicians play with each other.

Churches back plan to unite under Pope  —  Radical proposals to reunite Anglicans with the Roman Catholic Church under the leadership of the Pope are to be published this year, The Times has learnt.  —  The proposals have been agreed by senior bishops of both churches.