Court rules against Guantanamo detainees  —  Big win for administration although appeal to Supreme Court is likely  —  WASHINGTON - Guantanamo Bay detainees may not challenge their detention in U.S. courts, a federal appeals court said Tuesday in a ruling upholding a key provision in President Bush's anti-terrorism law.

Campos: The right's Ward Churchill  —  Murder is the premeditated unlawful killing of a human being.  Glenn Reynolds, the well-known University of Tennessee law professor who authors one of the Internet's most popular blogs, recently advocated the murder of Iranian scientists and clerics.

Obama, McCaskill Plan Military Hospitals Bill  —  Seizing on an investigative report by The Washington Post's Dana Priest and Anne Hull, Sens. Barack Obama (D-Ill.) and Claire McCaskill (D-Mo.) will introduce legislation next week to require more frequent inspections of hospitals providing treatment to active-duty military personnel.

BBC: Blair to announce troop pullout from Iraq  —  At least 1,500 to return home within the next several weeks, report says  —  LONDON - Prime Minister Tony Blair will announce Wednesday a timetable for the withdrawal of British troops from Iraq, with 1,500 to return home in several weeks, the BBC reported.

Clinton Objects to Confederate Flag  —  ORANGEBURG, S.C. (AP) — Democratic presidential candidate Hillary Rodham Clinton said Monday that South Carolina should remove the Confederate flag from its Statehouse grounds, in part because the nation should unite under one banner while at war.

GOP donor hit with terror charges  —  WASHINGTON - A New York man accused of trying to help terrorists in Afghanistan has donated some $15,000 to the House Republicans' campaign committee over three years.  —  Abdul Tawala Ibn Ali Alishtari pleaded not guilty Friday in U.S. District Court …

The Talented Mr. Romney  —  I have been following the zigs and zags of Mitt Romney, the former Massachusetts governor and now Republican presidential candidate, watching him grow progressively less progressive, sort of making himself up as he goes along.  As a result, I surf the Web with trepidation …

Tormented first by hiccups, now by media … ST. PETERSBURG - The notes under the door.  The incessant phone calls.  The impassioned pleas, all begging for a piece of the story.  —  It wasn't reporters in search of secret intelligence involving the war in Iraq.

Gay couples get licenses in N.J.  —  TEANECK, N.J. - Hundreds of gay couples were granted the same legal rights, if not the title, as married couples Monday as New Jersey became the third state to offer civil unions.  —  More than a dozen other couples applied for licenses for ceremonies later in the week.

Police say political dispute with stranger got physical  —  Man's Republican beliefs irritate suspect  —  A Fredericksburg man was arrested Saturday on charges he assaulted three strangers at their home during a dispute over politics, police said.  —  According to a Fredericksburg police report …

The Antiwar Surge  —  Iraq is unpopular, but embracing defeat may prove politically disastrous for Democrats.  —  In mid-January an Associated Press-Ipsos poll found that public support for President Bush's troop surge increased to 35%, up from 26% a few weeks earlier.

Humans' beef with livestock: a warmer planet  —  American meat eaters are responsible for 1.5 more tons of carbon dioxide per person than vegetarians every year.  —  As Congress begins to tackle the causes and cures of global warming, the action focuses on gas-guzzling vehicles and coal-fired power plants, not on lowly bovines.

Media cited for showing girls as sex objects  —  Advertising and media images that encourage girls to focus on looks and sexuality are harmful to their emotional and physical health, a new report by the American Psychological Association says.  —  The report, released Monday, analyzed some 300 studies over the past 18 months.

Scores choke in poison gas attack … BAGHDAD, Iraq (CNN) — A cloud of deadly toxic gas engulfed an Iraqi town Tuesday, killing six people and leaving dozens of others choking on fumes after a tanker carrying chlorine exploded outside a restaurant.  —  An Iraqi Interior Ministry official …

Conservatives Target GOP War Critics in Congress  —  House Republican leaders and conservative activists are targeting critics of President Bush's plan to send more combat forces into Iraq — and some GOP lawmakers are on the hit list.  —  Amid a mounting campaign in Congress …

North Africa Feared as Staging Ground for Terror  —  TUNIS — The plan, hatched for months in the arid mountains of North Africa, was to attack the American and British Embassies here.  It ended in a series of gun battles in January that killed a dozen militants and left two Tunisian security officers dead.

Right-Wing Radio Host: Teachers Unions Are 'Much More Dangerous' Than Al Qaeda  —  Last night on Fox News's Hannity and Colmes, right-wing radio host Neal Boortz claimed that teachers unions are "destroying a generation" and are "much more dangerous than al Qaeda."

"Tell the American people we need the U.S. Army here:" An Interview with the Jundi  —  An Interview with the Jundi  —  (L to R) Iraqi Army soldiers Jabbar, Mohaned F, Mohaned N and Mohammed sit in their room at Forward Operating Base Castle in NE Fallujah.

Female Pakistani minister shot dead for 'breaking Islamic dress code'  —  Devika Bhat, and Zahid Hussain in Islamabad  —  A Pakistani minister and woman's activist has been shot dead by an Islamic extremist for refusing to wear the veil.  —  Zilla Huma Usman, the minister for social welfare …