The 'Surge' Is Succeeding  —  A front-page story in The Post last week suggested that the Bush administration has no backup plan in case the surge in Iraq doesn't work.  I wonder if The Post and other newspapers have a backup plan in case it does.  —  Leading journalists have been reporting …

TRANSCRIPT: FORMER SEN. FRED THOMPSON ON 'FOX NEWS SUNDAY'  —  The following is a partial transcript of the March 11, 2007, edition of "FOX News Sunday With Chris Wallace":  —  "FOX NEWS SUNDAY" HOST CHRIS WALLACE: Well, chances are you've never heard of U.S. President Charles Ross …

The Failed Attorney General  —  During the hearing on his nomination as attorney general, Alberto Gonzales said he understood the difference between the job he held — President Bush's in-house lawyer — and the job he wanted, which was to represent all Americans as their chief law enforcement officer …

Upset Over Canceled Fox Debate, Kondracke Attacks 'Left-Wing Liberals' As 'Junior-Grade Stalinists'  —  On Fox News' Beltway Boys, co-host Mort Kondracke blasted the decision by the Nevada Democratic Party to pull out of a Fox News-sponsored presidential debate.

Report: Rove was urged to oust U.S. attorney  —  N.M. GOP chief says he complained about prosecutor, was told 'he's gone'  —  WASHINGTON - The chairman of the New Mexico Republican Party was quoted Saturday as saying he urged presidential adviser Karl Rove and one of his assistants to fire the state's U.S. attorney.

Iran votes to impose petrol rationing  —  Iranians are bracing themselves for a fresh round of belt tightening after their government voted to impose petrol rationing coupled with sharp rises in the price of fuel.  —  The rationing system will limit Iranians to 22 gallons (100 litres) …

The Friends Of Ali Reza Asgari, Part II  —  The defection of Iranian intelligence officer Ali Reza Asgari did not represent a recent flip of a spy chief as first presumed.  The Times of London reports that Asgari worked as a mole for years, passing information to the West, until he could get his family out of Iran and escape:

Poll: Character trumps policy for voters  —  WASHINGTON - For all the policy blueprints churned out by presidential campaigns, there is this indisputable fact: People care less about issues than they do about a candidate's character.  —  A new Associated Press-Ipsos poll says 55 percent …

New John Edwards Sells Less Biography, More Liberal Issues  —  When he first ran for president, then-Sen. John Edwards (N.C.) was the fresh face in the Democratic Party, a perpetually buoyant campaigner who built his candidacy around his own biography and whose success in the primaries earned him a place on the 2004 Democratic ticket.

HILL: I'M THE JFK OF 2008  —  VOWS TO BEAT ODDS  —  Sen. Hillary Rodham Clinton invoked the campaign of the nation's lone Catholic president, John Kennedy, last night as she talked about her challenge in becoming the first female commander-in-chief.  —  "He was smart, he was dynamic, he was inspiring and he was Catholic.

Lotto Makes Sense, Even for Losers  —  AT least poker tables have some atmosphere, a jingle of highball glasses, a hint of 1990s menthol smoke in the armchairs, the sweet musk of nearby cash.  The same goes for playing the horses: there are characters, scandals, competition, not to mention real payoffs.

Climate scientist 'duped to deny global warming'  —  A Leading US climate scientist is considering legal action after he says he was duped into appearing in a Channel 4 documentary that claimed man-made global warming is a myth.  Carl Wunsch, professor of physical oceanography …

Episode at Guantanamo Leaves Family at a Loss  —  MEDINA, Saudi Arabia — Mishal al-Harbi's brain was deprived of oxygen for several minutes on the evening of Jan. 16, 2003, while he was in U.S. detention at Guantanamo Bay, Cuba.  As a result, he cannot stand, his speech is slurred …

Crisis Looms in Mortgages  —  On March 1, a Wall Street analyst at Bear Stearns wrote an upbeat report on a company that specializes in making mortgages to cash-poor homebuyers.  The company, New Century Financial, had already disclosed that a growing number of borrowers were defaulting …

Iraq four years on  — Video: Julian Simmonds and Colin Freeman on the streets of Iraq  —  Mohammed Mumtaz al-Duleimi shows me the ring on his third finger, set with a heavy stone in a dark-red colour that is known in Iraq as gazelle's blood.  For the superstitious Shias of the south …

Clinton Says Bush Ignores 'Invisible Americans'  —  NASHUA, NH-In a speech to over 1,000 enthusiastic Democrats at the Sheraton Nashua Hotel, Sen. Hillary Clinton (D-NY) tonight signaled a change in focus in her campaign for the presidency.  The event was the New Hampshire Democratic Party's annual "100 Club" dinner.