Gonzales's Senior Counselor Refuses to Testify  —  The senior counselor to Attorney General Alberto R. Gonzales will refuse to testify before the Senate Judiciary Committee in the unfolding U.S. attorneys scandal, invoking her Fifth Amendment right against self-incrimination, her attorneys said today.

Hicks pleads guilty  —  An artist's impression of David Hicks, left, who sits with his defence counsel in the US military courtroom in Guantanamo Bay.  —  David Hicks has pleaded guilty to one count of supporting a terrorist organisation.  —  The plea to a late night specially convened …

McCain-Feingold: Five Years of Failure  —  Five years ago today, President Bush signed into law the Bipartisan Campaign Reform Act of 2002.  Today, American politics is so clean you could eat off it — except for the mud-slinging, back-scratching, favor-trading, influence-peddling, bald-faced lying, indictments, and convictions.

Webb Aide Arrested for Gun Possession  —  WASHINGTON (AP) - An aide to Sen. Jim Webb was arrested Monday when he entered a Senate office building with a loaded pistol, Capitol Police said.  —  Spokeswoman Sgt. Kimberly Schneider said the aide was charged with carrying a pistol without …

Mindful of Past, Clinton Cultivates the Military  —  Of all the early problems Bill Clinton faced as president, few stand out to Senator Hillary Rodham Clinton as more frustrating and avoidable than his rocky relationship with the military, her advisers say.

An Antiwar Tide on The Rise  —  Within three weeks, the United States could face a constitutional crisis over President Bush's war policy in Iraq.  The president and his allies seem to want this fight.  Yet insisting upon a confrontation will be another mistake in a long line of bad judgments …

Fred Thompson: More Than Flirting With Presidential Bid  —  Looks like Fred Thompson really isn't teasing about possibly running for president.  —  The actor and former Republican senator from Tennessee was spotted having lunch today at the see-and-be-seen Mayflower hotel restaurant …

In the front line of Putin's secret war  —  Crouching behind bushes left bare by the winter, the camouflaged fighters waited in tense expectation on the bleak Caucasian mountain side.  —  Casually flicking his cigarette into the mud, the Chechen loyalist commander raised his radio towards his mouth and barked an order.

Heat Invades Cool Heights Over Arizona Desert  —  SUMMERHAVEN, Ariz. — High above the desert floor, this little alpine town has long served as a natural air-conditioned retreat for people in Tucson, one of the so-called sky islands of southern Arizona.  When it is 105 degrees in the city …

Insurgents report a split with Al Qaeda in Iraq  —  The U.S. hopes to take advantage of the Sunni rebel schism, which has resulted in combat in some areas.  —  BAGHDAD — Insurgent leaders and Sunni Arab politicians say divisions between insurgent groups and Al Qaeda in Iraq have widened …

Tehran's Hostages  —  Iran's act of war against our British allies.  —  Advocates of engagement with Tehran often claim that the Islamic Republic long ago shed its revolutionary pretensions in favor of becoming a "status quo" power.  They might want to share that soothing wisdom with the families …