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.

Republicans Soften Stance on Pullout Language  —  GOP Senators Willing To Let Bush Confront Iraq Timetable Issue  —  Unwilling to do the White House's heavy lifting on Iraq, Senate Republicans are prepared to step aside to allow language requiring troop withdrawals to reach President Bush …

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.

Our World: Condi's embrace of jihadist 'peace'  —  In an open act of war, Iran Friday kidnapped 15 British soldiers in the Persian Gulf.  Iran's act of aggression occurred just as the British voted in favor of a UN Security Council resolution imposing increased sanctions against Teheran for its illicit nuclear weapons program.

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.

Romney offers student fundraisers money  —  BOSTON - A millionaire thanks to his work as a venture capitalist, Mitt Romney is acutely aware of the motivating power of money.  His presidential campaign hopes it will have a similar effect on college students, which is why it's offering them a cut of their fundraising.

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 …