Terror suspect gets 9 months in plea deal  —  AUSTRALIAN WILL SERVE HIS SENTENCE IN HOMELAND, CAN'T ALLEGE ABUSE  —  Australian David Hicks pleaded guilty at the Guant‡namo Bay Navy Base yesterday to supporting terrorism in exchange for a nine-month prison sentence under a plea deal …

Pelosi Going to Syria Despite Objections  —  WASHINGTON (AP) - House Speaker Nancy Pelosi will visit Syria, a country President Bush has shunned as a sponsor of terrorism, despite being asked by the administration not to go.  —  "In our view, it is not the right time to have these sort …

Gallery told to shut down chocolate Jesus display  —  NEW YORK — A planned Holy Week exhibition of a nude, anatomically correct chocolate sculpture of Jesus Christ was canceled Friday after Cardinal Edward Egan and other outraged Roman Catholics complained.

Ex-Partner Of Giuliani May Face Charges  —  Kerik Counts Said To Include Deception During Cabinet Bid  —  Federal prosecutors have told Bernard B. Kerik, whose nomination as homeland security secretary in 2004 ended in scandal, that he is likely to be charged with several felonies …

Iran will punish 'guilty' British sailors: diplomat  —  On video ... Nathan Thomas Summers, left, with other British captives in Iran.  —  IRANIAN authorities have started legal proceedings against the British military personnel it has seized and said they would be punished if found guilty, Iran's ambassador to Moscow said last night.

At Walter Reed, Bush Offers an Apology  —  After Touring Hospital and Visiting Patients, He Vows to 'Fix the Problem'  —  President Bush yesterday paid his first visit to Walter Reed Army Medical Center since the uproar over shoddy conditions at the facility and emerged after a two-hour tour …

'A Very Spartan Operation'  —  Former Arkansas Gov. Mike Huckabee, who's running for the 2008 Republican presidential nomination, established a low bar for rivals to clear in disclosing his initial campaign contribution totals.  At a breakfast with reporters in Washington …

Joschka Fischer's Strange Trip  —  From street radical to the German foreign ministry—and now to Princeton.  —  PRINCETON, N.J.—"You have to try this," says the Frederick H. Schultz Class of 1951 Professor of International Economic Policy at Princeton, pushing his cup my way with an impish grin.

Kurd describes 'traumatized' Iraq, why his people worry about U.S.  —  SIERRA VISTA — The Kurds in Iraq are afraid they will again be left in a lurch if American troops are forced to leave next year, the Kurdistan representative to the United States said Thursday.

BAGHDAD DISPATCH: MIDNIGHT COMPANY  —  "I often find myself in arguments with people about the behavior of American soldiers when they search homes.  Many of the people I talk to base their argument and negative impression on the footage of some raids we see on TV or on experiences of presumed relatives or friends.

The First Contract  —  New questions arise concerning Mitchell Wade's first White House contract — and his connections to the vice president.  —  From 1991 to 1993, a young lieutenant commander in the Navy Reserve was working as a program manager in a Pentagon intelligence office.

Yet More On Blogroll Purges  —  Terrance at the Republic of T comes late to the other PurgeGate controversy, the one about blogroll "amnesties" by key A-List progressive bloggers which turned out to be purges of the littler guys.  Still, in a long and thoughtful post he takes a lucid look …