Gore campaign team assembles in secret  —  Friends of Al Gore have secretly started assembling a campaign team in preparation for the former American vice-president to make a fresh bid for the White House.  —  Two members of Mr Gore's staff from his unsuccessful attempt in 2000 …

Sunni struggle claims 4th Fallujah chief  —  BAGHDAD- The Fallujah city council chairman, a critic of al-Qaida who took the job after his three predecessors were assassinated, was killed on Saturday, the latest blow in a violent internal Sunni struggle for control of an insurgent stronghold west of Baghdad.

A Paradoxical French Electorate  —  Voters in Presidential Race Demand, and Fear, Change  —  PARIS — Guillaume Beaucheron did not become a train engineer because he loved toy trains as a boy.  He did it for the good pay, short work hours and early retirement offered by France's state-owned railway company.

Bush Doesn't Joke at WHCA Dinner Due to Virginia Tech Killings — But Rich Little Says 'Nuts'  —  WASHINGTON What would the White House Correspondents Association dinner do for an encore on Saturday night in Washington following last year's controversial Stephen Colbert routine?

Rep. Adam Putnam: Time for Gonzales to Go  —  A congressional Republican leader on Friday joined bipartisan calls for U.S. Attorney General Alberto Gonzales to resign but the White House reaffirmed its confidence in President George W. Bush's long-time friend.

Hank Paulson "Needs More" to Knife Wolfowitz: How About Wolfowitz's Employment Contract that He Be Allowed to Take Speaker Fees?  —  Secretary of the Treasury "Hank Paulson can easily control his enthusiasm for Paul Wolfowitz," according to a source close to Paulson, "but he does not have enough yet to stick the final knife in."

In Turnabout, Infant Deaths Climb in South  —  HOLLANDALE, Miss. — For decades, Mississippi and neighboring states with large black populations and expanses of enduring poverty made steady progress in reducing infant death.  But, in what health experts call an ominous portent …

Lower Than Dirt  —  For some reason — don't ask — I was looking at Rush Limbaugh's web site, and I saw this headline: "Can Any Good Come from V Tech Horror?" followed by this blurb: "Maybe, just maybe, we'll face the hatred for American traditions and capitalism infesting our campuses."  No, I thought.

Candidate Giuliani Shifts His Tone on Immigration  —  Rudolph W. Giuliani is a long way from Ellis Island.  —  A decade ago, as mayor of New York, Mr. Giuliani used that historic backdrop to champion the cause of immigrants, calling attacks on people who came here legally a blow to "the heart and soul of America."

The New 5-to-4 Supreme Court  —  AFTER the 5-to-4 decision last week in which the Supreme Court reversed course on abortion, upholding the federal Partial-Birth Abortion Ban Act, many court watchers were wondering what to expect next.  —  For guidance, law professors and Supreme Court specialists looked …

U.S. Database Exposed Social Security Numbers  —  The Agriculture Department for years publicly listed Social Security numbers of tens of thousands of people who received financial aid from two of its agencies, raising concerns about identity theft and other privacy violations.

50% Good News Is the Bad News in Russian Radio  —  At their first meeting with journalists since taking over Russia's largest independent radio news network, the managers had startling news of their own: from now on, they said, at least 50 percent of the reports about Russia must be "positive."

Before Deadly Rage, a Life Consumed by a Troubling Silence  —  From the beginning, he did not talk.  Not to other children, not to his own family.  Everyone saw this.  In Seoul, South Korea, where Seung-Hui Cho grew up, his mother agonized over his sullen, brooding behavior and empty face.

Matthew Yglesias rightly chastises the media for failing to ask whether Harry Reid is substantively right or wrong in his assertion that the war is "lost."  But perhaps we should be careful what we wish for.  —  Here, for instance, is CNN's Kyra Phillips explaining in a surprisingly cutting way that Reid is in fact wrong.