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 …

Laurie David and Sheryl Crow: Karl Rove Gets Thrown Under the Stop Global Warming Bus  —  Last night Thelma and Louise drove the bus off the cliff or at least into the White House Correspondents Dinner.  The "highlight" of the evening had to be when we were introduced to Karl Rove.

It's Sarko vs Sego  —  Nicolas Sarkozy will line up against Ségolène Royal in the French presidential run-off in two weeks' time, according to early exit polls.  —  The unofficial polls were circulated in Paris but cannot be published in France until polling stations close at 8pm.

Gingrich Blames Virginia Tech Tragedy On Liberalism  —  In the wake of the 1999 shootings at Columbine High School in Littleton, Colorado, former House Speaker Newt Gingrich laid the blame for the tragedy at the feet of liberals.  Here's what he said:

After Iraqi Troops Do Dirty Work, 3 Detainees Talk  —  Out here in what the soldiers call Baghdad's wild west, sometimes the choices are all bad.  —  In one of the new joint American-Iraqi security stations in the capital this month, in the volatile Ghazaliya neighborhood …

Kristol: Reid's Iraq Remark Is 'Much More Disgraceful Than Anything Trent Lott Said'  —  This morning on Fox News Sunday, Weekly Standard editor William Kristol said that Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid's (D-NV) remark that the Iraq war is lost is "much more disgraceful" than Sen. Trent Lott's …

American psycho  —  When Cho killed 32 people at Virginia Tech, the horrific slaughter revealed not only the poisons lurking in popular culture but the crisis of young males in a feminised society, says Sarah Baxter  —  Just before 5am on Monday, April 16, Cho Seung-hui got out of bed and walked to his computer.

Dowd Aside  —  Yes, Maureen Dowd sucks.  But her suckitude is a constant in the political-media equation; it is unchanging, inflexible, utterly predictable.  To be awed by her superficiality is to berate the sun for rising in the east.  —  What I don't understand is John Edwards.

Suicide car bombers kill 13 in police station blasts … BAGHDAD, Iraq (AP) — Two suicide car bombers attacked a police station Sunday in western Baghdad, killing at least 13 people and wounding 82, police said.  —  The bombs exploded as Prime Minister Nuri al-Maliki arrived in Cairo …

Short Takes: Sign a petition to keep our chocolate real  —  The federal Food and Drug Administration is proposing to redefine the very essence of chocolate and to allow big manufacturers such as Hershey to sell a bar devoid of a key ingredient — cocoa butter.

Standby for more violence  —  [Megan] In the wake of the Virginia tech murders, there has been a lot of editorialising about gun control and mental health interventions.  But I haven't found a single editorial addressing one factor we know creates these mass murders: reporting on the mass murders.

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 …

McCain fairs poorly, Huckabee well in S.C. straw poll … WASHINGTON (CNN) — The weekend before Arizona Sen. John McCain makes his official presidential announcement in South Carolina, polls show he's not popular with local Republican voters.  —  The Republican parties in Greenville …