Maliki's Office Is Seen Behind Purge in Forces  —  A department of the Iraqi prime minister's office is playing a leading role in the arrest and removal of senior Iraqi army and national police officers, some of whom had apparently worked too aggressively to combat violent Shiite militias …

Sexual Threats Stifle Some Female Bloggers  —  A female freelance writer who blogged about the pornography industry was threatened with rape.  A single mother who blogged about "the daily ins and outs of being a mom" was threatened by a cyber-stalker who claimed that she beat her son and that he had her under surveillance.

Clinton's PowerPointer  —  With Data and Slides, a Pollster Guides Campaign Strategy  —  It was fairly simple, Mark J. Penn said calmly to Vice President Al Gore, reporting the findings of an exhaustive survey he had conducted in the early stages of the 2000 presidential campaign.

Quiet Bush Aide Seeks Iraq Czar, Creating a Stir  —  Stephen J. Hadley would be the first to tell you he does not have star power.  But Mr. Hadley, the bespectacled, gray-haired, exceedingly precise Washington lawyer who is President Bush's national security adviser, is in the market for someone who does …

Clinton and Obama Raiding Donors Who Backed Bush  —  As senators Clinton and Obama crisscross the country seeking the Democratic presidential nomination and sharply criticizing President Bush, they have been collecting hundreds of thousands of dollars from donors who funded one or both of Mr. Bush's campaigns for the White House.

Former Political Director at ABC Is Moving to Time Magazine  —  Mark Halperin, who stepped down last month as the political director of ABC News, is moving to Time magazine.  —  Mr. Halperin, a pioneer of online reporting who founded ABCnews.com's political memo, The Note …

Court rules on two patent cases, and on high-speed chase  —  The Supreme Court, in a major victory for Microsoft Corp., ruled by a 7-1 vote on Monday that U.S. patent law does not bar foreign making of copies of digital code to be installed in computers made and sold abroad.

Hollywood Girls Gone Wild  —  In which Laurie David and Sheryl Crow harangue Karl Rove.  —  The showdown at the White House Correspondents' dinner was more emotional and lasted longer than was first reported.  It started when Laurie David introduced herself to Karl Rove.

Companies Shift More Donations To Democrats  —  House Leaders' Coffers  —  Swell as Balance Swings  —  Against Republicans  —  WASHINGTON — For the new Democratic bosses in the House, power has quickly translated into money, as many big companies have shifted more of their campaign contributions …

When Talk Isn't Cheap  —  Campaign finance regulators say speech isn't free—it's a form of "contribution."  —  Campaign finance laws are increasingly becoming a tool to suppress political speech, and the courts are finally waking up to the danger.  Last week a unanimous Washington state …

Watergate reporter demolishes Hillary's career story  —  Drawing on a trove of private papers from Hillary Clinton's best friend, the legendary Watergate journalist Carl Bernstein is to publish a hard-hitting and intimate portrait of the 2008 presidential candidate, which will reveal a number of "discrepancies" in her official story.

Excerpt: Tenet Strikes Back  —  From George Tenet's new book At the Center of the Storm  —  I first flew into Iraq just about the time Jerry Bremer took over as head of the Coalition Provisional Authority, or CPA, during the third week of May 2003.  I took a helicopter ride with Jerry right over Baghdad.

Climate change hits Mars  —  Mars is being hit by rapid climate change and it is happening so fast that the red planet could lose its southern ice cap, writes Jonathan Leake.  —  Scientists from Nasa say that Mars has warmed by about 0.5C since the 1970s.  This is similar to the warming experienced …