Senior al Qaeda leader killed in Iraq: ministry  —  BAGHDAD (Reuters) - U.S. and Iraqi forces have killed the head of the self-styled Islamic State in Iraq, an al Qaeda-led militant group that has claimed many major attacks in the country, Iraq's deputy interior minister said on Thursday.

Democrats Back Down On Iraq Timetable  —  Compromise Bill in Works After Veto Override Fails  —  President Bush and congressional leaders began negotiating a second war funding bill yesterday, with Democrats offering the first major concession: an agreement to drop their demand for a timeline to bring troops home from Iraq.

Justice Dept. Announces Inquiry Into Its Hiring  —  The Justice Department has begun an internal investigation into whether a former senior adviser to Attorney General Alberto R. Gonzales improperly tried to fill vacancies for career prosecutors at the agency with Republicans loyal to the Bush administration …

24 For Kids  —  Ann Coulter: set your Tivo.  Money quote: … That's a strong "enhanced" message.  Just like Mr Tenet says.

Time: Bush Less Influential Than ... Queen Elizabeth  —  You have to love the American media and its love of lists.  They feel compelled to categorize the top 100 most, least, biggest, most beautiful of just about anything that talks, walks, or crawls — and they almost always manage to get it completely wrong when doing so.

Bush: "I'm the Commander Guy"  —  WASHINGTON, May 2-And you thought he was still "the decider."  —  President Bush coined a new nickname for himself — ''the commander guy" — on Wednesday, as he criticized Congressional Democrats in a speech to the annual gathering of the Associated General Contractors …

Exonerations Change How Justice System Builds a Prosecution  —  Jerry Miller is the newest poster child of the wrongfully convicted, the 200th to be exonerated by DNA evidence — after he spent 25 years behind bars in Illinois for a rape he did not commit.  —  But Miller, a black man, hardly stands out in the crowd of the exonerated.

Iraqi Blocs Opposed to Draft Oil Bill  —  Kurdish and Sunni Arab officials expressed deep reservations on Wednesday about the draft version of a national oil law and related legislation, misgivings that could derail one of the benchmark measures of progress in Iraq laid down by President Bush.

G.O.P. Contenders Ponder What to Say About Bush  —  As they gather Thursday night at the Ronald Reagan Presidential Library for their first debate, the Republican presidential candidates are thrilled at the chance to associate themselves with Reagan.  But they may not be able to escape …

Rice to Meet With Syrian Foreign Minister  —  Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice plans to meet with Syria's foreign minister here later today, United States officials said.  The meeting would be the first diplomatic contact at such a high level between the two countries in years.

5 reasons the GOP faces an uphill climb in '08  —  WASHINGTON — The political landscape for the 2008 presidential election is shaping up with a decided tilt in the direction of Democrats.  —  Long before either party has settled on a presidential candidate, fundamental factors that lay …

Content analysis of O'Reilly's rhetoric finds spin to be a 'factor'  —  Commentator uses name-calling more than once every seven seconds in 'Talking Points Memo'  —  FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE  —  BLOOMINGTON, Ind. — Bill O'Reilly may proclaim at the beginning of his program that viewers are entering the …

Man Dies of Thirst During Survival Test  —  us-news, of, new-jersey, thirst, by-day, dave-buschow, dead-of-thirst, of-thirst  —  BOULDER, UTAH — By Day 2 in the blazing Utah desert, Dave Buschow was in bad shape.  Pale, wracked by cramps, his speech slurred, the 29-year-old New Jersey man …

Sometimes the Stock Does Better Than the Investor That Buys the Stock  —  Stocks have been a great investment in the last 80 years, with an average return of about 10 percent a year.  But have investors in the stock market done as well as stocks?  Surprisingly, the answer …