Ground Zero Illnesses Clouding Giuliani's Legacy  —  Anyone who watched Rudolph W. Giuliani preside over ground zero in the days after 9/11 glimpsed elements of his strength: decisiveness, determination, self-confidence.  —  Those qualities were also on display over the months he directed …

Sunshine for the Virtual Town Hall  —  These days we want "transparency" in all institutions, even private ones.  There's one massive exception — the Internet.  It is, we are told, a giant town hall.  Indeed, it has millions of people speaking out in millions of online forums.

Teachers fake gunman attack on sixth graders … MURFREESBORO, Tennessee (AP) — Staff members of an elementary school staged a fictitious gun attack on students during a class trip, telling them it was not a drill as the children cried and hid under tables.

What I learnt from my stay with a Muslim family  —  Last week, Tory leader David Cameron spent two days in Birmingham with the Rehmans  —  The challenges of cohesion and integration are among the greatest we face.  I wrote in these pages in January that we cannot bully people into feeling British: we have to inspire them.

Clinton, Giuliani lead in Florida … Hillary Clinton and Rudy Giuliani are leading their closest presidential rivals 2-1 in Florida, the battleground state suddenly poised to have a major say in deciding the presidential nominees.  —  But a new St. Petersburg Times/Bay News 9 poll shows …

VERY STILL LIVES  —  I can't find the link now, but the Guardian recently sent a surveillance expert along to that much-praised, Oscar-winning film, The Lives of Others, to see what a professional eavesdropper would make if it.  He was less than overwhelmed: it was, he declared, in no-nonsense manner, like watching paint dry.

Al Qaeda Claim: We Have Captured US Troops  —  UPDATE: And We Will Coordinate With The Democratic Party For Maximum Political Impact  —  Above the Fold Update: Al Qaeda knows who its allies are. … Notice Al Qaeda is not pressuring us to stay, which is odd, because I keep being told …

Voter-Fraud Complaints by GOP Drove Dismissals  —  Nearly half the U.S. attorneys slated for removal by the administration last year were targets of Republican complaints that they were lax on voter fraud, including efforts by presidential adviser Karl Rove to encourage more prosecutions …

Shock as Sarkozy woos anti-US leftwinger  —  Nicolas Sarkozy, the right-wing reformer who becomes French President on Wednesday, upset both the United States and his opponents yesterday by offering the job of Foreign Minister to a Socialist veteran with anti-American credentials.

Is It the Woman Thing, or Is It Katie Couric?  —  The numbers are stark.  Eight months into Katie Couric's job as the first woman to anchor a network newscast on her own, her "CBS Evening News" has not only settled back into its long-held position of last among the evening news broadcasts …