Libby Sentencing Four: Libby Speaks  —  Libby: Family and I appreciate considerations shown to us during this conviction.  In all taht time I have recieved nothing but kindness from Court's personnel, your honor's staff, court administrators, US Marshalls, Court security officers, and probation officer.

Obama now virtually tied with Clinton, poll shows  —  WASHINGTON — Hillary Rodham Clinton and Barack Obama are essentially tied for the Democratic presidential nomination, according to a USA TODAY/Gallup Poll, the first time that the New York senator hasn't clearly led the field.

Democrats Fear a Wider Black Caucus-Pelosi Rift  —  Democratic leaders fear that Rep. William J. Jefferson's indictment yesterday on racketeering and bribery charges, coming exactly one year after House Speaker Nancy Pelosi engineered his ouster from the powerful Ways and Means Committee …

Senator Craig Thomas of Wyoming Dies at 74  —  Senator Craig Thomas, a three-term Republican from Wyoming, died Monday evening, just hours after his staff reported that the treatment he was receiving for leukemia was no longer working.  He was 74.  —  Under Wyoming's election laws …

Cheated of Future, Iraqi Graduates Want to Flee  —  They started college just before or after the American invasion with dreams of new friends and parties, brilliant teachers and advanced degrees that would lead to stellar jobs, marriage and children.  Success seemed well within their grasp.

Scooter Libby Love Letters  —  Washington elite petition judge on behalf of convicted Cheney aide  —  Donald Rumsfeld, Henry Kissinger, Paul Wolfowitz, and John Bolton top the list of individuals who wrote a federal judge on behalf of former White House aide Lewis "Scooter" Libby …

Realists on Iraq  —  Democratic presidential candidates should listen to the "experts" they so often cite.  —  During Sunday night's Democratic presidential debate, the candidates cited an oft-repeated source of the mess in Iraq: The White House's refusal to heed knowledgeable advice.

McCain urges rivals to avoid divisive issue  —  Sen. John McCain yesterday pleaded with his fellow candidates for the Republican presidential nomination not to take political advantage of the immigration fight within the party.  —  "I would hope they wouldn't play politics for their own interests …

Massacres in the biofuel revolution  —  Armed groups in Colombia are driving peasants off their land to make way for plantations of palm oil, a biofuel that is being promoted as an environmentally friendly source of energy.  —  Surging demand for "green" fuel has prompted rightwing paramilitaries …

Olbermann: The Nexus Of Politics And Terror  —  On Monday night's "Countdown" Keith Olbermann updates his disturbing timeline of how the Bush Administration has strategically used terrorism and fear to counter bad publicity, starting in 2002 all the way up to the most recent terrorist plot to blow up JFK airport.

A war that never ends  —  Forty years ago tomorrow, Israel wielded its terrible swift sword against the attack-poised armies of Egypt, Syria and Jordan - and saved the Jewish state from destruction.  —  It was the Six-Day War, and the fledgling state's stunning victory over enemies determined …

Crackdown on middle class wine drinkers  —  Middle-class wine drinkers will be the focus of government plans to make drunkenness as socially unacceptable as smoking, The Times has learnt.  —  Under the plans published today, a fresh audit is to be conducted by the Government into the overall costs …