The Guidebook for Taking a Life  —  We were in a small house in Zarqa, Jordan, trying to interview two heavily bearded Islamic militants about their distribution of recruitment videos when one of us asked one too many questions.  —  "He's American?" one of the militants growled.  "Let's kidnap and kill him."

Pentagon Confirms It Sought To Build A 'Gay Bomb'  —  (CBS 5) BERKELEY A Berkeley watchdog organization that tracks military spending said it uncovered a strange U.S. military proposal to create a hormone bomb that could purportedly turn enemy soldiers into homosexuals and make them more interested in sex than fighting.

Military Envisions Longer Stay in Iraq  —  Officers Anticipate Small 'Post-Occupation' Force  —  BAGHDAD — U.S. military officials here are increasingly envisioning a "post-occupation" troop presence in Iraq that neither maintains current levels nor leads to a complete pullout …

The Zero-to-60 Thompson Run  —  Fred gears up for 2008.  —  In early March, only a handful of Fred Thompson's good friends knew that he was even thinking about a bid for president.  Three months later, according to several polls, Thompson is in second place nationally, trailing frontrunner Rudy Giuliani.

Fatwa forbids PA Muslims to emigrate  —  Alarmed by the growing number of Palestinians who are emigrating from the Palestinian territories, the Palestinian Authority's mufti has issued a fatwa [religious decree] forbidding Muslims to leave.  —  Sources in the PA Foreign Ministry told …

Judge Walton's Lesson  —  Years ago, when campaigns were drowning in political rhetoric on the crime issue, I got The Post to reassign me temporarily to the District of Columbia courthouse so I could learn from front-line law enforcement what worked — and what didn't — to keep the streets safe.

Bush Violates Papal Protocol  —  People are apparently upset that President Bush violated protocol in his meeting with Joe Ratzinger this morning. … This causes gasps?  Really?  —  Bush isn't Catholic.  He's the leader of the dominant country on the planet.

Why Washington Can't Get Much Done  —  MEMBERS of Congress — with the possible exceptions of Senator Robert C. Byrd and Representative John D. Dingell — come and go.  So do presidents and even Supreme Court justices.  —  But some big issues come to the nation's capital and never leave …

UN warns of five million Iraqi refugees  —  Half of displaced people have no access to food aid  —  Omar, a Sunni driver, lived in a pleasant house in a Shia neighbourhood of al-Jihad district in west Baghdad until he decided that it was too dangerous for his family to stay.

Chinese Leave Guantánamo for Albanian Limbo  —  Another Gitmo success story: … Why?  Well, because they live in "a squalid government refugee center on the grubby outskirts of Tirana, guarded by armed policemen."  They have been told that they will "need to get work to move out of the center …

The $5 Million Man?  —  If the latest report pans out, Ron Paul has leaped out of the asterisk box in the GOP campaign.  His largely online funding, if verified, would put him on a par with McCain.  Money quote: … I'd credit the Internet, wouldn't you?  Stay tuned for confirmation.

Grass Roots Roared and Immigration Plan Collapsed  —  The undoing of the immigration bill in the Senate this week had many players, but none more effective than angry voters like Monique Thibodeaux, who joined a nationwide campaign to derail it.  —  Mrs. Thibodeaux, an office manager …

MI6 probes UK nuclear link to Iran  —  A British company has been closed down after being caught in an apparent attempt to sell black-market weapons-grade uranium to Iran and Sudan, The Observer can reveal.  —  Anti-terrorist officers and MI6 are now investigating a wider British-based plot allegedly …

Amid death and chaos, the Scouts revive an idea of fun for children  —  A cordon at the camp protects them from unexploded bombs but the tradition lives on 80 years after it was introduced by the British  —  Armed with rakes and wheelbarrows, a group of Iraqi Scouts and Guides is clearing a patch of Baghdad woodland.