Looters raid Arafat's home, steal his Nobel Peace Prize  —  Enraged Fatah leaders on Saturday accused Hamas militiamen of looting the home of former Palestinian Authority chairman Yasser Arafat in Gaza City.  —  "They stole almost everything inside the house, including Arafat's Nobel Peace Prize medal …

Prosecutor in Duke Case Is Disbarred for Ethics Breaches  —  In a case that has brought one surprise after another, a disciplinary hearing panel found Michael B. Nifong, the Durham County district attorney, guilty today of ethical violations while pressing a false accusation of sexual assault …

Immigration Update  —  From a knowledgeable Senate source:

THE GENERAL'S REPORT  —  How Antonio Taguba, who investigated the Abu Ghraib scandal, became one of its casualties. … On the afternoon of May 6, 2004, Army Major General Antonio M. Taguba was summoned to meet, for the first time, with Secretary of Defense Donald Rumsfeld in his Pentagon conference room.

Bush warns he'll veto runaway spending  —  CRAWFORD, Texas - President Bush warned Congress on Saturday that he will use his veto power to stop runaway government spending.  —  "The American people do not want to return to the days of tax-and-spend policies," Bush said in his radio address.

A Sacred River Left in Peril by Global Warming  —  VARANASI, India — With her eyes sealed, Ramedi cupped the murky water of the Ganges River in her hands, lifted them toward the sun, and prayed for her husband, her 15 grandchildren and her bad hip.  She, like India's other 800 million Hindus …

Judy In Drag Strikes Again  —  Today, David "Judy Miller in Drag" Sanger has another of his stenography pieces at the New York Times, which purports to be about the diplomacy-or-bombs debate in White House circles on what to do about Iran's nuclear program.  Somehow, though …

An overpowering reality  —  By Aluf Benn ?  (Jerusalem?) and Shmuel Rosner ?  (Washington?)  —  July 2005.  U.S. Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice is visiting Prime Minister Ariel Sharon at his Sycamore Ranch on the eve of the disengagement from the Gaza Strip.

A Climate Culprit In Darfur  —  Just over a week ago, leaders of the world's industrialized nations met in Heiligendamm, Germany, for their annual summit.  Our modest goal: to win a breakthrough on climate change.  And we got it — an agreement to cut greenhouse gases by 50 percent before 2050.

Hispanic Leaders Blast Schwarzenegger's Advice to Turn Off Spanish TV  —  Some Hispanic leaders lashed out Friday at California Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger's advice that immigrants should "turn off the Spanish television set" to better learn how to speak English.

An Also-Ran in the GOP Polls, Ron Paul Is Huge on the Web  —  On Technorati, which offers a real-time glimpse of the blogosphere, the most frequently searched term this week was "YouTube."  —  Then comes "Ron Paul."  —  The presence of the obscure Republican congressman from Texas on a list …

Inability to meet "grand challenges" of physics likely to hurt US competitiveness  —  The National Academies of Science produces regular reports on the state of scientific research in the US.  Their latest effort along these lines has just been released, and the academy has put the spotlight …