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:

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.

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.

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 …

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.

Blair knew US had no post-war plan for Iraq  —  Tony Blair agreed to commit British troops to battle in Iraq in the full knowledge that Washington had failed to make adequate preparations for the postwar reconstruction of the country.  —  In a devastating account of the chaotic preparations for the war …

BACK WHEN WE INTERVIEWED RNC CHAIR KEN MEHLMAN LAST YEAR, Helen's first question to Mehlman was something along the lines of Why is President Bush acting like a Democrat?  —  The GOP lost, Mehlman has moved on, but the Bush Administration is still acting like Democrats …

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.

Ayatollah Dies in Tehran and in London, at the same time  —  Grand Ayatollah Fazel Lankarani, who was hospitalized since a long time ago in Tehran, passed away in his home in Qom, at the age of 76.  Or at least that's what Fars reports at first.  According to ISNA, all businesses will be closed …

Judge Orders FBI to Turn Over Thousands of Patriot Act Abuse Documents  —  Just one day after a news that an internal audit found that FBI agents abused a Patriot Act power more than 1000 times, a federal judge ordered the agency Friday to begin turning over thousands of pages of documents related …