Republican, Democratic Presidential Contests Strikingly Similar  —  Sen. Fred Thompson surges into tie with John McCain for second in GOP contest  —  PRINCETON, NJ — With no incumbent president or vice president running for the 2008 presidential nominations, it is perhaps not surprising …

Petraeus: Iraq 'Challenges' to Last for Years  —  Conditions in Iraq will not improve sufficiently by September to justify a drawdown of U.S. military forces, the top commander in Iraq said yesterday.  —  Asked whether he thought the job assigned to an additional 30,000 troops deployed …

Fatah: Help us get Hamas out of W. Bank  —  Fatah leaders have appealed to Israel to halt security measures against Fatah gunmen in the West Bank and promised to continue their massive crackdown on Hamas there, Palestinian Authority officials here said on Sunday.

Climate change behind Darfur killing: UN's Ban  —  UN Secretary General Ban Ki-moon said that the slaughter in Darfur was triggered by global climate change and that more such conflicts may be on the horizon, in an article published Saturday.  —  "The Darfur conflict began as an ecological crisis …

The Great American Pants Suit  —  A judge pins a $67 million value on a pair of trousers—his own.  —  When attorney Roy Pearson filed suit demanding $67 million from the Chung family, whose Washington dry cleaners had mishandled his pair of trousers, he must have felt he was sitting pretty.

Now what about those Duke professors  —  We know about Mike Nifong, and it looks like he's going to get his comeuppance.  Yet the question remains: Why would a seasoned prosecutor like Nifong flout the rules in so many ways in the Duke case?  Why would he publicly describe the Duke lacrosse players as …

Calling Michael Moore's Socialist Bluff  —  Sicko, Michael Moore's new movie about America's health care system (the one that glorifies the socialized medicine of Cuba) hasn't even hit theaters yet, but already it's been leaked to the internet.  —  Asked what he thought of that, Moore …

Ludicrous lawsuits  —  I WAS once sued in state court by a disgruntled reader who accused me of calling him a "crackpot."  Fortunately, the suit went nowhere; the plaintiff's nutty, hand-scrawled complaint was apparently all the court needed to dismiss the case.

The Long View in Iraq  —  Let's face it folks, things are not going to be measurably better in Iraq by September.  —  To continue reading this article, you must be a subscriber to TimesSelect.  Log in now.  —  What is TimesSelect?  —  Newspaper subscribers, upgrade to TimesSelect for free now.

Sink the pink  —  Pink mobiles, pink BBQs, pink planes ... A single colour is infantilising half the population  —  Before I tell you about the Pink Junkies (that growing tribe of otherwise sentient women who can't resist pink) I should admit that I'm not a very 'pink' person.

Their Own Defense  —  D.C.'s Clubby Attorneys Keep Corporate Work in the Flock  —  In the beginning, there was Bob.  —  Twenty years ago, lawyer Robert S. Bennett represented Boeing in a huge government bid-rigging investigation.  Conflicts barred him from handling all the work himself …

Sarkozy, Allies Hold Majority, Lose Seats  —  Gains by Socialists Defy Predictions For French Runoff  —  French President Nicolas Sarkozy's ruling party won a majority in parliamentary runoff elections Sunday, but Socialists — contrary to all poll predictions — gained more seats …

Who Is The Scariest GOP Presidential Candidate?  —  The Carpetbagger wants to know: … Tancredo might indeed be the scariest but the institutional GOP probably hates him just about as much as the left does these days so it's not really much of a threat.  Personally I find "Double Gitmo" …