Live Earth branded a foul-mouthed flop  —  Live Earth has been branded a foul-mouthed flop.  —  Organisers of the global music concert - punctuated by swearing from presenters and performers - had predicted massive viewing figures.  —  But BBC's live afternoon television coverage attracted …

White House Debate Rises on Iraq Pullback  —  White House officials fear that the last pillars of political support among Senate Republicans for President Bush's Iraq strategy are collapsing around them, according to several administration officials and outsiders they are consulting.

Fired McCain Aides May Be Hired by Thompson  —  WASHINGTON — The downsizing of Senator McCain's presidential campaign is coming at an opportune time for Fred Thompson, the former Tennessee senator who is likely to jump into the race officially any day now and seeking to build a campaign staff in the early primary states.

Job Vacancies At DHS Said To Hurt U.S. Preparedness  —  A Fourth of Top Positions Not Filled, Report Says  —  The Bush administration has failed to fill roughly a quarter of the top leadership posts at the Department of Homeland Security, creating a "gaping hole" in the nation's preparedness …

Who Runs the CIA?  Outsiders for Hire.  —  Red alert: Our national security is being outsourced.  —  The most intriguing secrets of the "war on terror" have nothing to do with al-Qaeda and its fellow travelers.  They're about the mammoth private spying industry that all but runs U.S. intelligence operations today.

Alas, Poor Couric  —  But pity her not.  —  F  —  rom outside the sleek glass chamber of the CBS Evening News set, you can see her: alone in a prim black pantsuit and pearls, shuffling a stack of papers at the wide, half-moon desk.  Sitting stiff and still, she looks dwarfed under …

Tunneling Near Iranian Nuclear Site Stirs Worry  —  The sudden flurry of digging seen in recent satellite photos of a mountainside in central Iran might have passed for ordinary road tunneling.  But the site is the back yard of Iran's most ambitious and controversial nuclear facility …

All Grown Up — and Going to War  —  July is a month I sincerely hoped would never come.  —  At the end of this month, my young son, my only child, deploys with the 22nd Marine Expeditionary Unit.  His departure had been six months away, three months; now it is a matter of weeks.

Three guilty over 21/7 bomb plot  —  Three men have been found guilty of plotting to carry out suicide bombings on London's transport network on 21 July 2005.  —  Muktar Said Ibrahim, 29, Yassin Omar, 26, and Ramzi Mohammed, 25, were convicted of conspiracy to murder.

A Blog That Made It Big  —  The Huffington Post, Trending Up and Left  —  NEW YORK — In the high-ceilinged SoHo offices that once housed an art gallery, Rachel Sklar is juggling a slew of stories destined for the virtual pages of the Huffington Post.  —  There's her interview with author Gay Talese …

He's N.H.'s secret to primary primacy  —  Power to schedule is held by a master  —  CONCORD, N.H. — William M. Gardner may be the single most powerful man in the nation when it comes to setting the schedule of contests that will nominate the presidential candidates of both parties next year.

Duckworth declines 2008 race  —  There will be no redux for Tammy Duckworth in the 2008 election.  —  Duckworth, an Iraq War veteran now serving as director of the Illinois Department of Veterans' Affairs, said Sunday that she has decided not to run again next year against U.S. Rep. Peter Roskam …

Voters Excited Over '08 Campaign; Tired of It, Too  —  "I'm afraid we are going to get tired of all this hoop-de-la," said Kathy Shaffer, an elementary school teacher from Clear Lake, Iowa.  "It is too much for too long.You get tired of it.  You put mute on the commercials."

Edging Away From Inner Circle, Pelosi Asserts Authority  —  In February, only a month after becoming speaker of the House, Nancy Pelosi settled weeks of threats from Rep. John D. Dingell, her blustery Energy and Commerce Committee chairman, by putting in writing her assent to one of his big demands …

Muqtada al Sadr back in Iran  —  Muqtada al-Sadr.  —  Mahdi Army leader leaves Iraq and goes to Iran for second time this year  —  Muqtada al Sadr, the leader of the Shia Mahdi Army and the Sadrist bloc in parliament, has left Iraq and is in Iran, military sources told Reuters.