A Statement on Scott Thomas Beauchamp  —  Scott Thomas Beauchamp is a U.S. Army private serving in Iraq.  He came to THE NEW REPUBLIC's attention through Elspeth Reeve, a TNR reporter-researcher, whom he later married.  Over the course of the war, we have tried to provide our readers with a sense of Iraq as it is seen by the troops.

Obama says use of nuclear weapons to fight al-Qaida 'not on the table,'  —  WASHINGTON (AP) - Democratic presidential hopeful Barack Obama said Thursday he would not use nuclear weapons «in any circumstance.  —  «I think it would be a profound mistake for us to use nuclear weapons …

Minn. bridge problems uncovered in 1990  —  MINNEAPOLIS - Minnesota officials were warned as early as 1990 that the bridge that plummeted into the Mississippi River was "structurally deficient," yet they relied on a strategy of patchwork fixes and stepped-up inspections.

Public anger will follow our sorrow  —  The cloud of dust above the Mississippi that rose after the Interstate 35W bridge collapsed Wednesday evening has dissipated.  But there are other dark clouds still hanging over Minneapolis and Minnesota.  —  The cloud of dust above the Mississippi …

Gates says US underestimated depth of Sunni-Shiite divisions  —  The US administration underestimated the difficulty of having Iraq's Sunnis and Shiites agree on key national reconciliation measures, US Defence Secretary Robert Gates admitted Thursday.  —  At the end of a regional tour …

With Rove Absent, Aide Is Grilled by Senate Panel  —  The Senate Judiciary Committee grilled a young political aide from the White House today about the firings of nine United States attorneys and voiced disdain for a man who was not there: the aide's boss, Karl Rove, President Bush's chief political adviser.

Glasgow terror suspect dies from burns  —  LONDON - A man critically burned after allegedly crashing an explosive-laden Jeep into Glasgow Airport died of his injuries Thursday, Strathclyde Police said.  —  Kafeel Ahmed, 27, had been in the hospital for a month with burns from the alleged attack on June 30 …

The Vast Left-Wing Establishment  —  Today more than a thousand Kossacks — adherents of the left-wing website DailyKos — are gathering for their annual convention in Chicago.  It's the second YearlyKos, in circumstances far different from the first, held in June 2006 in Las Vegas.

Out of the Theater, Into the Courtroom  —  Jhannet Sejas and her boyfriend were celebrating her 19th birthday by taking in a matinee showing of the hit movie "Transformers" at the theater at Ballston Common mall.  —  Sejas was enjoying the movie so much that she decided to film a short clip …