For Democrats, Iowa Still Up for Grabs  —  The top three Democratic presidential contenders remain locked in a close battle in Iowa, with Sen. Hillary Rodham Clinton (N.Y.) seeing her advantages diminish on key issues, including the questions of experience and which candidate is best prepared …

Thompson skids while Romney, Paul climb in N.H. poll  —  WASHINGTON (CNN) - Former Tennessee Sen. Fred Thompson has skidded into sixth place in a new CNN/WMUR poll of likely Republican voters in New Hampshire, edged out by ex-Libertarian and anti-war congressman Ron Paul and former Arkansas Gov. Mike Huckabee.

Baghdad Starts to Exhale as Security Improves  —  Five months ago, Suhaila al-Aasan lived in an oxygen tank factory with her husband and two sons, convinced that they would never go back to their apartment in Dora, a middle-class neighborhood in southern Baghdad.

U.N. to Cut Estimate Of AIDS Epidemic  —  Population With Virus Overstated by Millions  —  The United Nations' top AIDS scientists plan to acknowledge this week that they have long overestimated both the size and the course of the epidemic, which they now believe has been slowing for nearly a decade …

Iraqis Joining Insurgency Less for Cause Than Cash  —  MOSUL, Iraq — Abu Nawall, a captured al-Qaeda in Iraq leader, said he didn't join the Sunni insurgent group here to kill Americans or to form a Muslim caliphate.  He signed up for the cash.  —  "I was out of work and needed the money …

DMV Stifles L.I. Man's 'Get Osama' Campaign  —  Hauppauge Resident Prepared To Fight For 'Free Speech'  —  There's a $25 million reward out for his capture, so it's no secret the United States government wants to get Osama Bin Laden.  But when a Long Island man wanted to express that thought …

AP Photog & Terrorist Propagandist Bilal Hussein to be Charged (UPDATE: Jawa helped nab Bilal Hussein?!?!)  —  ***Bumped: The Jawa Report credited with Bilal Hussein prosecution!!  Scroll to end for details***  —  Above: Curiously, al Qaeda in Iraq fighters in pose for Bilal Hussein.

STONEWALL GOV MUM ON LAWYER  —  Gov. Spitzer is stonewalling questions on whether he's hired a criminal defense lawyer to help him prepare to testify before a state commission and, possibly, an Albany grand jury on the Dirty Tricks Scandal.  —  Spitzer's communications director …

A myth in the unmaking  —  Fox News's status as a politically impartial channel is at last being exposed as a fiction  —  Britons may be familiar with Rupert Murdoch, but I don't think the UK has a beast quite like the American Fox News Channel.  Celebrating its 11th year on the air, Fox is a breathtaking institution.

Effectiveness of D.C. gun ban still a mystery  —  WASHINGTON - Three decades ago, at the dawn of municipal self-government in the District of Columbia, the city's first elected mayor and council enacted one of the country's toughest gun-control measures, a ban on handgun ownership that opponents …

From Johnny Doo to Rico Suave?  —  I reported last week that former state Sen. Rico Oller of Calaveras County was standing with embattled U.S. Rep. John Doolittle, R-Roseville, at a GOP event.  I also mentioned in that piece that Rico (who lost a nasty Republican primary contest …