Court agrees to rule on gun case  —  After a hiatus of 68 years, the Supreme Court on Tuesday agreed to rule on the meaning of the Second Amendment — the hotly contested part of the Constitution that guarantees "a right to keep and bear arms."  Not since 1939 has the Court heard …

Protesters arrested at Gonzales speech  —  In his first appearance at a university since resigning in August, former U.S. Attorney General Alberto Gonzales was met at UF on Monday with a mixture of cheers, boos and scattered interruptions by protesters, two of whom were arrested.

McClellan points finger at Bush, Rove  —  Former White House press secretary Scott McClellan names names in a caustic passage from a forthcoming memoir that accuses President Bush, Karl Rove and Vice President Cheney of being "involved" in his giving the press false information about the CIA leak case.

Wrestler Ric Flair supporting Mike Huckabee  —  COLUMBIA, South Carolina (CNN) - In the race for presidential endorsements, Mike Huckabee has the kitschy pop culture celebrity vote on lockdown.  —  First it was martial arts hero and "Walker, Texas Ranger" star Chuck Norris, who appears with Huckabee in his first TV ad.

Rapid response speeds up  —  The presidential campaigns in both parties have begun reacting ferociously to real or perceived attacks from rivals, goaded by a tight campaign calendar that leaves no room for error, and a determination to show they're tougher than John F. Kerry was in 2004.

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 …

Stem cell breakthrough uses no embryos  —  NEW YORK — Scientists have made ordinary human skin cells take on the chameleon-like powers of embryonic stem cells, a startling breakthrough that might someday deliver the medical payoffs of embryo cloning without the controversy.

U.S. Attorney for Minnesota to Leave Post  —  Rachel K. Paulose, the U.S. attorney for Minnesota who sparked staff rebellions and a federal probe into her handling of classified information, is resigning to return to the Justice Department's Washington headquarters, department officials said yesterday.

At White House behest, NYT sat on scoop  —  When the New York Times published a front page story Sunday about the United States' and Pakistan's joint clandestine efforts to protect nuclear weapons, the newspaper offered a glimpse into a "highly classified program" the Bush administration long objected to seeing in print.

Obama: Hope and Change  —  This one hasn't been officially released yet, but the Obama campaign is circulating it to supporters.  —  It's to air in South Carolina starting tomorrow, fleshing out his message of "Hope and Change" a bit, and tying it to his record as a community organizer and civil rights lawyer.

Bush Administration Stokes Fear Of Massive Army Layoffs To Force Congress To Drop Redeployment  —  The Bush administration is threatening that it will issue furlough notices to up to 150,000 civilian workers at military bases in mid-December if Congress does not approve unrestricted Iraq funding immediately.

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.