John Howard loses in Australia  —  Australian PM John Howard, staunch US ally and outspoken critic of jihad and the global spread, lost his re-election bid.  He was Australia's second-longest serving prime minister behind Liberal Party founder Sir Robert Menzies.  All Americans should mark the end of his tenure with gratitude.

'BLAME U.S. FOR 9/11' IDIOTS IN MAJORITY  —  'PLOTS' THICKEN IN SHOCKING POLL  —  Nearly two-thirds of Americans believe the federal government had warnings about 9/11 but decided to ignore them, a national survey found.  —  And that's not the only conspiracy theory with a huge number of true believers in the United States.

Who Needs Experience?  —  Hillary Clinton declared the other day — apropos of whom, she didn't say, or need to — "We can't afford on-the-job training for our next president."  Barack Obama immediately retorted, "My understanding is that she wasn't Treasury secretary in the Clinton administration.

Poll says Chavez loses Venezuela referendum lead  —  CARACAS (Reuters) - Venezuelan President Hugo Chavez has lost his lead eight days before a referendum on ending his term limit, an independent pollster said on Saturday, in a swing in voter sentiment against the Cuba ally.

Mitt calls for judge to resign  —  Several warnings ignored, documents show  —  Presidential hopeful Gov. Mitt Romney yesterday demanded the resignation of his own judicial nominee after she sprang a violent convicted killer over the summer, as new details emerged showing that the judge ignored warnings …

Illegal immigrant rescues boy in desert  —  PHOENIX - A 9-year-old boy looking for help after his mother crashed their van in the southern Arizona desert was rescued by a man entering the U.S. illegally, who stayed with him until help arrived the next day, an official said.

Does perfection have its price for Romney?  —  Sure, he's got political weak spots, but his storybook home life is a throwback to 'Father Knows Best.' For voters, though, that may not be a good thing.  —  MANCHESTER, N.H. — Mitt Romney arrives at his campaign headquarters here 10 minutes early …

GOP looks like the party of diverse ideas  —  Democrats, meanwhile, have got a woman, a black, a Hispanic and a preening metrosexual - and they all think exactly the same.  —  Recommend  —  Only five weeks left to the earliest Primary Day in New Hampshire history, and still …

Garry Kasparov Arrested at Russian Rally!  —  Garry Kasparov seized by police at a rally in Moscow!  —  Kasparov was forced to the ground and beaten, his assistant Marina Litvinovich said in a telephone interview from outside the police station where he was being held- CNN.

Guns and the Constitution  —  Is the Second Amendment an individual, or collective, right?  —  In recent decades, the Supreme Court has discovered any number of new rights not in the explicit text of the Constitution.  Now it has the opportunity to validate a right that resides in plain sight …

35 homes burned in Malibu brush fire  —  Clouds of smoke rise over Malibu as seen from Thousand Oaks.  At least 35 structures have burned in the fire and hundreds more are threatened.  —  At least 35 homes have been burned and about 200 more are threatened in Malibu as a wind-driven fire …

Lebanese army handed power  —  Lebanon was again plunged into uncertainty yesterday after parliament failed in a fifth attempt to elect a president, and the former Syrian backed-president Emile Lahoud, whose term ended at midnight, passed control of the security services over to the army, declaring a state of emergency.