Obama on GOP: ‘If They Bring a Knife to the Fight, We Bring a Gun’  —  Barack Obama is warning supporters that the general election fight between him and John McCain may get ugly, but the Illinois senator is vowing not to back down.  —  “If they bring a knife to the fight, we bring a gun …

Scientists find bugs that eat waste and excrete petrol  —  Silicon Valley is experimenting with bacteria that have been genetically altered to provide ‘renewable petroleum’  —  “Ten years ago I could never have imagined I'd be doing this,” says Greg Pal, 33, a former software executive …

Lost city of ... Iowa  —  The streets in Cedar Rapids, Iowa - all 400 blocks of them - were filled with floodwaters and other strange sights: floating Dumpsters and utility poles and sandbags piled in vain.  —  The cresting Cedar River wreaked widespread havoc Friday on Iowa's second-largest city …

Get Osama Bin Laden before I leave office, orders George W Bush  —  President George W Bush has enlisted British special forces in a final attempt to capture Osama Bin Laden before he leaves the White House.  —  Defence and intelligence sources in Washington and London confirmed that a renewed hunt …

McCain doesn't pick up on Michelle Obama joke  —  So a man finally got a question into McCain and he had a very different sort of question.  —  The questioner noted that he had been educated at Princeton and Harvard and made more than $300,000 a year.  —  “How can I be proud of my country?” he asked.

Powerful Iraqi Cleric Recalibrates Strategy  —  The movement of anti-American cleric Moqtada al-Sadr said Saturday that it would not take part in provincial elections this year, one day after it formed a new paramilitary group to fight U.S. troops.  —  The back-to-back moves suggested …

In Thesis From 1974, the Seeds of McCain's War Views  —  About a year after his release from a North Vietnamese prison camp, Cmdr.  John S. McCain III sat down to address one of the most vexing questions confronting his fellow prisoners: Why did some choose to collaborate with the North Vietnamese?

Labour MP backs Davis's challenge  —  Opponents of 42-day detention risk losing whip  —  Gordon Brown faced a fresh challenge to his authority last night after a leading Labour rebel promised to campaign for David Davis in the renegade Tory's forthcoming by-election.

Bush warns Brown over plan to cut Iraq force  —  President tells UK to avoid rushing into troop withdrawals  —  George Bush flies into London today with a warning for Gordon Brown not to announce a timetable for a British pull-out from Iraq, and expressing deep scepticism …

China clearly overtakes U.S. as leading emitter of climate-warming gases  —  China has now clearly overtaken the United States as the world's leading emitter of climate-warming gases, a new study has found.  The increasing emissions from China - up 8 percent in the past year …

Black conservatives conflicted on Obama campaign  —  WASHINGTON - Black conservative talk show host Armstrong Williams has never voted for a Democrat for president.  That could change this year with Barack Obama as the Democratic Party's nominee.  —  “I don't necessarily like his policies …