Iraqi Parliament Approves U.S. Security Pact  —  BAGHDAD — The Iraqi Parliament ratified a long-delayed security agreement on Thursday that lays out a three-year timetable for the withdrawal of American forces from Iraq.  —  For Iraq and the United States, the pact's passage through Parliament …

The Mayhem in Mumbai  —  Making sense of India's terrorist attacks  —  The attacks targeted the heart of India's financial district, but the shock waves were felt around the globe.  On Wednesday, a group of heavily armed assailants carried out a series of coordinated strikes in Mumbai …

If you only read one thing on China this fall ...  Make sure it is the latest World Bank China Quarterly.  —  David Dollar, Louis Kuijs and their colleagues have outdone themselves - and in the process provided a clear assessment of the sources of China's current slowdown and the risks that lie ahead.

We're doing some things just right.  —  Us Mercenary Bastid War Profiteer Contractor Parasites got a break from teaching Iraqi kaydets how to stay alive after slipping the surly bonds of earth at about noon today.  I stopped to chat with two of the Kurdish kaydets in Class 70.

Good Time For a Brainy President  —  When I started covering the White House more than 50 years ago, I believed that the smarter a president was, the better he would be.  That was wrong.  —  Lyndon Johnson and Ronald Reagan were certainly not intellectuals, but they understood the power …

Deepak Chopra on Mumbai: Too Controversial for CNN?  —  A CNN journalist interviewed Deepak Chopra last night about his take on the Mumbai attacks and how to prevent similar attacks in the future, but it looked like producers cut Chopra off when he started to get too controversial.

Fear for lives of Israeli hostages at Mumbai Chabad center  —  (Video) Growing concern for safety of Israelis taken hostage by terrorists after alarming information relayed to top officials in Jerusalem.  State officials tell Ynet 20-25 Israeli nationals have yet to contact families following terror attacks in Indian city.

Little buzz for VP-elect Biden  —  CHICAGO — More than three weeks into the transition, and Vice-president elect Joe Biden generates less buzz than the non-existent first puppy.  —  The vice president-elect has not spoken publicly since the election, and was at Barack Obama's side just once …

A Night Out In Mumbai (Updated)  —  This is turning out to be one crazy night.  A friend of mine had an opening of her art exhibition a few hours ago, so we ventured to South Bombay for that.  We attended the exhibition, sipped the litchee juice, nibbled on party snacks, and then six of us headed out for dinner.

Redefining “grownup” and “hack”  —  In a post about the Obama economic team titled The Grownups are Coming, Paul Krugman writes: … Like Paul, I am impressed by the new economic team.  I know best the three economists coming from academia—Larry Summers, Christy Romer, and Austan Goolsbee—and they are all first-rate.

Keeping Robert Gates as secretary of defense is a great idea.  —  If the reports are true that Robert Gates will stay on as President Obama's defense secretary, the move is a stroke of brilliance—politically and substantively.  —  In his nearly two years at the helm of the Pentagon …

A Command of the Law  —  It's Thanksgiving.  I'm thankful for many things right now, despite the stock market, and first among them is the fact that the next U.S. commander in chief is a constitutional law expert and former law professor.  —  Before I get to why, allow me to add two other reasons for thankfulness.