Harold Pinter, Nobel-Winning Playwright, Dies at 78  —  Harold Pinter, the British playwright whose gifts for finding the ominous in the everyday and the noise within silence made him the most influential and imitated dramatist of his generation, died on Wednesday.  He was 78 and lived in London.

Iraq Declares Christmas an Official Holiday for First Year  —  BAGHDAD — Iraq's Christians, a small minority in the overwhelmingly Muslim country, quietly celebrated Christmas on Thursday with a present from the government, which declared it an official holiday for the first time.

Pardon Lasts One Day for Man in Fraud Case  —  WASHINGTON — President Bush changed his mind on Christmas Eve, pulling back a pardon he had extended a day earlier to a Brooklyn developer at the center of a Long Island real estate fraud case and adding a bizarre twist to the episode.

Top Bush Aides to Linger on High-Profile Boards  —  As President Bush settles in for his last Christmas in office, he has been busy handing out presents to some of his top aides.  And they are not the kind that require wrapping paper or a bow.  —  The White House announced on Wednesday …

Hamas mocks Israel's nonresponse to Kassams  —  Hamas on Wednesday remained as defiant as ever and said it would continue to fire rockets at Israel as an act of “self-defense.”  —  Hamas also mocked what it described as the “state of confusion” in Israel over how to react to the latest spree of rocket and mortar attacks.

Blog ‘miracle’ saves Christmas for hard-luck family  —  (CNN) — A family facing foreclosure is anything but a unique story in these troubled economic times.  —  But this is a happier story of one family whose financial ruin was averted by the actions of a friend, the compassion of strangers …

President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad's Christmas C4 speech sparks row  —  Channel 4 will screen an alternative Christmas message from President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad of Iran, in a move that has provoked widespread condemnation.  —  President Ahmadinejad's address will focus on spiritual messages …

BARACK NAME LOSES ‘CLASS’ ON LI  —  SCHOOL NIXES CHANGE TO ‘OBAMA ELEMENTARY’  —  They said NO-bama.  —  A proposal to change the name of a Long Island public school to Barack Obama Elementary was scrapped this week after running into fierce public opposition.

White House Views on Past 8 Years Diverge  —  WASHINGTON — President Bush and Vice President Dick Cheney have been unusually talkative in recent weeks, sharing candid thoughts in a string of exit interviews.  But after eight years of a tight partnership that gave Mr. Cheney powerful influence inside …

Poll: America's honeymoon with Obama continues  —  CNN Deputy Political Director  —  WASHINGTON (CNN) — Call it a love affair so far between Barack Obama and the American people.  —  More than eight in 10, or 82 percent, of those questioned in a CNN/Opinion Research Corp. poll released Wednesday approve …

Reboot the FCC  —  We'll stifle the Skypes and YouTubes of the future if we don't demolish the regulators that oversee our digital pipelines.  —  Economic growth requires innovation.  Trouble is, Washington is practically designed to resist it.  Built into the DNA of the most important agencies created …