To Combat Obama, Al-Qaeda Hurls Insults  —  Soon after the November election, al-Qaeda's No. 2 leader took stock of America's new president-elect and dismissed him with an insulting epithet.  “A house Negro,” Ayman al-Zawahiri said.  —  That was just a warm-up.

Which Governor Is Wackier?  —  I love Blago.  —  I love his beady little eyes.  I love his Serbian shock of hair.  I love his flaring nostrils.  I love the way he jogs through the snow under indictment, like a stork in spandex trying to gallop.  I love the way he compares himself …

Guantanamo Case Files in Disarray  —  President Obama's plans to expeditiously determine the fates of about 245 terrorism suspects held at Guantanamo Bay, Cuba, and quickly close the military prison there were set back last week when incoming legal and national security officials …

West Wing on steroids in Obama W.H.  —  President Barack Obama is taking far-reaching steps to centralize decision-making inside the White House, surrounding himself with influential counselors, overseas envoys and policy “czars” that shift power from traditional Cabinet posts.

McCain won't vote for stimulus as it stands  —  But Obama economic adviser says the current plan is balanced  —  WASHINGTON - President Barack Obama dispatched his top economic adviser and vice president Sunday to relentlessly press their sales pitch for an $825 billion stimulus package …

RANGEL PROBERS AWOL  —  ETHICS INQUIRY STALLS AS POLS LEAVE PANEL  —  Nobody's home at the House ethics committee that's supposed to be investigating Rep. Charles Rangel.  —  The panel created on Sept. 24 to probe the Harlem Democrat's alleged ethical lapses has been virtually disbanded …

Learn more  —  John Wilkes Booth, the assassin of President Abraham Lincoln.  Scholars have verified that Booth's father, Junius Brutus Booth, was the author of a letter threatening President Andrew Jackson.  —  “Andrew Jackson” by Thomas Sully in the collection of the National Gallery of Art, Washington, DC.

A Loophole In the Rules  —  From the magazine issue dated Feb 2, 2009  —  Publicly at least, President Obama has made a clean break with his predecessor's controversial counterterrorism policies, but in private the new administration is leaving itself some wiggle room.

The Worst Pop Singer Ever  —  Why, exactly, is Billy Joel so bad?  —  This may seem an odd moment to bring up the subject of Billy Joel.  But the recent death of the painter Andrew Wyeth revived a long-standing debate over whether his art is respectable or merely sentimental schlock.

Six Errors on the Path to the Financial Crisis  —  WHAT'S a nice economy like ours doing in a place like this?  As the country descends into what is likely to be its worst postwar recession, Americans are distressed, bewildered and asking serious questions: Didn't we learn how to avoid such catastrophes decades ago?

This is the frozen north ... of the UAE  —  RAS AL KHAIMAH // Snow covered the Jebel Jais area for only the second time in recorded history yesterday.  —  So rare was the event that one lifelong resident said the local dialect had no word for it.  —  According to the RAK Government …

Radio Spreads Taliban's Terror in Pakistani Region  —  PESHAWAR, Pakistan — Every night around 8 o'clock, the terrified residents of Swat, a lush and picturesque valley a hundred miles from three of Pakistan's most important cities, crowd around their radios.