Obama, the ICRC Report and ongoing suppression  —  (updated below)  —  Following up on the latest extremist Cheney/Addington/Yoo arguments advanced by the Obama DOJ in order to shield Bush lawbreaking from disclosure and judicial review — an episode I wrote about in detail yesterday …

Obama Makes Unannounced Visit to Iraq  —  BAGHDAD — President Obama made an unannounced trip to Baghdad on Tuesday, punctuating his week-long overseas trip with a stop to talk to American troops and Iraqi leaders.  —  Air Force One landed at Baghdad International Airport under heavy security …

Pilot of Stolen Cessna Wanted U.S. Fighter Jets to Shoot Him Down  —  Trooper Said Yavuz Berke, Now in Custody, Wanted U.S. Military to Kill Him  —  The Canadian man wholed fighter jets on a chase across six states yesterday flew his stolen plane into the U.S. in hopes the military would shoot …

Poll: Obama Approval Hits New High - 66%  —  CBS/NY Times Survey Finds Most Believe World Leaders Respect President, Though They Maintain U.S. Is Not Respected Overall  —  (CBS) As President Obama concludes his well-publicized trip to Europe, Americans are more positive about the respect accorded …

Lieberman-Obama honeymoon stops at missile defense  —  Sen. Joe Lieberman (Conn.) has tried to mend his relationship with President Obama in recent months but their reconciliation hit a snag Monday over ballistic missile defense.  —  Lieberman, the self-described independent Democrat …

Live video, blog: Gay marriage vote  —  FREE PRESS STAFF REPORT  —  From Terri Hallenbeck's story:  —  MONTPELIER — Gov. Jim Douglas vetoed same-sex marriage legislation Monday evening, sending the bill back to the Legislature today, where the votes to override the veto could teeter either way.

Reality hits Obama Express  —  President Barack Obama, after a lightning-quick start for his agenda on Capitol Hill, is bracing for a much slower pace and big changes in his proposals as early urgency and excitement give way to the more languid rhythms that are the norm for Congress.

‘No-Risk’ Insurance at F.D.I.C.  —  The Federal Deposit Insurance Corporation was set up 76 years ago with the important but simple job of insuring bank deposits.  —  Now, because of what could politely be called mission creep, it's elbowing its way into the middle of the financial mess as an enabler of enormous leverage.

Public Policy That Makes Test Subjects of Us All  —  Suppose you wanted to test the effects of halving the amount of salt in people's diets.  If you were an academic researcher, you'd have to persuade your institutional review board that you had considered the risks and obtained informed consent from the participants.

President Makes Surprise Visit to Iraq  —  President Obama made a surprise visit to Iraq Tuesday afternoon, landing on Air Force One in Baghdad at 4:42 p.m. local time after concluding an eight-day overseas tour through Europe.  —  The unannounced visit to a war zone was a closely guarded secret …

'When Marlon Brando made me a Pessah offer I couldn't refuse'  —  A few weeks ago, as he began preparing material for our Pessah supplements, The Jerusalem Post's Managing Editor Steve Linde placed a small ad in the paper inviting readers to submit amazing but true Pessah stories.

Turkish town hall has MTV vibe  —  ISTANBUL — There were no “boxers or briefs” questions, but President Barack Obama's town hall-style conversation with a group of Turkish students here could have easily been mistaken for a session on MTV.  —  There were the short rows of bleachers set …

When it comes to healthcare, the U.S., Britain and Canada are hurting  —  Healthcare in all three countries has the same problem.  They just feel it in different places.  —  When asked by the New England Journal of Medicine to detail his healthcare vision during the campaign …

Peru court rules Fujimori guilty  —  A special court in Lima has found Peru's former president Alberto Fujimori guilty of human rights abuses.  —  Mr Fujimori, who denied the charges, is awaiting sentencing, but could face up to 30 years in prison.  —  He was convicted of responsibility …

Gates Seeks Sharp Turn In Spending  —  Defense Budget Focuses On Lower-Tech Weapons  —  Defense Secretary Robert M. Gates outlined sweeping changes to the defense budget Monday that would shift billions of dollars in Pentagon spending away from elaborate weapons toward programs more likely to benefit troops in today's wars.

Rick Warren says he's not an anti-gay-marriage activist  —  Rick Warren was on Larry King and says he is not against gay marriage: … He says he's not interested in Iowa's court ruling that made gay marriage legal.  —  I guess he's trying to get in a mea culpa for the BeliefNet interview …

Judge: U.S. hid witness' mental illness in Guantanamo cases  —  WASHINGTON — The Justice Department improperly withheld important psychiatric records of a government witness who was used in a “significant” number of Guantanamo cases, a federal judge has concluded.

New Data Show Rapid Arctic Ice Decline  —  Proportion of Thicker, More Persistent Winter Cover Is the Lowest on Record  —  The Arctic sea ice cover continues to shrink and become thinner, according to satellite measurements and other data released yesterday, providing further evidence …

BEAT SWEETENERS.  —  Matt Yglesias pulls the curtain back a bit on the “beat sweeteners:” … I'm not sure this is quite as calculated as Matt implies.  New administrations tend to spark a lot of positive profiles because new administrations usher in new players whose power merits attention …