Iran Admits Possible Discrepancy in 3 Million Votes  —  TEHRAN — Locked in a continuing bitter contest Monday with Iranians who say the presidential elections were rigged, the authorities here acknowledged that the number of votes cast in 50 cities exceeded the actual number of voters …

Health Care Showdown  —  America's political scene has changed immensely since the last time a Democratic president tried to reform health care.  So has the health care picture: with costs soaring and insurance dwindling, nobody can now say with a straight face that the U.S. health care system …

Scientology: The Truth Rundown, Part 1 of 3 in a special report on the Church of Scientology  —  After L. Ron Hubbard died, David Miscavige became Scientology's leader.  Former church executives say Miscavige beat his staff.  Church officials say the defectors are lying.  —  Reuters/Corbis (2006)]

Section 5 survives  —  With only one Justice voting to strike down Congress's 25-year extension of the Voting Rights Act's controversial Section 5, the Supreme Court on Monday interpreted the law in a way that saves it.  The Court said that all local units of government must be given the option …

White House Changes the Terms of a Campaign Pledge About Posting Bills Online  —  During the presidential campaign, Barack Obama promised that once a bill was passed by Congress, the White House would post it online for five days before he signed it.  —  “When there's a bill that ends …

No Country for Burly Men  —  How feminist groups skewed the Obama stimulus plan towards women's jobs.  —  A “man-cession.”  That's what some economists are starting to call it.  Of the 5.7 million jobs Americans lost between December 2007 and May 2009, nearly 80 percent had been held by men.

Iran's Web Spying Aided By Western Technology  —  By CHRISTOPHER RHOADS in New York and LORETTA CHAO in Beijing  —  The Iranian regime has developed, with the assistance of European telecommunications companies, one of the world's most sophisticated mechanisms for controlling and censoring the Internet …

Regime Change Iran: Movement Seeks to Eliminate ‘Supreme Leader’ Position  —  [Update at Bottom.]  —  Folks, this is huge.  Huge.  A report from Saudi Arabia's al-Arabiya, Iranian clerics seek supreme leader alternative, indicates that Rafsanjani is seeking to eliminate the Supreme Leader.

The Hard Part  —  There was one small consolation for Republicans amid last November's shellacking.  For at least four years, their opponents would enjoy the dubious pleasure of trying to govern the United States of America.  Late on election night, while the confetti swirled in Blue America …

Obama a fan of ‘the great Urdu poets’  —  The fact that President Obama had good Pakistani friends at Columbia in college was one that was basically kept out of his campaign on the theory that anything with any connection to Islam would feed a viral rumor the campaign was trying to kill.

SEX SCANDAL: ENSIGN'S APPROVAL RATING DROPS  —  But he's still Nevada's most popular senior elected official  —  Since admitting an extramarital affair with a former staffer, Sen. John Ensign's approval rating in his home state has plunged.  —  In a new Las Vegas Review-Journal poll of Nevada voters …

GOP: no benefit to court fight  —  Nearly a month after President Barack Obama picked her for the Supreme Court, Republican senators say Sonia Sotomayor isn't serving as the political lightning rod some in their party had hoped she would be.  —  “She doesn't have the punch out there in terms …

Sarkozy says burqas are ‘not welcome’ in France … PARIS (AP) - President Nicolas Sarkozy lashed out Monday at the practice of wearing the Muslim burqa, insisting the full-body religious gown is a sign of the “debasement” of women and that it won't be welcome in France.

GOP Outnumbered in Senate, but McConnell Tries to Ensure It Is Not Outflanked  —  Senate GOP Chief Assumes Higher Profile  —  When he was fighting campaign finance reform a decade ago, Sen. Mitch McConnell (R-Ky.) was dubbed Darth Vader by his critics.  He embraced the nickname, even announcing …

Silvio Berlusconi: the parties, the trinkets, the cash  —  He has made no secret of his love of women but the sex scandal surrounding Silvio Berlusconi is now threatening to topple him, as more claims emerge of the systematic recruitment of young women paid to attend private parties at his homes in Rome and Sardinia.

Obama's War: A U.S. Captain's Personal Touch in Afghanistan  —  In the Afghan Mountains, a Company Commander Strives to Gain the Trust of Frustrated Villagers  —  KONAR PROVINCE, Afghanistan The father arrived at the gate of Capt. Michael Harrison's base earlier this month cradling the limp body of his 9-year-old daughter.

Support Trader Joe's  —  Beneath the attention of major media coverage, the boycott of Israeli products has arrived in America.  Its first reported target over this past weekend was the couscous at Trader Joe's.  —  The Atlantic's Jeffrey Goldberg comments: “My recommendation …

FTC plans to monitor blogs for claims, payments  —  Savvy consumers often go online for independent consumer reviews of products and services, scouring through comments from everyday Joes and Janes to help them find a gem or shun a lemon.  —  What some fail to realize, though …

Fox News Anchor Draws Ratings, and Ire of Conservative Critics  —  At various points on his Fox News program, the anchor Shepard Smith irritated Rush Limbaugh, teased Glenn Beck and grilled Samuel J. Wurzelbacher (a k a Joe the Plumber) over his attacks on President Obama.

Iran Poses Dilemma for Obama  —  Protesters hit the streets demanding freedom and fair elections.  A repressive government strikes back and denounces the dissidents as unpatriotic subversives.  Change, even revolution, is in the air.  —  Liberals and progressives should be natural allies …