What I Saw at the Afghan Election  —  Before firing me last week from my post as his deputy special representative in Afghanistan, U.N. Secretary General Ban Ki-moon conveyed one last instruction: Do not talk to the press.  In effect, I was being told to remain a team player after being thrown off the team.

Army chief warns of ‘terrifying prospect’ of failure in Afghanistan  —  The head of the British Army, General Sir David Richards, has issued a wake-up call to the public by warning of the “terrifying prospect” of a defeat in Afghanistan.  —  In an unprecedented intervention …

‘I take exception’ to McCain's remark, Jones says  —  WASHINGTON (CNN) - A top military adviser to President Barack Obama said Sunday that politics does not play any role in the advice he gives to the president.  —  Last week, Sen. John McCain, R-AZ, the former Republican presidential hopeful …

Will it be America's first failed state?  —  Los Angeles, 2009: California may be the eighth largest economy in the world, but its state staff are being paid in IOUs, unemployment is at its highest in 70 years, and teachers are on hunger strike.  So what has gone so catastrophically wrong?

Taliban Fighters Attack Outposts, U.S. Troops Killed in Battle  —  Firing rockets and rifles, Taliban militiamen attacked American and Afghan military outposts in a daylong siege on Saturday that killed eight U.S. soldiers and two Afghan security forces in one of the deadliest battles in months, according to U.S. and Afghan officials.

Notes About Bias, From Opposite Points of View  —  LAST Sunday's column about the coverage of Acorn prompted nearly 400 messages and online comments from readers, some convinced that The Times is suppressing news that might damage liberals, and others equally convinced that The Times is about to cave in to extremists on the right.

Report Says Iran Has Data to Make a Nuclear Bomb  —  Senior staff members of the United Nations nuclear agency have concluded in a confidential analysis that Iran has acquired “sufficient information to be able to design and produce a workable” atom bomb.  —  The report by experts …

Fear of Losing Private Health Insurance Trumps ‘Public Option’  —  Sixty-three percent (63%) of voters nationwide say guaranteeing that no one is forced to change their health insurance coverage is a higher priority than giving consumers the choice of a “public option” health insurance company.

Kristol Compares Obama's Olympics Pitch To ‘George W. Bush-Like’ Bullying  —  Conservatives have been bashing President Obama for the past week over his decision to personally go to Copenhagen to boost America's pitch for the 2016 Olympics.  When the International Olympics Committee eliminated Chicago …

Détente and the Bunker  —  How to oppose a president's disastrous foreign policy.  —  The appearance in Washington last week of Iran's foreign minister, while the blood is not yet dry from his government's continuing suppression of student protests, is a reminder of the disastrous foreign policy path …

Health care reform: Privately, Barack Obama strongly backs public option  —  White House discreetly labors to weave coalition on health care  —  WASHINGTON - — Despite months of seeming ambivalence about creating a government health insurance plan, the Obama White House has launched …

The Rabbit Ragu Democrats  —  IN the annals of American excess, there often arrives a moment when those with too much money, too much clout and too much hubris just can't stop themselves from tempting the fates.  They throw an over-the-top party in public, or parade their wealth and power before the press …

The case against Charlie Rangel  —  Forty years of tax evasion, misdeeds and contempt  —  On April 9, 1965, a 34-year-old lawyer named Charles Rangel took out a low-interest mortgage to renovate his childhood home — a row house on West 132nd Street that he had just inherited from his grandfather.