Sweden withdraws arrest warrant for WikiLeaks founder  —  Issued on rape allegations that Assange calls ‘without basis’  —  STOCKHOLM — Swedish prosecutors withdrew an arrest warrant for the founder of WikiLeaks on Saturday, saying less than a day after the document was issued that it was based on an unfounded accusation of rape.

An Appalling Story  —  This afternoon at 4 p.m. Pacific, Jodie Evans, co-founder of Code Pink, is hosting a $500-per-person fundraiser for Jerry Brown.  John Nolte reports at Big Hollywood: … At Big Peace, a Gold Star Mother recounts her painful experience with Code Pink, a truly vile group.

Iran Opens Its First Nuclear Power Plant  —  TEHRAN — Thirty-six years after construction began under the shah, Iran finally opened its first nuclear power plant at a ceremony on Saturday.  —  Attended by senior officials from Iran and Russia, the ceremony marked the beginning of the transfer …

In Striking Shift, Small Investors Flee Stock Market  —  Renewed economic uncertainty is testing Americans' generation-long love affair with the stock market.  —  Investors withdrew a staggering $33.12 billion from domestic stock market mutual funds in the first seven months of this year …

Oy Vey, Obama  —  Is President Obama good for the Jews?  For more and more Jewish-Americans, the answer is no.  —  In a Pew Research Center report issued on Thursday and entitled “Growing Number of Americans Say Obama Is a Muslim” (tragic in its own right), there was another bit of bad news for Obama …

Ground Zero Thought Experiment  —  A friend poses the following: Imagine that there really were these fundamentalist Christian terror cells all over the United States, as the Department of Homeland Security imagines.  Let's say a group of five of these terrorists hijacked a plane, flew it to Mecca, and plowed it into the Kaaba.

Republican National Committee closes July with just $5 million on hand  —  The Republican National Committee spent twice as much as it raised in July, leaving the committee with just over $5 million on hand with less than three months left before the 2010 midterm elections.

With consumers slow to spend, businesses are slow to hire  —  CHICAGO — Corporate profits are soaring.  Companies are sitting on billions of dollars of cash.  And still, they've yet to amp up hiring or make major investments — the missing ingredients for a strong economic recovery.

News Analysis: In Iraq, Obama Faces Balancing Act as Combat Mission Ends  —  WASHINGTON — The official end of America's combat mission in Iraq next week will fulfill the campaign promise that helped vault President Obama to the White House, but it also presents profound risks as he seeks …

Consumers Clamoring for a Leader  —  So it turns out that the Elizabeth Warren rap video that went “viral” this week is actually a made-in-Hollywood production.  —  You know the video, don't you?  The one in which a struggling comedian named Ryan Anthony Lumas, dressed in a cowboy outfit …

Weekly Address: No Corporate Takeover of Our Democracy  —  The President calls out Republicans for blocking campaign finance reforms that would address the Supreme Court decision opening the floodgates of corporate money into elections.  —  Click here to see the video.

Blackwater Reaches $42 Million Settlement With U.S.  —  WASHINGTON — The private security company formerly called Blackwater Worldwide, long plagued by accusations of impropriety, has reached an agreement with the State Department for the company to pay $42 million in fines for hundreds …