Winnowing the Field  —  A hard-fought presidential primary campaign is obscuring the uncharacteristic degree of unity within the Republican party.  It has reached a conservative consensus on most of the pressing issues of the day.  All of the leading candidates, and almost all of the lagging ones, support the right to life.

U.S. War in Iraq Declared Officially Over  —  BAGHDAD — The United States military officially declared an end to its mission in Iraq on Thursday even as violence continues to plague the country and the Muslim world remains distrustful of American power.  —  In a fortified concrete courtyard …

A Bipartisan Way Forward on Medicare  —  Allowing private plans to compete with traditional Medicare will help lower costs and spur innovation.  —  Few issues draw more heated partisan rhetoric than the future of Medicare.  Seniors are a reliable and powerful voting bloc …

Payroll tax cut and spending bill stall in Senate, raising threat of shutdown  —  Negotiations over how to extend a payroll tax holiday for 160 million Americans and avoid a government shutdown this weekend ground to a halt Wednesday after a standoff in the Senate over how to proceed.

‘Dismal’ prospects: 1 in 2 Americans are now poor or low income  —  Juan Morena sits on a Los Angeles, Calif., sidewalk as he waits for the St. Francis Center soup kitchen to open on Sept. 13.  —  By Associated Press  —  WASHINGTON - Squeezed by rising living costs, a record number of Americans …

Americans face Guantánamo detention after Obama climbdown  —  Defence funding bill allows American citizens to be arrested as terrorists on home soil and held indefinitely without trial  —  Barack Obama has abandoned a commitment to veto a new security law that allows the military …

Sarkozy plan to prop up sovereigns is worrying  —  If Albert Einstein's dictum of insanity being the act of doing the same thing again and again expecting different results were applied to the eurozone, political leaders would be well on their way to being institutionalised.

China's epic hangover begins  —  China's credit bubble has finally popped.  The property market is swinging wildly from boom to bust, the cautionary exhibit of a BRIC's dream that is at last coming down to earth with a thud.  —  Chinese stocks are flashing warning signs.  The Shanghai index has fallen 30pc since May.

Tom Friedman, hitting rock bottom  —  Today's Tom Friedman's column has set off a firestorm.  Now, he says and writes many wrong-headed things, about China and other dictatorial regimes, primarily.  But today he hits rock bottom: … You see, in Friedman's eyes, the entire U.S. Congress is bought and paid for by a cabal of Jews.

Opponents in Philadelphia say bill on Sharia law unfair to Muslims  —  A bill in Harrisburg that opponents say is targeted against Muslims has followers of that faith upset.  —  House Bill 2029 would ban Pennsylvania courts from considering any foreign legal code or system that isn't identical with the Constitution.

Herman Cain's Cabinet dream: DOD  —  Herman Cain says that if he could be a Cabinet secretary, he wants to be head of the Department of Defense.  —  In an interview with Barbara Walters, who chose Cain as one of the “10 Most Fascinating People” of the year, the former presidential hopeful was asked what Cabinet position he would like.

Report: Death sentences down  —  The number of new death sentences handed out dropped below 100 this year for the first time in over three decades, according to a new report Thursday.  —  Just 78 new inmates were sentenced to death in 2011 — the lowest number since capital punishment …

Cantor: Palestinian culture ‘infused with resentment and hatred’  —  NATIONAL HARBOR, Md. - House Majority Leader Eric Cantor (R-Va.) delivered a severe rebuke to Palestinians on Thursday, linking their culture to terrorism and questioning their worthiness to have an independent state.