Charlie Rose interviews Bashar Assad  —  Charlie Rose interviewed Syrian President Bashar Assad at the presidential palace in Damascus on Sunday morning.  —  The interview, Assad's first with an American television network in nearly two years, will air in its entirety on PBS's “Charlie Rose” …

Collapse of American Influence Recalls Dis-Integration of Soviet Union, Fall of France  —  Not since the disintegration of the Soviet Union in 1991, and prior to that the fall of France in 1940, has there been so swift an erosion of the world influence of a Great Power as we are witnessing with the United States.

And now it's global COOLING!  Record return of Arctic ice cap as it grows by 60% in a year  — Publication of UN climate change report suggesting global warming caused by humans pushed back to later this month  —  A chilly Arctic summer has left nearly a million more square miles …

McGovern urges Obama to withdraw authorization request  —  Massachusetts Rep. Jim McGovern, a key liberal Democrat, is urging President Barack Obama to withdraw his request for congressional authorization for a military strike on Syria.  —  “I don't think the support is there,” …

NSA Can Spy on Smart Phone Data  —  SPIEGEL has learned from internal NSA documents that the US intelligence agency has the capability of tapping user data from the iPhone, devices using Android as well as BlackBerry, a system previously believed to be highly secure.

Obama administration had restrictions on NSA reversed in 2011  —  The Obama administration secretly won permission from a surveillance court in 2011 to reverse restrictions on the National Security Agency's use of intercepted phone calls and e-mails, permitting the agency to search deliberately …

It's the Economy, Mate  —  Tony Abbott will be the next prime minister of Australia after his conservative coalition handily won yesterday's election, forcing the Labor Party out of power after six years.  Abbott won despite the fact that the Australian economy has expanded without interruption for 22 years …

Amid presidential murmurs, Warren to address AFL-CIO  —  LOS ANGELES, Calif. — Sen. Elizabeth Warren (D-Mass.) will address a key faction of the liberal base Monday as speculation intensifies that she will someday seek the presidency.  —  Helping to open the quadrennial AFL-CIO convention …

Britain sent poison gas chemicals to Assad: Proof that the UK delivered Sarin agent to Syrian regime for SIX years  —  British companies sold chemicals to Syria that could have been used to produce the deadly nerve agent that killed 1,400 people, The Mail on Sunday can reveal today.

Fox News Pundit Shuts Down Network's Hysteria Over Benghazi: 'It's Gone, Baby.  It's In Your Head'  —  Fox News' Juan Williams tersely dismissed the GOP's year-long effort to implicate the Obama administration in a so-called “cover-up” of the attack on a U.S. consulate in Benghazi …

Iowa grants gun permits to the blind  —  No one questions the legality of the permits, but some officials worry about public safety.  —  CONNECT  —  DES MOINES, Iowa — Here's some news that has law enforcement officials and lawmakers scratching their heads:

Obama's Battle for Syria Votes, Taut and Uphill  —  WASHINGTON — Each morning for the last week, at 7:45, more than a dozen White House aides have mustered in the corner office of President Obama's chief of staff, Denis R. McDonough, to get their marching orders for what has become the most intense …

Syria resolution could stall Congress's work on divisive domestic issues  —  President Obama's decision to seek congressional approval of military strikes against Syria threatens to make an already contentious fall agenda on Capitol Hill even more unstable, heightening the chance of political gridlock.