Saddam's end: tormented as his death loomed  — In pictures: Life and times of Saddam Hussein  —  Hands tied behind his back, feet bound, Saddam Hussein shuffled on to the red-painted metal gallows for his execution yesterday.  —  Iraqi TV showed Saddam Hussein being taken to the gallows and the noose being put over his head

Truth, Justice, Abortion and the Times Magazine  —  THE cover story on abortion in El Salvador in The New York Times Magazine on April 9 contained prominent references to an attention-grabbing fact.  "A few" women, the first paragraph indicated, were serving 30-year jail terms for having had abortions.

Science told: hands off gay sheep  —  Experiments that claim to 'cure' homosexual rams spark anger  —  SCIENTISTS are conducting experiments to change the sexuality of "gay" sheep in a programme that critics fear could pave the way for breeding out homosexuality in humans.

And Now, a Word From Chile ...  Everyone who followed the debate about privatizing Social Security back in 2005 has vivid memories of the Chilean model.  Sometimes it seemed impossible to get through any discussion of fixing Social Security without hearing a free-market paean to the way Chile …

While You Were at War . . .  In every administration, there are usually only about a dozen barons who can really initiate and manage meaningful changes in national security policy.  For most of 2006, some of these critical slots in the Bush administration have been vacant …

THE 10 MOST OUTRAGEOUS CIVIL LIBERTIES VIOLATIONS OF 2006.  —  I love those year-end roundups—ubiquitous annual lists of greatest films and albums and lip glosses and tractors.  It's reassuring that all human information can be wrestled into bundles of 10.

HEZ PAY-PER-SLAY  —  'REWARDS' ROCKETS VS. ISRAEL  —  Hezbollah and its Iranian backers are rewarding Palestinian terrorists with thousands of dollars for each homemade rocket that hits southern Israel, according to Israeli intelligence.  —  The size of the payoffs depends on the number …

Labour's NHS is a real tonic for the Tories  —  The sight of Hazel Blears standing on a picket line outside a Salford hospital seemed a traditional scene from the last days of a Labour government.  From 1929 to 1974, radical politicians would come to power determined to make the lives of the majority a little bit better.

Ford's Long Shadow  —  An unlikely president, Gerald Ford steadied America and, in an unpublished interview, mused about her fate.  —  Vice President Gerald Ford and wife Betty escort First Lady Pat Nixon and President Richard Nixon across the South Lawn to Marine 1 following Nixon's farewell statement on Aug. 9, 1974.

Hunt for Al-Qaeda men in Mogadishu  —  SOMALIA's prime minister has asked clan elders in Mogadishu to surrender Al-Qaeda suspects who are believed to be sheltering in the city after his forces, with Ethiopian military support, drove out Islamic militias which controlled the capital.

Pakistan could become next US nightmare  —  IT HAS more than twice as many people as Iran, six times more than Iraq, many primed for Islamic extremism by a legacy of poverty and illiteracy left by decades of misrule by corrupt secular leaders, civilian and military.