BAGHDAD, July 26 Army Staff Sgt. Jose Sixtos considered the simple question about morale for more than an hour. But not until his convoy of armored Humvees had finally rumbled back into the Baghdad military base, and the soldiers emptied the ammunition from their machine guns, and passed off... The...

Initially, Arab governments criticized Hezbollah for recklessly provoking a war. Now, opinion across the Arab world has changed.

An obscure law approved by a Republican-controlled Congress a decade ago has made the Bush administration nervous that officials and troops involved in handling detainee matters might be accused of committing war crimes, and prosecuted at some point in U.S. courts.

Majorities doubt there will be peace between Israel and its neighbors, or that troops will be able to leave Iraq soon.

The latest NBC News/Wall Street Journal poll finds nearly two-thirds of the American public don't believe life for their children's generation will be better than it has been for them, and nearly 60 percent are doubtful the Iraq war will come to a successful conclusion.

I've felt many emotions about the Israelis before. I've admired them for their accomplishments -- building a flourishing state out of almost nothing. I've hated them for their systematic dispossession of the Palestinians -- even as they smugly congratulated themselves for being the Middle East's only "democracy." I've pitied them for the cruel fate history inflicted on the Jewish diaspora, respected them for their boldness and daring, honored them for their cultural and intellectual achievements. But the one thing I've never felt, at least up until now, is contempt. But that is what I'm feeling now. The military and political leaders of the Jewish state are doing and saying things that go way beyond the blustering arrogance of a powerful nation at war. Not to put too fine a point on it, but they are behaving like a gang of miltaristic

Hamas and Hizbullah should not be confused with Al Qaeda. Bush's insistence on doing so shows his failure to understand his foes.

As the world's leaders gathered, the Middle East burst into flames. How President Bush handled the biggest foreign challenge of his second term. A NEWSWEEK exclusive.

The Senate's top Democrat says 1994's "Contract with America," the Republican campaign agenda the year the GOP regained control of Congress -- was an "urban myth."

After years of struggling to define their own approach to post-Sept. 11 foreign policy, Democrats seem finally to have hit on one. It's called pandering. In those rare cases when George W. Bush shows genuine sensitivity to America's allies and propounds a broader, more enlightened view of the...

A project to build a high-tech children’s hospital in Basra, praised by the first lady, faces delays and cost overruns.

Two months before Rep. Thomas M. Davis III (R-Va.) became chairman of the powerful House Government Reform Committee in January 2003, one of his close friends formed ICG Government, a consulting company for technology firms seeking government contracts.

The stakes are high for Hizbullah, but it seems it can count on an unprecedented swell of public support that cuts across sectarian lines. According to a poll released by the Beirut Center for Research and Information, 87 percent of Lebanese support Hizbullah's fight with Israel, a rise of 29 percent on a similar poll conducted in February. More striking, however, is the level of support for Hizbullah's resistance from non-Shiite communities. Eighty percent of Christians polled supported Hizbullah along with 80 percent of Druze and 89 percent of Sunnis. Lebanese no longer blame Hizbullah for sparking the war by kidnapping the Israeli soldiers, but Israel and the US instead. The latest poll by the Beirut Center found that 8 percent of Lebanese feel the US supports Lebanon, down from 38 percent in January. "This support for Hizbullah is by

Drawn out Lebanon crisis will boost militants across Arab world, PM fears Ewen MacAskill, Simon Tisdall and Michael White Friday July 28, 2006 The Guardian A girl peers out from her family's damaged home near Sidon in southern Lebanon. Photograph: Mohammed Zaatar/AP Tony Blair will press George Bush today to support "as a matter of urgency" a ceasefire i

A new poll by Insider Advantage shows challenger Hank Johnson with a hefty lead over incumbent Cynthia McKinney in the Democratic run-off for the 4th District congressional race. The poll shows Johnson leading McKinney, 46 to 21 percent, with a third of v /

On the July 27 edition of MSNBC's Hardball, host Chris Matthews asked right-wing pundit Ann Coulter, "How do you know that [former President] Bill Clinton is gay?" -- referring to her comment the night before on CNBC's The Big Idea with Donny Deutsch that Clinton "show[s] some level of latent homosexuality." Coulter responded, "I don't know if he's gay. But [former Vice President] Al Gore -- total fag." She went on to defend her theory about Clinton's sexuality by stating that "everyone has always known, widely promiscuous heterosexual men have, as I say, a whiff of the bathhouse about them." Coulter claimed she was "just kidding" about Gore, but said of her theory about Clinton, "It's not only not a joke, it's not even surprising." Further, Coulter remarked that when "most Americans" heard that an Israeli

Read a transcript of remarks made by President Bush and U.K. Prime Minsiter Tony Blair on the violence in the Middle East.

City officials said that regular offerings from advocates have lured the homeless to parks and led to complaints.

Today, the leaders of the House of Representatives will finally allow a vote to raise the minimum wage from $5.15 an hour to $7.25 an hour over two years. It would be the first increase in the minimum wage in ten years. Raising the minimum wage would benefit 7.3 million low-wage workers. Here’s how AP

The case, hailed by human rights groups as an important precedent, involved the disappearance and presumed death of a prisoner detained in Chechnya.

STAGFLATION....The Washington Post reports that the latest economic news is grim:The nation's gross domestic product, which measures the value of all goods and services produced, rose at a below-average 2.5 percent annual rate in the second quarter....Meanwhile, consumer prices shot...

At today’s press conference, NBC’s David Gregory noted that, three years ago, the Bush administration predicted that “the invasion of Iraq would create a new stage of Arab-Israeli peace,” but that hasn’t happened. In response, President Bush proudly declared that American foreign policy no longer seeks to “manage calm,” and derided policies that let anger

Filed under: Celebrity Justice TMZ.com: Mel Gibson was arrested by the Los Angeles County Sheriff's Department in Malibu, Calif. early this morning for suspicion of DUI. Bail was set at $5,000.He was pulled over for speeding in his 2006 Lexus as he was heading eastbound on the Pacific... Read more

Demian Bulwa, Chronicle Staff Writer Friday, July 28, 2006 Printable Version Email This Article

SEARCH RESULTS Candid phone calls cast doubt on Cantu review Investigator made wrongful arrests in past Perry, White thrash FEMA Lawyers call for outside review of Cantu case The rebel sanctuary Colombia's war on drugs getting hotter Parole, probation violators add to crowding Life without parole among bills signed by Perry