Meanwhile in Iraq

Comedian's Slaying Hikes Iraq Death Toll: Gunmen shot and killed a television comedian Monday who was famous for mocking everyone from the Iraqi government to U.S. forces to Shiite militias to Sunni insurgents.

47 Killed, 2 Top Officials Escape Assassination Attempts In Occupied Iraq:: 21 Iraqis were killed in a series of attacks in Baghdad, Ramadi, Baqouba and near the Syrian border, and the bodies of 26 Iraqis who had been kidnapped and tortured were found on the streets of the capital.

Report: Iran Invites Syria, Iraq to Summit: Iran has invited the Iraqi and Syrian presidents to Tehran for a weekend summit with Mahmoud Ahmadinejad to hash out ways to cooperate in curbing the runaway violence.

Pentagon May Suggest Short-Term Buildup Leading to Iraq Exit: The Pentagon's closely guarded review of how to improve the situation in Iraq has outlined three basic options: Send in more troops, shrink the force but stay longer, or pull out, according to senior defense officials.

The puppet's last dance: The US has proved itself to be clueless about regional politics all the way from Iraq to Afghanistan, from Lebanon to Palestine. Oil and Israel were all that the world's sole superpower could think of, and the consequences were nothing short of disastrous.

President handed bitter pill of ex-insiders' dissent: Bush finds himself with fewer and fewer friends. Some of the strongest supporters of the war have grown disenchanted, former insiders are registering public dissent and Republicans on Capitol Hill blame him for losing Congress.

War dogs rebranded as `pussycats of peace': Mercenaries | Boom times could be ending...

Marine arrested for killing baby son after return from Iraq: A 20-year-old Marine who had recently returned from his first tour in Iraq was arrested Monday on suspicion of killing his infant son, police said.

Eye on Iraq: Worse than Tet: President Bush is changing course on Iraq just as President Johnson did on Vietnam after the 1968 Tet offensive. But the situation facing U.S. policymakers now in Iraq is vastly worse than anything their predecessors faced after Tet.

EU tells Iraq that death penalty ban will be part of talks on trade and cooperation pact: BRUSSELS, Belgium. European Union officials told Iraq on Monday that it would seek commitments on human rights standards, including a ban on capital punishment, during negotiations on a trade and aid pact.