Tide of Arab Opinion Turns to Support for Hezbollah  —  DAMASCUS, Syria, July 27 — At the onset of the Lebanese crisis, Arab governments, starting with Saudi Arabia, slammed Hezbollah for recklessly provoking a war, providing what the United States and Israel took as a wink and a nod to continue the fight.

Pander and Run  —  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 …

A Time To Act  —  Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice's just-concluded trip to Lebanon, Israel and Rome was an exercise in grace, bravery and, to my regret, wrongly focused diplomacy.  Especially disappointing is the fact that she resisted all suggestions that the first order of business …

Detainee Abuse Charges Feared  —  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.

Sheehan buys plot in Crawford with son's insurance money  —  CRAWFORD — As President Bush prepares to spend some vacation time at his ranch here, not all is peaceful within the peace movement that has doggedly criticized his war policies for the past year.  —  The Gold Star Families for Peace …

'Disproportionate' in What Moral Universe?  —  What other country, when attacked in an unprovoked aggression across a recognized international frontier, is then put on a countdown clock by the world, given a limited time window in which to fight back, regardless of whether it has restored its own security?

Execution of a teenage girl  —  A television documentary team has pieced together details surrounding the case of a 16-year-old girl, executed two years ago in Iran.  —  On 15 August, 2004, Atefah Sahaaleh was hanged in a public square in the Iranian city of Neka.

How critical is the Los Angeles Times' condition?  —  A picture, or better yet, a graph, is worth a thousand words.  —  As you can see, in 1970, nearly 1 out of 6 people living in the L.A. basin subscribed to the Los Angeles Times everyday.  While the population has multiplied almost 70% in the 35 years …

Congress to Adopt Scaled-Down Rules on Lobbying  —  Unable to agree on major lobbying and ethics legislation, Senate and House leaders have made plans to adopt vastly scaled-back versions of the measures as part of their rules so that lawmakers can claim that they responded to recent congressional scandals.

Hezbollah leader said to be hiding in Iranian Embassy  —  Intelligence reports indicate the leader of Hezbollah is hiding in a foreign mission in Beirut, possibly the Iranian Embassy, according to U.S. and Israeli officials.  —  Israeli military and intelligence forces are continuing to hunt …

Wife, Friend Tie Congressman to Consulting Firm  —  Company's Clients Say They Get Access to Va. Republican  —  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 …

Las Vegas Makes It Illegal to Feed Homeless in Parks  —  LAS VEGAS, July 21 — Gail Sacco pulled green grapes, bread, lunch meat and, of course in this blazing heat, bottles of water from a cardboard box.  A dozen homeless people rose from shady spots in the surrounding city park and snatched the handouts from her.

Poll: Johnson has lead over McKinney  —  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 voters undecided.

Sergeant Tells of Plot to Kill Iraqi Detainees  —  For more than a month after the killings, Sgt. Lemuel Lemus stuck to his story.  —  "Proper escalation of force was used," he told an investigator, describing how members of his unit shot and killed three Iraqi prisoners who had lashed …