Hussein Video Grips Iraq; Attacks Go On  —  Saddam Hussein never bowed his head, until his neck snapped.  —  His last words were equally defiant.  —  "Down with the traitors, the Americans, the spies and the Persians."  —  The former ruler of Iraq's final hour began about 5 a.m. …

For Whom the Bell Tolls:  —  Top Ten Ways the US Enabled Saddam Hussein  —  The old monster swung from the gallows this morning at 6 am Baghdad time.  His Shiite executioners danced around his body.  —  Saddam Hussain was one of the 20th century's most notorious tyrants …

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.

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.

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 …

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 …

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.

Huge ice shelf breaks free in Canada's far north  —  Source: Reuters  —  CALGARY, Alberta, Dec 29 (Reuters) - A chunk of ice bigger than the area of Manhattan broke from an ice shelf in Canada's far north and could wreak havoc if it starts to float westward toward oil-drilling regions …

Ford's Long Shadow  —  An unlikely president, Gerald Ford steadied America and, in an unpublished interview, mused about her fate.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.

Down on the war  —  Poll: More troops unhappy with Bush's course in Iraq  —  The American military — once a staunch supporter of President Bush and the Iraq war — has grown in creasingly pessimistic about chances for victory.  —  For the first time, more troops disapprove of the president's han dling of the war than approve of it.

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.