Conflicts Shaped Two Presidencies  —  U.S., Iraq Continue to Experience Aftereffects of Their Confrontations  —  The day after he ordered a cease-fire and brought the Persian Gulf War to a close, President George H.W. Bush ruminated about the status quo he had left behind in Iraq.

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.

For Guantánamo Review Boards, Limits Abound  —  GUANTÁNAMO BAY, Cuba — At one end of a converted trailer in the American military detention center here, a graying Pakistani businessman sat shackled before a review board of uniformed officers, pleading for his freedom.

Hillary falls to earth in poll race  —  THE first vote is still more than a year away, but the campaign to replace President George W Bush in the White House is already throwing up surprises.  —  Unfortunately for Senator Hillary Clinton, long the front-runner in the Democratic drive to retake …

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.

Area Somalis want peace for homeland  —  Many of the 1,500 protesters in Minneapolis were angered that the U.S. gave tacit support for ousting of Islamists.  —  More than a thousand Somalis gathered in Minneapolis on Saturday to call for Ethiopian troops to withdraw immediately from Somalia.

Conyers accepts responsibility for possible ethics violations  —  Rep. John Conyers (D-Mich.) has "accepted responsibility" for possibly violating House rules by requiring his official staff to perform campaign-related work, according to a statement quietly released by the House ethics committee late Friday evening.

SADDAM'S HANGING — UNCUT  —  Several hours after Saddam Hussein was hanged this morning in Baghdad, the state-run television channel, Iraqia, began to run edited video, without sound, of the run-up to the hanging.  The video shows Saddam being guided up the steps to the top of the gallows …

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 …

AP Poll: Americans Optimistic for 2007 … WASHINGTON (AP) — The news from Iraq and other national headlines may be grim, but in Greenville, N.C., John Given has a new baby and his first home, and life is good.  —  So, too, for Sandra Trowbridge in tiny Magnet Cove, Ark. The situation …

Localities Operate Intelligence Centers To Pool Terror Data  —  'Fusion' Facilities Raise Privacy Worries As Wide Range of Information Is Collected  —  Frustrated by poor federal cooperation, U.S. states and cities are building their own network of intelligence centers led by police to help detect and disrupt terrorist plots.

Air Force enlists Stonewall for gay recruits  —  The Royal Air Force has called in a gay pressure group to help solve its recruitment crisis.  The Service will take advice from Stonewall on how to make itself more attractive to homosexual and bisexual men and women, and is aiming to spend tens …

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 …

Google's Tipping Point  —  Taken in a vacuum, a fairly trivial thing happened a few days ago.  The co-founder of Firefox, Blake Ross, wrote a post criticizing Google called "Tip: Trust is hard to gain, easy to lose".  He takes issue with a new Google search feature that promotes certain …

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.