Dixie Chicks, Mary J. Blige and the Red Hot Chili Peppers Win Grammys  —  After death threats, boycotts and a cold shoulder from the country music establishment, the Dixie Chicks gained sweet vindication Sunday night at the 49th annual Grammy Awards, capturing honors in all five of the categories in which they were nominated.

Iran Sending Explosives to Extremist Groups in Iraq, Officials Say  —  Iranian security forces, taking orders from the "highest levels" of the Iranian government, are funneling sophisticated explosives to extremist groups in Iraq, and the weapons have grown increasingly deadly for U.S.-led troops …

Iran Softens Tone, Declares Readiness To Resume Talks  —  President and Top Negotiator Reject U.N. Call to Freeze Nuclear Program  —  Facing the prospect of broader international sanctions, Iran's president and national security chief on Sunday offered to resume negotiations …

Giuliani praises Bush's Iraq policy, foresight  —  He disparages a Senate nonbinding rebuke on a visit to California to build a GOP campaign base for the presidency.  —  SACRAMENTO — Republican presidential hopeful Rudolph W. Giuliani praised President Bush's war leadership on Saturday …

Obama hits back after Australian PM slams his Iraq stance … CANBERRA, Australia (CNN) — Australia's conservative Prime Minister John Howard said Sunday that victory for Democratic Sen. Barack Obama and his party in next year's presidential election would be a boon for terrorists.

Entrepreneurial Culture  —  Why European economies lag behind the U.S.  —  The nations of Continental Western Europe, in the reforms they make to try to raise their economic performance, may prove to be a testing ground for the view that culture matters for a society's economic results.

Cheney Testimony in Libby Trial Would Carry High Risk  —  One figure has dominated the trial of I. Lewis Libby Jr. without even showing up in the courtroom.  Day after day, the jury has heard accounts of the actions of Vice President Dick Cheney, watched as his handwritten notes were displayed …

Here Comes The Sun  —  The proponents of man-made climate change want to force an end to the debate over the causes of global warming.  Some want to treat skeptics as if they were Holocaust deniers or heretics of old.  However, some scientists still have their doubts about whether global warming is real …

A menace to science  —  For years, 'Dr' Gillian McKeith has used her title to sell TV shows, diet books and herbal sex pills.  Now the Advertising Standards Authority has stepped in.  Yet the real problem is not what she calls herself, but the mumbo-jumbo she dresses up as scientific fact, says Ben Goldacre

The Limits Of Sunniness  —  In this winter of their discontents, nostalgia for Ronald Reagan has become for many conservatives a substitute for thinking.  This mental paralysis — gratitude decaying into idolatry — is sterile: Neither the man nor his moment will recur.

GOP Expects Defections as House Debates Iraq Resolution  —  Three days of intense debate over the Iraq war begins in the House today, with Democrats planning to propose a narrowly worded rebuke of President Bush's troop buildup and Republicans girding for broad defections on their side.

Circling the Square  —  The day before Barack Obama announced his candidacy for president in Springfield, I was having breakfast in Chicago with my friend Paul Smith.  Paul's what might be called an Obama "early adopter."  Like a lot of young, Chicago progressives, he threw himself …