Limbaugh Broadcaster Comes to Radio Host's Defense  —  WASHINGTON — The owner of the company that airs Rush Limbaugh's show has come to his defense, telling Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid that while he isn't certain to whom Limbaugh was referring when he used the term "phony soldiers," …

CNN Political Ticker AM  —  CNN Chief National Correspondent John King is covering McCain in South Carolina, and he sits down with the Arizona senator for an interview to air on "The Situation Room."  —  Edwards to highlight differences with Clinton on Iraq

Soldiers hunt dissidents in Myanmar  —  YANGON, Myanmar - Soldiers announced that they were hunting pro-democracy protesters in Myanmar's largest city Wednesday and the top U.S. diplomat in the country said military police were pulling people out of their homes during the night.

SCHIP fans storm Hill  —  Small children pulled red Radio Flyers filled with petitions in support of kids' health care up to President Bush's front door earlier this week.  —  But the White House didn't accept the mailbags, so organizers turned the wagons around and said they would deliver the 1 million signatures to Congress instead.

Hillary Chuckles; Pundits Snort  —  Clinton's Robust Yuks Lead To Analysis of Appeal of Laughter  —  Forget the cleavage.  It's now about the cackle.  —  No joke: Hillary Clinton's laugh is now being analyzed, scrutinized and, yes, mocked as if it were a sound barrier on her glide path …

Pakistan Seen Losing Fight Against Taliban And Al-Qaeda  —  PESHAWAR, Pakistan — Pakistan's government is losing its war against emboldened insurgent forces, giving al-Qaeda and the Taliban more territory in which to operate and allowing the groups to plot increasingly ambitious attacks …

From Errand to Fatal Shot to Hail of Fire to 17 Deaths  —  It started out as a family errand: Ahmed Haithem Ahmed was driving his mother, Mohassin, to pick up his father from the hospital where he worked as a pathologist.  As they approached Nisour Square at midday on Sept. 16 …

A Thousand Chinese Einsteins Every Year  —  Humankind may be changed radically by the recently developed technique allowing the safe gathering of thousands of immature eggs from a woman's ovarian tissue.  This technique combined with cheap DNA sequencing and embryo selection will soon allow parents …

N. Korea Nuclear Accord Reached  —  Side Deal With U.S. Involves Terror List  —  North Korea will begin disabling key nuclear facilities within weeks and start disclosing details of its nuclear programs under a six-nation agreement to be announced this week, U.S. and Asian diplomats said yesterday.

Clarence Thomas Takes the Low Road, and Should Recuse Himself from Key Cases  —  The new term has begun for a bitterly divided court in a dangerously divided nation, and the most visible event was a Supreme Court justice using the court's return as a book promotion to remind the world of his enemies, demons, biases and vendettas.

AT&T vows to use Terms of Service for good, not censorship  —  Yesterday we reported on AT&T's controversial Terms of Service, which in broad legal language gives AT&T the right to terminate a customer's service for activity which AT&T deems "damaging" to its reputation.