Record numbers go abroad for health treatment with 70,000 escaping NHS  —  Record numbers of Britons are travelling abroad for medical treatment to escape the NHS - with 70,000 patients expected to fly out this year.  —  And by the end of the decade 200,000 "health tourists" …

Fearing Fear Itself  —  In America's darkest hour, Franklin Delano Roosevelt urged the nation not to succumb to "nameless, unreasoning, unjustified terror."  But that was then.  —  Today, many of the men who hope to be the next president — including all of the candidates with a significant chance …

VIN SUPRYNOWICZ: G.I. Joe was just a toy, wasn't he?  —  Hollywood now proposes that in a new live-action movie based on the G.I. Joe toy line, Joe's — well, "G.I." — identity needs to be replaced by membership in an "international force based in Brussels."

THE INVISIBLE PRIMARY—INVISIBLE NO LONGER  —  A First Look at Coverage of the 2008 Presidential Campaign  —  In the early months of the 2008 presidential campaign, the media had already winnowed the race to mostly five candidates and offered Americans relatively little information …

F.C.C. Set to End Sole Cable Deals for Apartments  —  The Federal Communications Commission, hoping to reduce the rising costs of cable television, is preparing to strike down thousands of contracts this week that gave individual cable companies exclusive rights to provide service to an apartment building, the agency's chairman says.

The Wiretap This Time  —  EARLIER this month, the Senate Intelligence Committee and the White House agreed to allow the executive branch to conduct dragnet interceptions of the electronic communications of people in the United States.  They also agreed to "immunize" American telephone companies …

Saudi king chides UK on terrorism  —  Saudi Arabia's King Abdullah has accused Britain of not doing enough to fight international terrorism, which he says could take 20 or 30 years to beat.  —  He was speaking in a BBC interview ahead of a state visit to the UK - the first by a Saudi monarch for 20 years.

Caucus day falls during winter breaks, affecting students  —  Some observers see Jan. 3 as a boon to the candidates, while others think it's a bane.  —  Iowa's Jan. 3 caucus date is either a gut punch or a shot of adrenaline to presidential candidates who are courting young voters, depending on whom you ask.

Polls don't reflect Obama's star power  —  The Democrat creates a stir wherever he goes, but runs far behind Clinton nationally.  Some observers are puzzled; others say he's too gentle.  —  DES MOINES — Hutton Street, a modest, racially mixed working-class neighborhood on the city's east side …

Laura Bush accuses Dems of demagoguery on SCHIP  —  First Lady Laura Bush said Sunday that she is much more involved in policy than many people think and then went to bat for her husband on children's health care and foreign policy.  —  Calling the state children's health insurance program …

A Point of Honor  —  Scott Beauchamp doesn't matter.  —  He's a twice-AWOL serial liar with a pending mental health evaluation who can't write believable military fiction EVEN WHILE IN THE MILITARY.  He's powerless, has been tried, found guilty and punished, and at this point, a distraction.

Trash Talking World War III  —  America's allies and increasingly the American public are playing a ghoulish guessing game: Will President Bush manage to leave office without starting a war with Iran?  Mr. Bush is eagerly feeding those anxieties.  This month he raised the threat of …

Sunday Late Nite: Snakes on A Plane  —  Flying west to check up on the California fires, somebody got a very special ride on a very special plane after casting her very special vote for a very special federal judge: … Oh, really, Dianne?  Did you share with the President this tidbit …

In Defense of Beauchamp  —  I stayed away from the entire Beauchamp affair.  I was aware of it, and I had my own opinion, but since I had no way of proving anything one way or the other, I saw no real value to jumping into the fray.  However, an experience I had the other day has left …