Obama, With Reluctance, Returns to Action in Iraq  —  WASHINGTON — In sending warplanes back into the skies over Iraq, President Obama on Thursday night found himself exactly where he did not want to be.  Hoping to end the war in Iraq, Mr. Obama became the fourth president in a row …

Cease-Fire in Gaza Expires, and Strikes Resume  —  JERUSALEM — As a 72-hour truce in Gaza expired at 8 a.m. Friday, Palestinian militants fired barrages of rockets into Israel and the Israeli military responded with airstrikes, one of which killed a 10-year-old boy, according to relatives.

Caution needed with Gaza casualty figures  —  War zones are not easy places to collect statistics.  —  In the Gaza conflict, most news organisations have been quoting from the office of the UN High Commissioner for Human Rights (OHCHR), which leads a group of humanitarian organisations known as the Protection Cluster.

Ask Andrew W.K.: My Dad Is a Right-Wing A**hole  —  [Editor's note: Every Wednesday New York City's own Andrew W.K. takes your life questions, and sets you safely down the right path to a solution, a purpose or — no surprise here — a party.  Need his help?  Just ask: AskAWK@villagevoice.com]

Wolfowitz: We ‘won’ the Iraq War  —  Paul Wolfowitz, a former senior George W. Bush administration official and one of the chief Iraq War architects, said on Tuesday that the U.S. “won” the war in Iraq.  —  When asked his thoughts about the current situation in Iraq and whether the war was a mistake …

The U.N. Handmaiden of Hamas  —  The relief agency in Gaza, financed in part by the U.S., has become a patron of Palestinian grievance.

A high-speed train wreck for Obama and liberalism  —  CALIFORNIA BIG GOVERNMENT ECONOMY LIBERALISM RAILROADS  —  Few of President Obama's initiatives are more emblematic of his early ambitions to be a transformational liberal leader than his vision for connecting the nation with a vast high-speed rail network.

New jellyfish discovered: giant venomous species found off Australia  —  WA specimen of new irukandji jellyfish sparks particular scientific interest because it has no tentacles  —  A giant and extremely venomous jellyfish found off Western Australia's north-west coast has researchers stumped because it appears to have no tentacles.

Tennesseans vote to retain Supreme Court justices  —  In a major defeat for Lt. Gov. Ron Ramsey, voters on Thursday voted to keep all three Tennessee Supreme Court justices in retention elections.  —  Chief Justice Gary Wade and Justices Connie Clark and Sharon Lee all survived to win …

Ex-councilman who quit in Klingon running for U.S. Senate  —  The Indian Trail councilman who wrote his resignation letter in Klingon wants to beam up to Capitol Hill.  David Waddell is running as a write-in candidate for U.S. Senate.  —  The N.C. Board of Elections certified this week …

Man police shot in Walmart killed over fake gun, family says  —  Relatives of John Crawford, the man shot dead by police at a Beavercreek Walmart, say they've contacted civil rights organizations because they believe the shooting was not justified.  —  They believe he was killed possibly after he picked up a toy gun in the store.

Family says Tampa church canceled funeral because son was gay  —  Julie Atwood was standing at her son's casket when the phone rang.  The church where her son's funeral was scheduled to be held the next day decided to abruptly cancel the service, after the pastor learned the deceased was gay …

The Executive Editor on the Word ‘Torture’  —  Dean Baquet is the executive editor of The Times.  —  Over the past few months, reporters and editors of The Times have debated a subject that has come up regularly ever since the world learned of the C.I.A.'s brutal questioning of terrorism suspects …

Politics Counts: A 2014 Wave?  More Like a Ripple  —  The latest Wall Street Journal/NBC News poll shows an angry electorate that blames Washington for much of its pain.  And with their blood boiling and Election Day only three months away, voters look ready to do ... maybe not too much.

Inequality Is a Drag  —  For more than three decades, almost everyone who matters in American politics has agreed that higher taxes on the rich and increased aid to the poor have hurt economic growth.  —  Liberals have generally viewed this as a trade-off worth making …