From Washington Post
By Scott Sonner

Nevada’s race for governor was barely a contest at all until it took a scandalous turn a few weeks ago, when a cocktail waitress accused Rep. Jim Gibbons of trying to sexually assault her in a parking garage after a night of drinking just off the Las Vegas Strip.

The lurid allegations in the closing weeks of the campaign have put the race back in play and put the one-time Republican front-runner on the defensive. Policy issues have taken a back seat to dueling news conferences, a burgeoning criminal investigation and a mystery over what exactly is on the parking garage’s surveillance video.

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From The Guardian
By Patrick Wintour

The government indicated last night that it would concede a high-level inquiry into the war in Iraq once British troops had been withdrawn.

The move came as Tony Blair narrowly survived a Commons push to force him to set up an immediate parliamentary inquiry after a fractious debate in which the government’s majority was cut to 25.

During the exchanges, the foreign secretary, Margaret Beckett, pointedly refused to rule out an inquiry at a later stage, saying no doubt at some point lessons would have to be learned. “It is perfectly sensible and legitimate to say that there will come a time when these issues will be explored … in full so that we can learn whatever lessons we can.”

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From The Independent UK
By Anne Penketh

Three weeks after conducting its first nuclear test, which sent shockwaves round the world, North Korea yesterday agreed to return to the negotiating table.

The decision is a diplomatic victory for China, North Korea’s Communist ally and a veto-holding power on the United Nations Security Council, which lost patience after the nuclear test on 9 October.

It also emerged yesterday that China cut off oil supplies to its neighbourin September amid reports that a test was imminent and sent an envoy to read the riot act to North Korea’s “Dear Leader”, Kim Jong Il, before hosting yesterday’s talks in Beijing

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From NY Post
Rep. Rips ‘S.O.B. After Tax Assault

By Geoff Earle

Rep. Charles Rangel yesterday blasted Dick Cheney as a “son of a bitch” after the vice president said the Harlem lawmaker would raise taxes and destroy the economy if Democrats take control of the House.

The bitter war of words escalated to the point where the bombastic Rangel even questioned whether the tightly wound Cheney needed professional treatment - and mocked him for accidentally shooting his hunting buddy ealier this year.

Cheney fired the first shot when he predicted that Rangel - who is poised to chair the powerful House Ways and Means Committee if the Democrats seize the House next week - wouldn’t continue “a single one” of President Bush’s tax cuts.

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From Think Progress
By Faiz

CNN just reported the incident in Charlottesville, VA, today where blogger Mike Stark was assualted by supporters of Sen. George Allen (R-VA). One of CNN’s affiliates asked Allen for comment on the incident, and CNN reported that he responded, Things like that happen.

Stark is not, as CNN reported, a protester. He is a constituent who was trying to ask Allen a question.

Watch Allen

From The Huffington Post
By Art Levine

John Kerry’s blunder — too slowly corrected — has been portrayed as confirming the Republicans’ long-standing charge that Democrats are elitist, weak on defense and don’t support our troops. It will rile up conservative voters, so Democrats’ efforts to counter the GOP turnout campaign will become even more essential to a Democratic victory.

The Republicans have a justifiably legendary turnout machine, with centralized organizing and contacts, microtargeted lists of voters geared to their issue preferences and an aggressive 72-hour final get-out-the-vote push.

Democrats have some new new tools and opportunities to boost voter participation, including a dial-from-home outreach campaign to reach Democratic-leaning voters, using software designed by moveon.org, part of their Call for Change program. In addition, a one-stop website, “Do More Than Vote,” links voters to local get-out-the-vote campaigns. But will that be enough for Democrats to overcome the Republican get-out-the-vote drive and shake the confidence of Karl Rove and some other GOP leaders in a Republican victory? Has John Kerry helped the Democrats snatch defeat from the jaws of victory?

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From Prescot Herald Arizona
By Robert Burns

Defense Secretary Donald H. Rumsfeld on Tuesday endorsed a proposal to spend at least $1 billion to expand the size and accelerate the training and equipping of Iraqi security forces.

“I˜m very comfortable with the increases they˜ve proposed and the accelerations in achievement of some of their targets,” Rumsfeld told reporters at the Pentagon , noting that the Iraqi government and Gen. George Casey, the top U.S. commander in Iraq , both recommended expanding Iraqi forces.

So far, the U.S. government has spent roughly $10 billion on developing the Iraqi security forces, according to the latest report released by the Pentagon special inspector general who audits U.S. work in Iraq. One official described the proposed extra money as more than $1 billion, but would not offer specifics.

From National Interest
By David C. Isby

This month marks the fifth anniversary of American boots on the ground in Afghanistan. The first US insertions quickly gained momentum, especially after the city of Mazar-e-Sharif was taken. The Taliban’s legitimacy and resources had so diminished that few Afghans were willing to fight to the death to maintain them in power. It was the foreign fighters of Al Qaeda that continued to resist in desperation or, more often, flee across the Durand Line into Pakistan.

What is left today of the victory that began five years ago?

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From SJ Mercury News
By Nancy A. Youssef

Moving to wrest control of his army from the United States, Iraqi Prime Minister Nouri al-Maliki ordered U.S. forces to take down the barriers they’d erected in their search for a missing U.S. soldier and to end the blockade of Baghdad’s largest Shiite Muslim district.

U.S. officials complied, a development hailed as a victory by supporters of Shiite Muslim cleric Muqtada al-Sadr, whose Mahdi Army militia is suspected of kidnapping the soldier.

The action was the starkest sign yet of the differences that divide U.S. officials, who’ve urged Maliki to disarm Sadr’s militia, and Maliki, whose hold on power depends at least partly on Sadr and his control of parliament’s largest voting bloc.

For the past week, Maliki has been openly critical of U.S. policies in Iraq. He rejected assertions by U.S. Ambassador Zalmay Khalilzad that he’d agreed to a timetable for disarming militias and making other changes. He blamed the U.S.-led coalition for the violence sweeping his country. He criticized U.S. tactics in efforts to arrest death-squad suspects. He said the U.S. was misguided in singling out the militias as the greatest threat to Iraq instead of Sunni insurgents and former supporters of Saddam Hussein.

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From Indian Express.com”> India

Pakistan’s army spokesman said on Tuesday the military used intelligence provided by US-led coalition forces in an air raid that left 80 people dead, while thousands of pro-Taliban tribesmen threatened to send suicide bombers to attack Pakistan forces and execute people found spying for the Americans.

Over 80 killed as Pak gunships hit madrasa near Afghan border ‘99 phone tapes show General kept Sharif in dark on Kargil, in book he says oppositeKhan sent centrifuges via Dubai: Pak official˜Kargil pullout was Sharif’s decision’Bhutto, Sharif may boycott 2007general elections

Major General Shaukat Sultan, the chief army spokesman, said US forces did not take part in Monday’s attack on a religious school that the military said was a front for an al-Qaeda training camp.

But he said intelligence was provided in line with long-standing cooperation with coalition forces in Afghanistan to battle terrorists operating along the porous border between the South Asian countries.

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