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<p>WASHINGTON — Senate Republicans prepared two versions of a constitutional amendment on marriage Monday, unable to agree among themselves on how best to get a vote on a measure that President Bush (search) made an election-year priority for Congress.</p> <p>The likely outcome is that neither proposal will get a direct vote after Democrats just last week had agreed to allow one.</p>

DUBAI (Reuters) - The Philippines will withdraw its forces from Iraq (news - web sites) "as soon as possible," Philippine Deputy Foreign Minister Rafael Seguis said on Monday in a statement he read out on al Jazeera television. "In response to your request, the Philippines ... will withdraw its humanitarian forces as soon as possible," Seguis said according to al Jazeera's Arabic translation of his remarks. His statement was addressed to the group which is holding a Filipino driver hostage.

Well, Spain's Zapatero is withdrawing troops from the battle against terrorism in Iraq. Once again, when danger reared its ugly head, he proudly tucked his tail and fled...

<p>Did you hear the one about how Sacramento buys $36,000 wheelchairs for the disabled when less expensive wheelchairs work fine? Or how legislators slipped $266,000 in the budget for their own meals because $125 a day for food and housing didn't satisfy their finer tastes?</p>

WASHINGTON (AP) - The only two senators to miss the final vote on landmark Medicare legislation were Democratic presidential candidates John Kerry and Joe Lieberman, who returned to the campaign trail Tuesday. Kerry and Lieberman had canceled campaign appearances Sunday and Monday to support a filibuster of the bill, but after a pair of procedural votes Monday failed to stop it, both senators skipped the final vote. They said passage of the $395 billion measure was a foregone conclusion. The Senate cleared the bill, 54-44, and sent it to President Bush for his signature. The two Democratic candidates said there...

Chrétien’s Legacywritten by James Daly As the war against the butcher of Baghdad continues, Canada finds itself, as is usual these days, on the outside looking in. Welcome to the wonderful world of Jean Chrétien and his blessed legacy. To put it in broader international terms, Canada has been relegated to a third rate nation, ranking with or below such heavyweights as Poland, Slovakia and Mexico. This is all thanks to our embarrassingly emaciated armed forces and our blatantly anti-American Prime Minister. More alarmingly however, is that we have been reduced to little more than an annoyance to our...

May 6, 2002 In March, U.S. Supreme Court Justice Clarence Thomas accepted an invitation to spend a day in discussions with law students and faculty at the University of North Carolina School of Law in Chapel Hill. The school's five black law professors boycotted Thomas' visit. Few Americans, including law students, ever get to see a Supreme Court Justice in person; they can't watch how they conduct oral arguments before deciding a case because the justices refuse to allow television cameras within their sacred precincts. So why would any law professors, of any color, give up a chance to join...