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Rav Ya’akov Ariel, the Rabbi of Ramat Gan, said Tuesday that while he disagrees with the opinions expressed in the book Torat HaMelech, they are not a matter for the police. Police stopped Rav Dov Lior’s car Monday morning as he was driving in Gush Etzion and took him to questioning, in an act that has caused extreme pain and anger in the religious public. Rav Lior, a highly respected sage and the Rabbi of Kiryat Arba, was questioned regarding the halakhic approbation he wrote at the beginning of a book called Torat HaMelech, which was written by another rabbi....

Gen. Stanley A. McChrystal, the top commander of American and NATO troops in Afghanistan, contradicted the attorney general on Wednesday when he said that actually, the military still wants to capture Osama bin Laden alive. “I think that is something that is understood by everyone,’’ he said. But perhaps not by Attorney General Eric H. Holder Jr., who on Tuesday told a House subcommittee that the chances of capturing Mr. bin Laden alive were “infinitesimal” and that he would either be killed by the United States or killed by his own people. “The reality is that we will be reading...

WASHINGTON (Reuters) – President Barack Obama's spokesman publicly disagreed with former President Jimmy Carter on Wednesday over Carter's contention that some conservative opposition to Obama is based on race. "The president does not think it is based on the color of his skin," White House spokesman Robert Gibbs told reporters. Carter injected race into Obama's struggle for a healthcare overhaul after South Carolina Republican Representative Joe Wilson shouted "You lie" at Obama during a healthcare speech in Congress last week and thousands of conservatives rallied opposition to Obama at demonstrations in Washington. "I think an overwhelming portion of the intensely...

WASHINGTON - The top Republican on the Senate Armed Services Committee sought to weaken support for a resolution opposing President Bush's Iraq war strategy, saying Sunday that supporters are intellectually dishonest. Arizona Sen. John McCain (news, bio, voting record), a 2008 presidential candidate, contended the bipartisan nonbinding resolution amounted to a demoralizing "vote of no confidence" in the U.S. military because it criticized Bush's plans to send 21,500 more troops to Iraq without offering concrete alternatives. "I don't think it's appropriate to say that you disapprove of a mission and you don't want to fund it and you don't want...

Senator vows to try to stop China-Unocal deal By Richard Cowan 2 hours, 42 minutes ago A Democratic senator said on July 15 he would try to get the Senate to pass legislation blocking the sale of Unocal to Chinese oil company CNOOC as it was against U.S. national interests. Sen. Byron Dorgan of North Dakota said he was considering attaching his proposal to a foreign operations spending bill being debated by the Senate on July 15 and next week or to another bill. An aide delivers a message to Senator Dorgan (R) at the start of a hearing, November...