To cut bluntly to the chase, there is scarcely a single politician in the Arab world willing to endorse Washington's definitions of the problems or the solutions when it comes to Israel's impact on the region -- and that even among the autocrats with whom the U.S. prefers to work, much less that rare breed that Maliki represents, i.e. a democratically elected leader. It is the U.S. leadership that is in denial about what is needed to create security in the region.

The rights we enjoy in the West today, from the basic right to vote in elections to freedom of conscience, were won in a series of hard-fought struggles over five hundred years. This is the human story A. C. Grayling sets out to tell in his inspirational history of ideas in action, Towards the Light.

Pakistani President Pervez Musharraf -- a key U.S. ally -- is less popular in his own country than al Qaeda leader Osama bin Laden, according to a poll of Pakistanis conducted last month by an anti-terrorism organization.

A hardline Islamic activist burns an American flag during anti-U.S. protests in Karachi, Pakistan, last month.

Additionally, nearly three-fourths of poll respondents said they oppose U.S. military action against al Qaeda and the Taliban inside Pakistan, according to results from the poll conducted by the independent polling organization Terror Free Tomorrow.

An Erie cancer researcher has found a way to burn salt water, a novel invention that is being touted by one chemist as the "most remarkable" water science discovery in a century.