Clash over Iraq funding heading for climax
Democratic leaders planned a special ceremony as they sign and send to President George W. Bush a bill that sets timetables for troop withdrawal from Iraq.

Cambodia moves a tiny step closer to Khmer Rouge trial
A compromise settled the dispute over a $2,700 fee for lawyers.

News Corp. makes $5-billion bid for Dow Jones
The Bancroft family, Dow Jones' controlling shareholders, intend to vote shares representing just over 50 percent of the voting power of Dow Jones against the deal.

Leader of Al Qaeda group in Iraq is reported killed
The Iraqi government said it was investigating reports that Abu Ayyub al-Masri had been killed in an ambush by a rival faction.

Olmert won't resign over report on Hezbollah war
Opposition politicians fulminated and a young cabinet minister resigned, but Prime Minister Ehud Olmert of Israel pressed ahead Tuesday with what aides called "a normal working schedule" following a damning report about his performance in the war last summer against Hezbollah.

Castro is absent as Cuba celebrates May Day
While there was a lot of expectation that Castro was going to make an appearance this year, the state media had been preparing Cubans for the possibility that he would not.

Illegal immigrants in U.S. face increased deportations
Facing political pressure, U.S. officials have increased the number of illegal immigrants they deport.
- Immigrants to take to the streets from California to New York

What price failure?
Should Olmert resign because of the Winograd report?

Support the surge
How can we reconcile the military reality with the desire by the majority of Americans to reduce troop levels in Iraq?

Why Wolfowitz should stay
The World Bank leader sees the link between poverty and misrule.

Visiting Björk's restless, impulsive, multicultural universe
Björk describes her new album, "Volta," as "techno voodoo," "pagan," "tribal" and "extroverted." Those words barely sum up an album that mingles programmed beats, free-jazz drumming, somber brass ensembles, African music, a Chinese lute and Björk's ever-volatile voice.

In Berlin, art among the ruins
Two years after real estate investors forced Dimitri Hegemann to close his legendary techno nightclub Tresor, the 52-year-old has his sights set on something even grander: A former East German power plant is not only to be the site of the new Tresor, but also an art and cultural space to rival the world's well-regarded art temples.

Testosterone rules (at the box office)
For women in Hollywood, the future does not look bright: They are nervous about the disappearance of many of the movie world's most visible female power brokers, and concerned that a box office dominated by seemingly male-oriented action films like "300" means less attention for movies that have obvious appeal to female audiences.

Will campus killings shake U.S. infatuation with violent films?
Lionsgate, a clearinghouse for some of the entertainment industry's most graphically violent fare, still plans to release on June 8 its "Hostel: Part II," about the torture killing of college students. But the film is emerging as a test of continued audience enthusiasm for such onscreen brutality.

Book Review: The Yiddish Policemen's Union
Michael Chabon's latest novel, "The Yiddish Policemen's Union," builds upon the achievement of "Kavalier & Clay," creating a completely fictional world that is as persuasively detailed as his re-creation of 1940s New York in that earlier book.