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President Bush's use of bill signing statements has led to several instances where provisions of laws have been ignored in favor of the Bush administration's interpretation, according to a report released Monday by the US Government Accountability Office. http://jurist.law.pitt.edu/paperchase/2007/06/bush-signing-statements-leading-to.php

Iraq now ranks as the world's second most unstable country, ahead of war-ravaged or poverty-stricken nations such as Somalia, Zimbabwe, Ivory Coast, Congo, Afghanistan, Haiti and North Korea, according to the 2007 Failed States Index, issued yesterday by the Fund for Peace and Foreign Policy magazine. Despite billions of dollars in foreign aid and the presence of more than 150,000 U.S. troops, Iraq has declined steadily over the past three years, according to the index. It ranked fourth last year, but its score dropped in almost all of the 12 political, economic, security and social indicators on which the index is based. http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2007/06/18/AR2007061800568.html?hpid=topnews

The U.S. military deployed 10,000 soldiers backed by attack helicopters in a big offensive against al-Qaida north of Baghdad on Tuesday as a truck bomber struck in the capital, killing 75 people near a Shiite mosque. The troops, under cover of attack helicopters, killed at least 22 insurgents in the offensive, the U.S. military said. http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/19301194/

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The Army two-star general who led the first investigation into detainee abuse at the Abu Ghraib prison in Iraq believes that senior defense officials were involved in directing abusive interrogation policies and said that he was forced to retire early because of his pursuit of the issue, says an article to be published in the New Yorker magazine. Maj. Gen. Antonio M. Taguba said that he felt mocked and shunned by top Pentagon officials, including then-Defense Secretary Donald H. Rumsfeld after filing an exhaustive report on the now-notorious Abu Ghraib abuse that sparked international outrage and led to an overhaul of the U.S. interrogation and detention policies. http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2007/06/16/AR2007061601074.html

Larry Seidlin, the wisecracking judge who presided in the dispute over Anna Nicole Smith's remains and was lampooned for his sobbing announcement of the verdict, will resign next month, a court spokesman said Tuesday. The circuit judge's letter to Gov. Charlie Crist says, "it is now time for me to devote more of my daily life to my own young family and to pursue the many opportunities that have been offered to me outside the judicial system and I have disregarded until now." http://seattlepi.nwsource.com/artandlife/1404AP_Anna_Nicole_Smith_Judge.html