The latest news on North Korea, Hurricane Ike, Budget Deficit, Presidential Campaign, D.C. Gun Legislation, Death Penalty, Fewer Doctors, Iraq, Afghanistan, Pakistan, Zimbabwe, Russia-Georgia, Australia, Excerpts from Bob Woodward's The War Within, and select Op-Eds.

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Budget deficit. Federal Shortfall To Double This Year "A weak economy and a sharp increase in government spending will drive the federal budget deficit to a near-record $407 billion when the budget year ends later this month, and the next president is likely to face a shortfall in January of well over $500 billion."

Presidential campaign. Campaigns Adjust Their Pace to Meet Short Season "Senators John McCain and Barack Obama are confronting a sharply abbreviated general election campaign season, the product of the late nominating conventions and a boom in early voting in tightly contested states."

D.C. gun legislation. Gun Bill Dangerous, D.C. Chief Tells House "D.C. Police Chief Cathy L. Lanier assailed a new bill yesterday that would eliminate most of the District's gun laws, telling a congressional panel that the measure would allow residents to carry loaded semiautomatic rifles in the streets, creating a nightmare scenario for homeland security officials."

Death penalty. 2 admit affair in Death Row case "A former judge and a former district attorney in Texas broke a lengthy silence and admitted under oath that they had engaged in a years-long sexual relationship, yet still presided over the trial of a man convicted of a 1989 double murder and sentenced to death, according to a reprieve request filed Tuesday."

Fewer doctors. Saddled with debt, fewer American medical students are choosing careers in primary care "Only 2 percent of graduating medical students say they plan to work in primary care internal medicine, raising worries about a looming shortage of the first-stop doctors who used to be the backbone of the American medical system."

Hurricane Ike. Hurricane Ike reigniting debate over Cuba embargo "The devastation wrought on Cuba by hurricanes Ike and Gustav, with widespread destruction of vital food crops, has renewed perennial calls to loosen the decades-old U.S. embargo. The Catholic Church, a coalition of Cuban-American aid organizations and a contingent of politicians -- including Democratic presidential candidate Barack Obama and Arizona Republican Rep. Jeff Flake -- have called on President Bush to temporarily lift restrictions on how much money Cubans here can send to families."

Iraq. US reaches 'end game' in Iraq "The United States' defense secretary has said that the country has reached 'the end game' in Iraq, while advising that troop reductions there should be undertaken with caution." Experts: Bush's Iraq withdrawal small because gains are, too "President Bush's announcement Tuesday that he'll maintain troop levels in Iraq through the end of his presidency suggests that despite his claim that the surge of additional U.S. troops in Iraq has succeeded, the security gains could be temporary, defense officials and experts said." Iraqi parliament still gridlocked over provincial-election law "Iraqi lawmakers returned from their summer recess Tuesday, still gridlocked over the critical law on provincial elections and with no new vote in sight."

North Korea. North Korean Leader Is Very Ill, U.S. Official Says "Kim Jong-il, North Korea's leader, is seriously ill and is likely to have suffered a stroke weeks ago, American officials said Tuesday, raising the prospect of a chaotic power struggle in nuclear-armed North Korea." North Korea's Kim Jong Il may be gravely ill "The lack of solid evidence about the state of Kim's health underscores how little the world knows about a country that has detonated a nuclear explosion, frequently berates and threatens its neighbors, and once again may be on the verge of famine." U.S. scrambles for N. Korean clues "While his condition is unclear - as so many things in that closed society are - they are scrambling to figure out what is actually going on there, to make contingency plans."

Afghanistan. Harper ups the Afghanistan ante "Conservative Leader Stephen Harper is vowing his government would completely withdraw Canadian troops from Afghanistan in 2011 -- a promise that goes beyond a Parliamentary motion this year which merely committed to pull soldiers out of Kandahar province."

Pakistan. In Hunt for Bin Laden, a New Approach "Frustrated by repeated dead ends in the search for Osama bin Laden, U.S. and Pakistani officials said they are questioning long-held assumptions about their strategy and are shifting tactics to intensify the use of the unmanned but lethal Predator drone spy plane in the mountains of western Pakistan."

Zimbabwe. Hope for power-sharing talks in Zimbabwe "President Mugabe and Zimbabwe's opposition leader said that there had been progress in power-sharing talks, with the Government indicating that an agreement could be reached today." Hopes grow for deal on Zimbabwe "Zimbabwean President Robert Mugabe and opposition leader Morgan Tsvangirai have resumed talks in Harare, amid growing hopes of a power-sharing deal." Zimbabwe bloggers shine a light on their troubled country "With most of Zimbabwe's independent newspapers shut down by President Robert Mugabe's authoritarian regime, bloggers and cyberactivists fill the vacuum."

Russia-Georgia. U.S. still weighing stronger action against Russia, officials say "But the officials also acknowledged in Senate testimony that the administration was still debating whether to take stronger action against Russia for its incursion into the Caucasus nation last month, focusing for now on the shorter-term goal of getting Russian troops to leave Georgia proper." Russians hail Georgia deal as big win "Russian experts are hailing this week's new deal to withdraw Russian troops from Georgia as a big diplomatic win for fledgling Kremlin leader Dmitry Medvedev."

Australia. Australian PM fears regional arms race "Food and water shortages caused by global warming could lead to military conflict among the Asia-Pacific's emerging superpowers such as China and India, the Australian prime minister, Kevin Rudd, warned today. Australia needed to strengthen its armed forces in response to an 'explosion' in defense spending in Asia, he said."

Feature. Excerpts from Bob Woodward's The War Within, "the inside story of how President Bush's team dealt with its failing Iraq strategy."

Part 1 - Doubt, Distrust, Delay

Part 2 - Outmaneuvered and Outranked, Military Chiefs Became Outsiders

Part 3 - 'You're Not Accountable, Jack'

Part 4 - A Man Defined by His Wars

Editorials. City in the Crossfire (Washington Post) " Few would have predicted in the awful days after Sept. 11, 2001, that just seven years later, members of Congress would actually be considering legislation to make the nation's capital harder to protect. That, though, is exactly what will happen today as a key House committee takes up a bill that would gut sensible restraints on guns in the District." Meaner Streets in Washington (New York Times) "Congress is considering a reckless piece of legislation that would eviscerate gun controls in the District of Columbia, ignoring the democratic rights of the residents of the nation's capital and making it harder for the police to protect streets traveled by ordinary people, lawmakers, judges, diplomats and dignitaries." Preaching politics (Columbus Dispatch Politics.com) "The idea behind a 1954 IRS rule that bars tax-exempt organizations from direct involvement in partisan politics couldn't be clearer: Tax exemption is a privilege for those organizations whose work benefits society and is nonpartisan. It preserves the resources of these groups for the good works they do, and that includes churches."