Top Stories - The Christian Science Monitor

Washington - Adm. Mike Mullen, the nation's top military officer, told marines Monday that they have at most two years to turn around the faltering mission in Afghanistana pep talk aimed at preparing them for the coming surge. Full Story »

Washington - These tough economic times may have at least one positive side effect: they might be encouraging greater family solidarity. Full Story »

Washington - The US Supreme Court on Monday agreed to take up a case testing the limits of religious freedom and association when those rights clash with a college's policy of nondiscrimination against gays and lesbians. Full Story »

There's political speech, commercial speech, and of course good old free speech. In Cary, N.C., there's also "house speech." Full Story »

Washington - Turkish Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdogan told President Obama Monday that the issue of Iran's nuclear program can be solved only through diplomacy – just as the Obama administration and other international powers are beginning to lose patience with Iran. Full Story »

Baghdad - Iraq's fractious Parliament agreed to a compromise paving the way for legislative elections early next year after an 11th-hour phone call from President Obama to a top Kurdish leader removed remaining objections to a deal. Full Story »

La Paz, Bolivia; and Cochrane, Chile - Bolivian President Evo Morales easily won his second five-year term Sunday night, solidifying the revolution he promises to bring to the country's long-oppressed indigenous majority. Full Story »

Copenhagen - Delegates left the Bali climate change talks in December 2007 with high hopes that a grand bargain on reducing greenhouse gas emissions would be secured by now. Full Story »

Washington - How did the Japanese do it? That question remains 68 years after the attack on Pearl Harbor, a day that spawned some of the greatest unanswered questions of US military history. Full Story »

Washington - The US Supreme Court has agreed to hear three cases in its current term examining a controversial federal statute that makes it a crime "to deprive another of the intangible right of honest services." Full Story »