• Debate moderator Tim Russert prods Republican senator George Allen and his war-critic challenger, Jim Webb on issues of character: Why, as governor, did Allen display the confederate flag and a noose in his office? What did Webb mean in 1979, when he called the Naval Academy "a horny woman's dream?"

• Pope's new apology questionably apologetic. In Somalia, Islamic militants shoot a nun.
• And the big winners of Germany's elections are … Berlin's openly gay mayor, East Germany's openly xenophobic neo-nazi party.
• A shift in the wind? Republicans closing slightly in pre-midterm-election polling.

[With Rolling Stone]