WASHINGTON — A must-pass spending bill to pay for the rising costs of the war in Iraq and for additional hurricane aid for the storm-ravaged northern coast of the Gulf of Mexico Coast is debuting on the Senate floor to poor reviews from conservatives over its massive cost.

BAGHDAD (Reuters) — Al Qaeda leader in Iraq Abu Mussab Zarqawi said in a rare video on Tuesday his mujahedeen were fighting on in the three-year-old war against the “crusader enemy” and America was behind efforts to form a new government.

Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas said Tuesday that clashes between activists loyal to the Hamas movement and his more moderate Fateh group were of concern, but added that he would “never let a civil war occur.” Abbas spoke amid rising tensions between Hamas, which won Palestinian parliamentary elections, and his own …