What's the Strategy Behind the Afghan Surge?

(Feb. 18) -- With so many news aggregators out there, who can keep up? AOL News filters the filters to steer you to the headlines that really matter.

Skip Those, Read This: The aggregators don't agree on the lead story of the day, each trumpeting a different bit of news. The Daily Beast looks abroad, picking up a Washington Post report that the Taliban is offering stiff resistance to the latest push by U.S. and Afghan troops. The Taliban is relying on typical asymmetric battle tactics, including mines, rocket-propelled grenades and (according to The Guardian) using women and children as human shields. The New Yorker's Steve Coll has an informative take on the strategy behind the latest surge.

Tibet Tilt: The Slatest leads with an Agence France-Presse report that the White House is rebuffing Chinese overtures, and President Barack Obama will receive the Dalai Lama in an official visit later today. On Friday, Tibet's exiled spiritual leader also will visit Secretary of State Hillary Rodham Clinton. "The Dalai Lama is a Nobel Peace Prize laureate, internationally revered religious and cultural leader, and the secretary will meet him in this capacity as recent secretaries of state have done," Clinton's spokesperson said.

Back From the Dead? The Huffington Post leads with its own analysis on the latest push by Democrats to pass health care reform, which appeared dead once Scott Brown was elected senator of Maine and Republicans got enough votes for a filibuster. Now some Democratic senators -- Sens. Amy Klobuchar, D-Minn., and Ben Cardin, D-Md., are the latest -- want Congress to begin the reconciliation process between the bills passed by the House and the Senate and include a long-forgotten public option. But nowhere does the Huffington piece say just how such a plan would overcome Republican objections. For a better analysis of the back-room dealing going on regarding health care reform, check out Jonathan Cohn's latest in The New Republic.

Catch of the Day: The Daily Beast alone picks up a Boston Globe report on the latest news about Alabama professor-murderer Amy Bishop: She had written a novel about a professor seeking tenure. In real life, Bishop is being charged with shooting six professors -- and killing three -- after her tenure bid was denied. The unpublished novel may provide insights, the Globe speculates, and quotes a passage: "She knew she was a professor, having finally achieved tenure. Her huge family sat at the table; her mother, father, her sister, Steve's parents and the children -- her many children. . . . She felt warm, happy, fulfilled, and yet she knew it was just a dream." (Turns out that Bishop is a second cousin to novelist John Irving.)

Potter Plagiarism? Speaking of novels, The Slatest picks up a Guardian report of a $1 billion suit filed against Harry Potter author J.K. Rowling, alleging she copied "substantial parts" from a 1987 book for her "Harry Potter and the Goblet of Fire." The estate of the late Adrian Jacobs -- who wrote the book, "The Adventures of Willy the Wizard," Rowling is accused of copying -- is behind the suit. "The plagiarism claims stem from both Willy and Harry being required to solve a task as part of a contest, which they achieve in a bathroom assisted by clues from helpers," The Guardian reports. Rowling denies ever having read "Willy the Wizard."

Attention Criminals: Some prosecutors are finding an inventive way of getting around statutes of limitations, according to a Raw Story report, picked up by Andrew Sullivan. They're charging DNA with crimes. "One way to make sure a criminal doesn't get away by hiding long enough is to simply charge the DNA itself, and wait until the DNA is matched to an actual person," the Raw Story reports. Though some civil rights groups are worried about the practice, the California Supreme Court has ruled it legal.