Bush Demands Release of British "hostages"
Article from the Washington Post: http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2007/03/31/AR2007033100198.html
Article from the Los Angeles Times: http://www.latimes.com/news/nationworld/world/middleeast/la-033107sailors,1,1641034.story?coll=la-middleeast
Summary: In the aftermath of a meeting with the Brazilian President, President Bush called the imprisonment of 15 British sailors as "inexcusable" and demanded the "hostages" be released at Camp David Saturday.
The lead from the Washington Post was concise and covered all the newsworthy aspects of Bush's statements, basically summarizing the president's position and giving a brief overview the sailors' capture alongside Bush's previous silence.
The following paragraphs in the Post article utilized a few telling direct quotes from the president which enhanced the flow of the article and did a good job of fleshing out the reasoning behind the president's position. The attribution also served as a nice segueway into background and context over British and Iranian manuevering over the fate of the sailors the past week.
The AP article lead was very succinct: "President Bush yesterday said Iran's capture of 15 British sailors and marines was "inexcusable" and called for Iran to "give back the hostages" immediately and unconditionally." I thought the lead was lacked some of the context of the Post article, but it still got the point across clearly and quickly.
Overall, the Post article dealt with the challenges in this issue better by delving into the background to a much greater extent, allowing the reader to attain a fuller grasp of the story while maintaining the impact of the presiden't comments.