Free Republic

Well, they may be Little Englanders, but they're getting bigger, and the big parties are getting littler. In Sunday's results, the only two governing parties most Britons have ever known couldn't muster 50 per cent of the vote between them. In a functioning party system, you're never going to agree with your party on everything. You might, for example, be opposed to wind farms or in favour of toppling Robert Mugabe. But, even if you are, it's unlikely to be the big political priority in your life. So you vote on the economy and Iraq and healthcare, and accept there'll...

US soldiers backed by tanks and armoured fighting vehicles today seized control of the governor's office from Shiite militiamen in the holy city of Najaf. Heavy shooting could be heard and plumes of smoke rose over the city. Soldiers moved into the area in four directions to take control of the building. There appeared to be few if any militiamen in the building, which was taken without a fight. Afterward, however, gunfire could be heard, and US helicopters were seen flying low over parts of the city. US forces on Monday launched their biggest assault yet against militiamen loyal to...

India's technology industry has attacked proposed new US legislation that bans the outsourcing of federal work to low cost countries arguing it is a protectionist measure contrary to the spirit of free trade. The move by the US Senate coincides with decisions by a number of foreign companies to halt further outsourcing to India because of a new domestic tax ruling that would enable the Indian government to tax part of their worldwide earnings. The US bill, which was passed by the Senate of Friday but has still to be signed by President George W. Bush before it becomes law,...

IRAQI security guards at the UN's Baghdad headquarters aided the plotters of the suicide truck bombing which killed at least 23 people, a UN official said today. The scene of devastation at the UN's Baghdad HQ. "They clearly had support from Iraqi security guards inside who gave intelligence to the planners of the attack," the official said on condition of anonymity. "It was a well-prepared attack. The target was Sergio Vieira de Mello, that much is clear," he said, referring to the top UN envoy in Iraq killed in Tuesday's bombing. "They knew where Vieira de Mello's office was and...

WASHINGTON -- Former international weapons inspector David Kay, now seeking Iraqi weapons of mass destruction for the Pentagon, has privately reported successes that are planned to be revealed to the public in mid-September. Kay has told his superiors he has found substantial evidence of biological weapons in Iraq, plus considerable missile development. He has been less successful in locating chemical weapons, and has not yet begun a substantial effort to locate progress toward nuclear arms. Senior officials in the Bush administration believe Kay's weapons discoveries should have been revealed as they were made. However, a decision, approved by President Bush,...

Robert Mugabe will relinquish his leadership of Zimbabwe's ruling party by December, paving the way for his exit as President and new elections by June 2004, the South African President Thabo Mbeki has told George Bush.

How many times can the media cry wolf before people stop listening?

France's exhaustion with its unions has found its voice in a 21-year-old student, Sabine Herold, who is challenging the silent majority to revolt against the strikes crippling her country ... In the middle of the Iraq war, she and her friends demonstrated outside the American embassy in support of military action, a bold step considering the overwhelming opposition to the war in France. "There is a systemic opposition to America in France," she said yesterday.

Thought police in American schools and rotten history textbooks are as great a threat to American freedoms as al Qaeda terrorists, Pulitzer Prize-winning presidential biographer David McCullough said yesterday. "Something's eating away at the national memory, and a nation or a community or a society can suffer as much from the adverse effects of amnesia as can an individual," Mr. McCullough, who wrote the best-selling biography of the United States' second president, John Adams, told The Washington Times. "I mean, it's really bad."

Tam Dalyell, Labour's most senior MP, faces being referred to the Commission for Racial Equality over remarks he made to an American magazine which suggested Tony Blair was unduly influenced by Jewish figures in his inner circle.

A fresh Anglo-French row has broken out over plans to allow the French government limited access to details of the new £2.8bn British aircraft carrier. link: http://news.ft.com/servlet/ContentServer?pagename=FT.com/StoryFT/FullStory&c=StoryFT&cid=1048313804047&p=1012571727102

<p>IRBIL, Northern Iraq--It is hard to imagine another place where Americans are more popular these days. "We like the son of 'Haji Bush,' because he will fight Saddam for us," a young Kurdish driver tells me plain and simple. Others--young and old, Kurdish or Turkmen, shopkeepers and politicians--echo similar sentiments about ending the reign of brutality in Baghdad.</p>

75 Foreigners Kept Hostages in the Moscow Theatre Deputy Director of the FSB Center for Public Relations, 75 foreigners are kept hostages by the terrorists who attacked the theatre in Moscow. These are 4 people from the USA, from Germany – 7, Netherlands – 2, Austria – 2, Ukraine – 23, Turkey – 3, Azerbaijan – 5, Latvia – 3, Great Britain – 3, Canada – 1, Bulgaria – 1, Hungary – 3, Georgia – 1, Moldova – 1 and from Kazakhstan – 1. By this moment, 37 hostages from foreign countries have been already released.

It’s been recently reported that famous political scientist with the Eurasia Group, Joseph Goldberg, commented on the hostage situation in the Russian capital. He says that as a result of the hostage-taking in the Moscow theatre, the George W. Bush administration “is highly likely” to include the Chechen terrorist groups operating on the Russia territory on the list of international terrorist organizations compiled by the US Department of State. RIA Novosti informs, Goldberg thinks that the terrible hostage-taking in Moscow will finally make for the realization of Russia’s demand to include Chechen terrorist groups on the list of international terrorist...