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In a recent study, Bartolo Luque and Lucas Lacasa of the Universidad Politécnica de Madrid in Spain have discovered a new pattern in primes that has surprisingly gone unnoticed until now. They found that the distribution of the leading digit in the prime number sequence can be described by a generalization of Benford’s law. In addition, this same pattern also appears in another number sequence, that of the leading digits of nontrivial Riemann zeta zeros, which is known to be related to the distribution of primes. Besides providing insight into the nature of primes, the finding could also have applications...

France calls for new Iraq prime minister By Peter Allen in Paris Last Updated: 1:16am BST 27/08/2007 France's foreign minister risked fracturing his country's new relationship with America yesterday, by calling for Nouri al-Maliki, the Iraqi prime minister, to be replaced. Nouri al-Maliki, the Iraqi prime minister In an interview published in the American magazine Newsweek, Bernard Kouchner, who visited Baghdad last week, said: "I just had (Condoleezza Rice, the US Secretary of State) on the phone 10 or 15 minutes ago, and I told her, 'Listen, he's got to be replaced'. "Many people believe the prime minister ought to...

What with last year's Miss USA, Tara Reid, and all the hoopla around that winner's almost demise, I just had to tune in for this year's Miss USA pageant. I must say that Trump has overhauled the matronly concept of a beauty pageant without going into sleaze. It's hip, happening, and we've got lots of pics you'll see nowhere else on the Internet. Also, a review of the movie "PRIME" starring Meryl Streep. It's got a clever and laughable plot yet Streep brings an element of fine acting to this tale of a Psychologist whose patient is having an affair...

Extreme-right party gains shock prime minister Associated Press in Brussels Monday October 9, 2006 The Guardian (UK) The Belgian prime minister, Guy Verhofstadt, said he had work to do to lure voters back to his national coalition after local elections produced large gains for the extreme-right party Flemish Interest and dealt a blow to his re-election prospects next year. Mr Verhofstadt's Liberal Democrats lost votes mostly at the expense of Flemish Interest and the Christian Democrats. The extreme-right party, which ran on an anti-immigrant platform, has been kept in opposition in Antwerp by an unlikely rainbow coalition whose only common...

WASHINGTON, Oct. 3, 2006 – Senior U.S. officials in Iraq are calling a four-point plan released yesterday by Iraqi Prime Minister Nouri al-Maliki to halt sectarian violence “a significant step in the right direction.” Maliki’s plan, released yesterday, aims at uniting Shiite and Sunni parties to reduce and ultimately stop growing sectarian violence that threatens Iraq. “This … shows that the Iraqi leaders want their country to succeed and are responding to the wishes of their people for security,” said U.S. Ambassador to Iraq Zalmay Khalilzad and Army Gen. George W. Casey, commander of Multinational Force Iraq, in a statement...

Defence Secretary Des Browne chats to British troops during a visit to Iraq in May 2006. The Iraqis have passed yet another major milestone with the hand over of Dhi Qar province last week. It is the second province - Al Muthanna being the first - to be handed over to Iraqi control. UK Defence Secretary Des Browne congratulated the Iraqi people, saying, “I am pleased that Dhi Qar province in southern Iraq is today being handed over to Iraqi control. I congratulate the Iraqis on this achievement, along with our Italian and Romanian partners, whose hard work has...

UN sources report that in unofficial discussions Russia agrees to support US-French version of ceasefire in Lebanon. Resolution expected to pass Tuesday. Washington outraged at Siniora, who withdrew his support under pressure from Iranians and Syrians WASHINGTON - The French-American resolution for a cessation of hostile activities in Lebanon overcame a significant hurdle Monday. In unofficial discussions that were held between the ambassadors of the five Security Council members, each of whom has veto power, Russia agreed to support the proposal. The practical implication of this is that, together with the Chinese and the British, there will be no veto....

Cabinet Secretary Shinzo Abe has widened his lead over former top government spokesman Yasuo Fukuda as the voters' preferred candidate to succeed Junichiro Koizumi as prime minister, according to a Kyodo News survey. Nearly half, or 48.1 percent, of those who responded to a nationwide telephone survey favored Abe, up 2.5 percentage points from a survey conducted last month. Fukuda lost 1.9 points and had a support rate of 22.4 percent. He now trails Abe by 25.7 points. Analysts believe Abe's increased media exposure, particularly following the recent missile tests by North Korea, has worked to his advantage, while support...

Israeli aircraft attacked the office of Palestinian Prime Minister Ismail Haniyeh of Hamas in Gaza City early Sunday, witnesses said, setting the building on fire. There were no immediate reports of casualties. The Israeli army had no comment. Witnesses said two missiles hit the south side of the building, setting it ablaze. Because of the late hour - 1:45 a.m., the building was empty, they said. On Thursday, Israeli planes attacked the Interior Ministry, part of Israel's campaign to force release of a soldier abducted by Palestinian militants last Sunday.

Japanese Prime Minister Junichiro Koizumi has visited the home of his musical hero, Elvis Presley, as a guest of US President George W Bush. The Japanese PM showed off his Elvis impression Mr Koizumi burst into song with a few bars of "Love Me Tender" in the Jungle Room of Graceland on a private tour led by the singer's ex-wife. The tour is being widely seen as Mr Bush's thank-you to a loyal ally who is due to step down in September. The visit follows talks that focused on N Korea and beef imports on Thursday. Serenade To the strains...

WASHINGTON, June 27, 2006 – The national reconciliation and dialogue plan announced June 25 by Iraqi Prime Minister Nouri al-Maliki is the beginning of a healing process for the country of Iraq and its people, a Multinational Force Iraq spokesman said today. "The prime minister launched a process by which all Iraqis can heal, the nation can mend, and the future can be written in the hearts and minds of the Iraqi people," Army Maj. Gen. Bill Caldwell said in a news conference from Iraq. Maliki's initiative includes all Iraqi citizens and is based in economic policies that foster opportunity...

"I hope that isn't the White House telling me they don't agree with that," quipped the Prime Minister when a mobile phone rang in the middle of the speech he gave at Georgetown University in Washington on Friday. "They act very quickly these guys… " His joke betrayed the nature of the "special relationship": the Bush administration tells Mr Blair what it wants, and Mr Blair does his best to provide it. That appears to extend even to changing the text of the Prime Minister's keynote speeches. In accordance with the usual protocol, the George-town address was discussed with members...

ITALY'S prime minister, Silvio Berlusconi, finally handed in his resignation yesterday, ending weeks of political uncertainty and opening the way for centre-left leader Romano Prodi to form a new government. Mr Berlusconi had contested his rival's wafer-thin victory in the polls three weeks ago but was forced to concede after MPs elected centre-left speakers for parliament, allowing Mr Prodi to control the assembly with his slim majority. To rub salt into his wounds, Mr Berlusconi had to personally give notice of his resignation to the Communist who is the new leader of the lower house. "They'll miss us - we...

LONDON (AFX) - The West must send a 'strong signal' to Iran's leadership that it will not tolerate defiance over calls to suspend its nuclear programme, said Prime Minister Tony Blair. Speaking as oil prices soar over fears of a military confrontation with Iran, Blair said now was not the time to show 'weakness'. However, Blair repeated his assertion last week that 'Iran is not Iraq', and added that 'nobody is talking about military invasion'. 'People do however, want to send a very strong signal to Iran because...Iran is supporting terrorism in the region to the detriment of democratic governments,...

BAGHDAD, Iraq - Bowing to intense pressure, Prime Minister Ibrahim al-Jaafari agreed Thursday to allow Shiite lawmakers to find someone else to head the new government, abandoning his claim on another term in the face of Sunni and Kurdish opposition.

In their search for patterns, mathematicians have uncovered unlikely connections between prime numbers and quantum physics. Will the subatomic world help reveal the elusive nature of the primes?In 1972, the physicist Freeman Dyson wrote an article called "Missed Opportunities." In it, he describes how relativity could have been discovered many years before Einstein announced his findings if mathematicians in places like Göttingen had spoken to physicists who were poring over Maxwell's equations describing electromagnetism. The ingredients were there in 1865 to make the breakthrough—only announced by Einstein some 40 years later. It is striking that Dyson should have written about...

Abdullah Badawi, Malaysia's prime minister, "says a huge chasm has opened between the West and Islam, fuelled by Muslim frustrations over Western foreign policy," according to the BBC, in a story about the Mohammed caricatures. The Beeb claims that Abdullah is "promoting a moderate form of Islam," but his anti-democratic actions prove otherwise. Au contraire, Mr. Abdullah, it is your seething, Muslim masses that are the cause of this "chasm." Again, the BBC: As he spoke at a conference in Kuala Lumpur, thousands protested outside at Western cartoons of Prophet Muhammad. ... "Long live Islam. Destroy Denmark. Destroy Israel. Destroy...

Thailand's prime minister is trying to ferret out a government minister who allegedly had a penis enlargement operation, saying news of it is affecting the Cabinet's reputation, a news report said on Wednesday. "Who did it? Tell me," Prime Minister Thaksin Shinawatra asked his ministers at Tuesday's Cabinet meeting, triggering a round of banter and causing some to squirm in their chairs, The Nation newspaper said. Last week, a woman -- being sued for defamation by a clinic after she claimed it gave her

President Ronald Reagan loved to rail against Congress' pork-barrel spending. But critics say that didn't stop Congress from earmarking $2.3 million for landscaping on the freeway that bears his name, one item among the $24 billion worth of special projects tacked onto the transportation bill signed Wednesday by President Bush. Sen. John McCain, R-Ariz., who opposed the bill with four other senators, said the amount directed to special projects was "egregious." And he singled out Simi Valley's long-awaited landscaping project along Highway 118. "I wonder what Ronald Reagan would say?" McCain asked about the fiscally conservative president. In the city...

In a confidential report, Young Muslims and Extremism, prepared jointly by the Home and Foreign offices in mid-2004 and presented to Prime Minister Tony Blair, we learn something about the inner thinking of the British government. Leaked to the Sunday Times of London, the report is now available in four parts in .pdf format at the newspaper's site.Its goal is "to encourage moderate Muslim opinion to the detriment of extremism" and to that end proposes an "Operation Contest." Along the way, it contains much of interest in it, including these points: "A number of extremist groups are actively recruiting young...

Six decades ago, a 21-year-old Navy fighter pilot on a mission over the Pacific was shot down by Japanese artillery. His name might have been forgotten, were it not for 6-year-old James Leininger. Quite a few people — including those who knew the fighter pilot — think James is the pilot, reincarnated. James' parents, Andrea and Bruce, a highly educated, modern couple, say they are "probably the people least likely to have a scenario like this pop up in their lives." But over time, they have become convinced their little son has had a former life. From an early age,...

ROME, July 1 - Prime Minister Silvio Berlusconi demanded to day that the United States show "full respect" for Italian sovereignty, after summoning the American ambassador to explain the reported abduction of a Muslim cleric by officers and operatives of the Central Intelligence Agency . . . There have been growing calls from the opposition, as well as some members of the governing majority, for clarification of the relationship between the United States and Italy.

(sung to the tune of Waltzing Matilda) Crossing Belinda, crossing Belinda You’ll go-acrossing Belinda to me And we’ll pay you off with a feeding at the trough If you’ll go-acrossing Belinda to me. Belinda Stronach’s crossing the floor to the Liberals comes as no surprise to me, as I have long held the view that ‘Crossing Belinda’ was a Liberal time bomb in the Conservative Party. To call her an "opportunist" is to understate her commitment to herself. Let’s just say that Belinda has taken advantage of an opportunity that could ultimately put her into the prime minister’s office. Belinda’s...

Four years ago, Canadian Steamship Lines International, a subsidiary of the Prime Minister Paul Martin-blind trust Canada Steamship Lines, entered into a deal with Shanghai-based Jiangnan Shipyard to build two bulk cargo vessels--at $45-million per ship. CSL has moved shipbuilding from Canada and the West to Communist China. The two Chinese-built bulk cargo vessels are not the first ships built for CSL in the Orient. The Sheila Ann, a bulk carrier named after Martin’s wife, was built in China in 1999. In spite of its name, the Sheila Ann may never have come to public attention. But a few days...

It's official, Team Martin has become Team Corruption. In February of 2004 Martin appeared on a CBC radio call in show and stated, "The Liberal party is not corrupt. Every single Liberal across the country wants to find the answer to this. Every single Liberal across this country is sick about this." Given Martin's recent national confession it seems they were only sick about getting caught. In his pre-recorded address on Tuesday the Prime Minister said: 'There are people who think I was wrong to call this inquiry, wrong to expose my government to the political cost of the scrutiny...

The former chairman of the Prime Minister Paul Martin-owned company that accepted $1 million from Saddam Hussein, worked with Martin at the Paul Desmarais-owned Power Corporation. William Turner was chairman of Cordex Petroleums Inc., an oil and gas exploration and production company based in Alberta with an American subsidiary in Denver, Colo. Listed among Martin’s Public Declaration of Declarable Assets submitted to the Federal Ethics Committee are his 100 percent ownership of both Canada Steamship Lines and Canada Steamship Lines Group Inc., which owns 4.6 percent of Cordex Petroleums Inc. Martin’s mentor and senior aide to UN Secretary Kofi Annan...

The Canadian company that Saddam Hussein invested a million dollars in belonged to the Prime Minister of Canada, canadafreepress.com has discovered. Cordex Petroleum Inc., launched with Saddam’s million by Prime Minister Paul Martin’s mentor Maurice Strong’s son Fred Strong, is listed among Martin’s assets to the Federal Ethics committee on November 4, 2003. Among Martin’s Public Declaration of Declarable Assets are: "The Canada Steamship Lines Group Inc. (Montreal, Canada) 100 percent owned"; "Canada Steamship Lines Inc. (Montreal, Canada) 100 percent owned"–Cordex Petroleums Inc. (Alberta, Canada) 4.6 percent owned by the CSL Group Inc." Yesterday, Strong admitted that Tongsun Park, the...

On March 23, Paul Martin will be in Texas to meet with President George W. Bush and President Vincente Fox of Mexico. It appears that Martin will at least get to visit Bush’s Crawford Texas ranch; something that was always denied to his predecessor. When Martin recently went to China he was criticized by some Canadians for not criticizing that country’s human rights practices. While trying to deflect the criticism away from him and onto Conservative Party MP Jason Kenney, Martin countered that he indeed did discuss human rights with Chinese leaders. There is no doubt that Martin did what...

INTERNATIONAL furor over Giuliana Sgrena, an Italian Communist writer who claims American troops in Iraq may have deliberately shot at her car after she was released by kidnappers, misses the bigger scandal. The scandal is not that an anti-war propagandist has accused the U.S. of targeting journalists. That’s par for the course. (Yes, hello again, Eason Jordan.) The scandal is not that mainstream media sympathizers are blaming our military and dredging up every last shooting accident along the treacherous routes to Baghdad Airport. Again, no surprise here. The scandal is that Italy — our reputed ally in the global War...

ROME Mar 10, 2005 — Disputing Washington's version of events, Italy's premier said that an Italian intelligence agent who was shot to death by U.S. troops in Baghdad had informed the proper authorities that he was heading to the airport with a freed hostage. Prime Minister Silvio Berlusconi also told lawmakers that the car carrying agent Nicola Calipari and a just-liberated hostage was traveling slowly and stopped immediately when a light was flashed at a checkpoint, before U.S. troops fired on the car. Though the U.S. and Italian versions of what happened Friday do not match up, "I'm sure that...

If Defense Minister Bill Graham wasn’t so arrogant and condescending, you could almost feel sorry for him. For years, both as Minister of Defense and Minister of Foreign Affairs, Graham was the government’s perennial fence sitter; sitting on high, looking down on the little people below and refusing to take a position, one way or the other. Then one day Graham, with a might leap, jumped down from his fence and took a stand. Unfortunately, although he landed on squarely on his feet, he ended up on the wrong side of the fence. The guy who is reluctant to change...

Sharon Avoids Charges in Funding Case; Son Indicted 1 hour, 38 minutes ago By Megan Goldin JERUSALEM (Reuters) - Israel's attorney general decided not to file charges against Prime Minister Ariel Sharon in a campaign funding scandal but indicted his son on Thursday, the Justice Ministry said. Attorney General Menachem Mazuz closed a three-year investigation of Sharon, saying there was insufficient evidence of involvement in setting up shell companies to funnel foreign donations to his 1999 primary campaign. Foreign funding of political campaigns is illegal in Israel. An indictment of Sharon could have jeopardised his "disengagement" plan after parliament on...

It was a busy day in Beirut, Damascus, and Tehran today. Some Lebanese buried a former prime minister in Beirut. Simultaneously in Damascus and Tehran, the capitals of the two countries most likely responsible for killing former Lebanese prime minister Rafik Hariri, dictators announced they would support each other in the war against democracy. In today’s events we find – above all – grave contradictions, but also truths, lies, and deep sadness. But something good is developing out of the sadness, lies, truths, and contradictions. The day started with “breaking news” from Iranian state television. The network claimed that an...

Move over Teresa Heinz-Kerry, here comes Canadian Prime Minister Paul Martin. Lansdowne Technologies Inc. (LTI), the Paul Martin corporation that somehow disappeared from Martin's public disclosure statements circa 1995, is in a business similar to the Heinz-Kerry charitable organization that links leftwing activists and UN radicals to specially designed Internet communications and virtual private networks. Between the woman who coveted being America's First Lady and the Prime Minister of the country next door, top advocates of One World Government are being expedited in droves onto the Information Highway. Through the Tides Foundation, back in the early 1990s Heinz-Kerry (Mrs. John...

We read that "Prime Minister" Mahmoud Abbas is running in the elections on Sunday to succeed Yasser Arafat as "president" of "Palestine."Excuse me, but prime minister, according to the Encyclopedia Britannica, means the "head of the executive branch of government in states with a parliamentary system." Despite tens of thousands of references to Mr. Abbas as prime minister, he in not a single way fits this description.Oh, and there is also the matter of there being no country called Palestine. Arab maps show it in place of Israel. The U.N. recognizes its existence. So too do certain telephone companies –...

Parroting the line that China’s economy will soon surpass that of the United States of America, Canada Prime Minister Paul Martin will position his country closer to China. Martin does not have a crystal ball, nor does aligning Canada to China even originate from his own vision. Martin is parroting the line of his long-time mentor Kyoto architect Maurice Strong. Expecting to spend more than 50 percent of his time on Chinese projects, Strong at age 73, was apartment hunting in Beijing last January. Now that China is destined to replace the USA as economic leader, it is Strong’s avowed...

Throughout the 1990s, Turkish foreign policy analysts had an easy job. After all, Turkish foreign policy was predictable. Ankara cooperated enthusiastically with Washington, whether in the Middle East or in the Balkans. Turkey aligned itself with Israel and kept at arms length from Middle Eastern neighbors such as Syria and Iran. In Europe, Ankara traded heavily with the European Union (EU) but did not allow the EU to dictate foreign policy. The European Union's frequent allegations and criticism of human rights abuses in Turkey, especially with regard to Turkey's fight against Kurdistan Workers Party (PKK, Partiya Karkaren Kurdistan) terrorists, soured...

The purpose of FreeRepublic.com's multiple message boards is to limit the topics for each board to particular topics. Posting the same message on all the boards defeats the purpose of multiple-boards for special topics. It is very annoying to see the same message on every bulletin board. PLEASE! DO THE READERS A FAVOR. STOP CROSS-POSTING YOUR MESSAGES!

I’d love to have a talk about the current situation in the Ukraine with my left-wing friends, but I don’t think they would be interested, and probably not even capable of an intelligent discussion. Not only is the Ukraine so far off and seemingly unimportant to them, the intricacies of its politics defy the usual “left” vs. “right” stereotypes. I truly believe that many long-time lefties pine for the days of the Soviet Union. It gave them a glimmer of hope for world-wide socialism in their otherwise very comfortable, cushy, American lives. Too much guilt about living in the midst...

Nearly four years have elapsed since the Oslo process (1993-2000) between Israelis and Palestinians foundered in bloodshed. Over that period, two U.S. administrations have tried to forge policies that would reduce the violence and point toward a solution to the conflict.It has not been a single-minded pursuit. Since September 11, 2001, the prime focus of Washington has been the management of unprecedented U.S. military interventions in the region, which removed regimes from power in Afghanistan and Iraq. The notion of Israeli-Palestinian peace as the key to regional stability has been replaced by the war on terror and the insistence on...

The pundits are already prognosticating about last night’s presidential debates. Many say John Kerry “won,” but that’s not yet entirely clear. Am I the only person who noticed Kerry’s constant smirking, nodding, head-shaking, and general smugness while the President answered questions? Didn’t anyone else notice Jim Lehrer’s loaded questions directed at President Bush? Maybe Kerry scored a few points for debating, but he certainly didn’t win the November election early. A CNN/USA Today/Gallup poll of 615 registered voters who viewed the debate showed that Kerry “fared better” than Bush, but also revealed that those same voters still preferred President Bush...

AS British civil engineer Kenneth Bigley sat blindfolded and begging for his life at a terrorist compound somewhere in Iraq on Monday, his Prime Minister, Tony Blair, was celebrating the launch of a high-speed tilting train service in central London. Standing on a platform at Euston station, smiling for the cameras beside Virgin boss Richard Branson, Mr Blair showed no outward sign of the dilemma that surely simmered inside him. Faced with perhaps the most difficult moral decision imaginable for a politician, Mr Blair is aware he is the only man on Earth who can save Mr Bigley's life. Painfully,...

US President George W. Bush (right) with Indian Prime Minister Manmohan Singh in New York Time is GMT + 8 hours Posted: 22 September 2004 1307 hrs Singh-Musharraf summit could speed up South Asian peace process NEW DELHI : The first summit between India's new prime minister and Pakistan's president could give an impetus to the nations' slow-moving peace process but a solution on Kashmir remains distant, analysts say. Manmohan Singh, who became prime minister in May after his left-leaning coalition's shock election victory, is to meet President Pervez Musharraf Friday on the sidelines of the United Nations General...

Jailed Assassin 'Weds' Using Loophole Fri Sep 3,10:25 AM ET By Dan Williams JERUSALEM (Reuters) - Defying a life prison term in isolation, Israeli Prime Minister Yitzhak Rabin's assassin has secretly married by proxy, his bride said Friday. Larisa Trimbobler said she hoped her in-absentia wedding to Yigal Amir last month would help overturn a court ban on conjugal visits for the ultranationalist who shot Rabin at a 1995 rally in a bid to block peace deals with the Palestinians. Jewish law requires that two men witness a bride receiving her ring and marriage contract from the groom. According to...

So where is Muqtada al-Sadr and his Mehdi Army now? After taking serious losses against American and Iraqi forces and cynically hiding behind Shiite Islam’s most holy shrine in Najaf, these cowards have melted back into Iraqi society. Or have they? There are many questions to be answered regarding al-Sadr’s future, as he most certainly will oppose the growth of democracy in Iraq. Will al-Sadr and his thugs be held accountable for the violent crimes they committed in Najaf? During their reign of terror, they apparently held a kangaroo court. After Iraq’s top Shiite, Ayatollah Ali Sistani, pressured al-Sadr to...

Dutch Center-Right Coalition Stands up to Islamism By Andrew L. Jaffee, July 22, 2004 Home   Search   Forum   Terms Dutch Prime Minister Jan Peter Balkenende and his center-right coalition are standing up to Islamism, the true enemy of all civilized nations in the 21st century. Balkenende said Muslim groups “were sowing hatred, and [he] promised new anti-terror measures” in a speech to the European Parliament yesterday. On February 18 of this year, Dutch lawmakers promised to expel approximately 26,000 asylum seekers after digesting a parliamentary report which concluded … that the country's 30-year experiment in tolerant multiculturalism had been a failure, and has...

Iraqi prime minister wants to bring elections forward By Jack Fairweather in Baghdad (Filed: 24/06/2004) Iraq's elections should be brought forward by several months, the country's interim prime minister told The Telegraph yesterday. Dr Iyad Allawi said the vote should be held by the end of the year, or even earlier. "We are working on a framework of six months," he said. Iyad Allawi: working on a 'framework of six months' "Personally, I would bring the election date sooner. That depends on the situation we find ourselves in." Dr Allawi, a neurosurgeon who developed links to MI6 and the CIA...

The United States has warmly endorsed a decision by the Iraqi Governing Council to select a longtime exile with strong ties to the CIA to be the new prime minister of Iraq's interim government despite U.N. concerns over his past links.Friday's selection of Iyad Allawi _ a Shiite Muslim council member who headed an exile group made up of former Saddam Hussein military officers _ was an assertion of influence by the U.S.-picked body as the June 30 date for the return of Iraqi sovereignty draws near."He is certainly a fine and capable leader who appears to have broad support...

Some are unhappy that the U.N. was bypassed in the selection of a Shiite physician to head the interim government. BY ROBERT MORAN AND RON HUTCHESON Knight Ridder Newspapers BAGHDAD, Iraq - Iyad Allawi, a Shiite doctor who survived an assassination attempt by agents of Saddam Hussein and later tried to overthrow the former dictator, was tapped Friday to be the new prime minister of the Iraqi interim government. Allawi, a neurologist by training, will be the top official in the transitional government when it begins functioning with the transfer of sovereignty on June 30. Elections for a permanent government...

The American media throws a temper tantrum after President George W. Bush's prime time news conference.