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Hillary Clinton, the US Secretary of State, has been left red faced after mistakenly sending a birthday message to the Queen a week early. An official statement from the US foreign policy chief paid tribute to the "Queen’s life and legacy,” despite the fact that the Monarch does not celebrate her official birthday until next weekend. The diplomatic faux pas, sent on behalf of President Barack Obama and the American people on Friday, also celebrated the "special relationship" between the British and US governments.

Controversial South African president Jacob Zuma caused diplomatic embarrassment today by branding the British as 'old fashioned imperialists' - just hours before meeting the Queen. The visiting polygamist premier, 67, accused the UK of harbouring a feeling of cultural superiority he attributed to the country's colonial past. He spoke out over press reports in Britain which highlighted details of his colourful private life ahead of his state visit to London, which starts today.

Old Western ManThe travellers trotted on, and as the sun began to sink towards the White Downs far away on the western horizon they came to Bywater by its wide pool, and there they had their first really painful shock. This was Frodo and Sam's own country, and they found out now that they cared about it more than any other place in the world. Many of the houses that they had known were missing. Some seemed to have been burned down. The pleasant row of old hobbit-holes in the bank in the north side of the Pool were deserted,...

“Luke’s Lead-up to Christmas: The Visitation and the Song of Mary, the Magnificat” (Luke 1:39-56)This Advent, during our three midweek services and now on this, the Fourth Sunday in Advent, we’re working our way through Luke chapter one, on our way to the Christmas Gospel in Luke chapter two. We’re calling this series “Luke’s Lead-up to Christmas,” and so far we’re looked at: “The Annunciation of St. John the Baptist” to Zechariah; “The Annunciation of Our Lord” to Mary; and “The Nativity of St. John the Baptist and the Song of Zechariah, the Benedictus.” Now today we take up the...

Elizabeth Smart Says She Was Raped Daily Elizabeth Smart, right, arrives at the federal courthouse with her mother, Lois Smart, and her father [Pic in URL] By JENNIFER DOBNER SALT LAKE CITY – Elizabeth Smart testified Thursday she was raped repeatedly each day after she was abducted from her bedroom seven years ago and told she would be killed if she yelled or tried to escape. She described Brian David Mitchell, her alleged kidnapper, as "evil, wicked, manipulative, stinky, slimy, selfish, not spiritual, not religious, not close to God." Smart testified in U.S. District Court in Salt Lake City as...

A mosque in Elizabeth, Dar-ul-Islam, is spearheading a national prayer gathering next month in Washington, D.C., that organizers are billing as the first event of its kind -- organized prayer for tens of thousands of Muslims outside the U.S. Capitol building. The event will not include political speeches or placards, just prayer, said Hassen Abdellah, president of Dar-ul-Islam and a main organizer of the event, which is scheduled for Sept. 25.

Elizabeth Edwards opens furniture store in N.C.Associated Press Last Modified: Saturday, August 22, 2009 at 10:33 p.m. CHAPEL HILL, N.C. (AP) – The wife of a former North Carolina senator and presidential candidate has opened a furniture store. Multiple media outlets report that Elizabeth Edwards opened the store called Red Window in downtown Chapel Hill Saturday. Edwards says the store will have styles similar to The Red Door, a charity store her mother managed in Japan. Edwards’ husband, former Sen. John Edwards, also attended the opening. **SNIP** Elizabeth Edwards says she’s trying to ignore tabloid reports that her husband fathered...

On the official website of UK embassy in Iran, the Queen of England passes along her "warmest greetings" to genocidal Iranian mullahs in celebration of the 30-year anniversary of the Islamic revolution in Iran: Queen Elizabeth's message to the Iranian people (09/02/2009) It gives me great pleasure to send the people of the Islamic Republic of Iran my warmest greetings on the celebration of your National Day, together with my best wishes for good fortune and happiness in the coming year. Barf!!! What's up with these Royals? We all know that Prince Charles may have already converted to Islam. I...

Oh, my. Can you just imagine if Sarah Palin or John McCain made a crack like this and botched up their pop culture references to famous black comedy shows? Can you just imagine the high dudgeon from every minority lawmaker? WaPo and NYTimes columnist? Civil rights organization? The cries of RAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAACISM would shatter the political Richter scale. Can you just imagine: This is what happens when a candidates goes off script. Barack Obama, in Raleigh, N.C., was doing a riff attacking John McCain for supporting the idea of putting some mandatory retirement money into the stock market. “If Senator...

Video HERE. Elisabeth Hasselbeck provocatively pouts quite cutely as she introduces Sarah Palin, her friend and very hopefully the next Vice President. Take a break from Barack with nine minutes of alluring awesomeness. Elisabeth, in this Extended Edition of her talk introducing Sarah, shows growing polish. It would be good to see her out on the campaign trail more, as she sincerely shows a lot of potential. And, her support of Sarah Palin is very appreciated. This is a sequel to The Ultimate Combined Elisabeth Hasselbeck and Sarah Palin Photos Thread, which is here. Please check it out and add...

Video here. Classic line when she refers to the flag pin, an "accessory" Obama dislikes. Anyone who has pictures of Sarah Palin, Elisabeth Hasselbeck, Laura Ingraham, and other both principled and attractive conservative women, please post them all here. Who can post the most? Let the contest begin.

Some months ago, while she was on tour, promoting her book, Saving Graces, I met and interviewed Elizabeth Edwards at a signing in New York City (see the interview below). At the time, John Edwards had not yet announced his 2008 presidential candidacy but the intention was in the air. As his wife spoke, her husband of 30 years watched her with pride and affection. They exchanged knowing looks and smiles. They conversed in the way of long time friends and lovers. Yesterday, with her husband by her side, looking at her with pride and palpable affection, Elizabeth Edwards...

Austria cellar probe 'oppressive' Mr Fritzl refuses to explain his actions Forensic work in the dungeon where an Austrian man allegedly held his daughter for 24 years is "oppressive", police chief Franz Polzer has said. Officers wearing special masks can only work one hour at a time because of the lack of oxygen in the windowless cellar, he told AP news agency. Police say Josef Fritzl, 73, imprisoned and raped his daughter Elisabeth in the cellar in Amstetten in Lower Austria. They say she bore his seven children - three of whom never saw daylight. Mr Fritzl, who is in...

Elizabeth: The Golden Age (2007) Directed by Shekhar Kapur. Cate Blanchett, Geoffrey Rush, Clive Owen, Abbie Cornish, Samantha Morton, Jordi Mollà.From a National Catholic Register review By Steven D. Greydanus A lurid sort of Christopher Hitchens vision of history pervades Elizabeth: The Golden Age, Shekhar Kapur’s sequel to his 1998 art-house hit Elizabeth. The earlier film, which made a star of Cate Blanchett as the eponymous Virgin Queen, celebrated the triumph of bright, happy Elizabethan Protestantism over the dark, unwholesome Catholic world of Bloody Mary. Even so, that film’s church-bashing was tame compared that of this sequel, in which...

LONDON: The British monarch is trying her best to ban the controversial BBC film produced by a trailer which wrongly showed her storming out of a photoshoot, a leading daily reported here on Sunday. Buckingham Palace and the BBC are at loggerheads over the Corporation's refusal to scrap the documentary film, the Daily Mail reported, quoting well-placed sources without revealing their names. Though BBC has assured the queen that it would ensure the final edit of the programme, A Year With The Queen, so that viewers were not misled, the Palace's still not convinced and sticking to its demand to...

July 17, 2007 | Elizabeth Edwards is not wasting time. She cut through the fog of sympathy and second-guessing about her decision to continue campaigning for her husband, John Edwards, despite learning in March she had incurable breast cancer, simply by hitting the campaign trail hard. By most accounts she has always been the campaign's leading strategist and still is. But lately she has emerged as its leading risk taker, too. At the end of June she won the nation's attention -- and the gratitude of many -- for confronting right-wing provocateur Ann Coulter live on MSNBC's "Hardball," after Coulter...

For those of you attacking Ann Coulter for bringing up John Edwards' son's death, some perspective: From Front Page News Edwards' public success spotlights son's death************ Used it again at the end of 2003 in his own piece, Four TrialsScroll down to the bottom. *********** Running for his son: Teen's death changed Edwards' life Here is the Edwards press machine making it an issue in 2004, acting as if they are finally opening up about it...but they were on record as talking about it in 2001.... ********** Here again, in 2005, Edwards pretends he's finally opening up about his son's...

Elizabeth Edwards has linked the outpouring of sympathy for her battle against cancer with the campaign for the presidency being waged by her husband, John. Yesterday she proudly compared efforts to galvanise grassroots activists to the support that she had received from thousands of ordinary Americans since announcing last week that her cancer had come back. In what was billed as a nonpolitical speech to the Cleveland City Club in Ohio, Mrs Edwards ... said that it would be “entirely legitimate” for Americans to judge that he is putting ambition ahead of family by running for president even though his...

A defiant John Edwards vowed to stay in the 2008 race Thursday despite his wife's cancer relapse, saying he would continue his push in critical primary states like Iowa and Nevada... The announcement that Elizabeth Edwards' breast cancer has spread to bone in her right side stunned admirers ... It also sent shock waves through the 2008 Democratic race, as campaigns pondered the possible exit of Edwards, who now ranks third ... in many national opinion polls. Standing by his wife's side in Chapel Hill, N.C., John Edwards dismissed reports that he was planning to suspend his candidacy. "The campaign...

NEW YORK, Dec 05, 2002 (AP WorldStream via COMTEX) -- The discovery of a skeleton in a remote corner of Laos may mark the beginning of the end of a fabled chapter of the Cold War, when an American soldier of fortune known as "Earthquake McGoon" became a household name for his daring exploits in China and Southeast Asia. The recent finding by a U.S. task force has raised hopes for identifying James B. McGovern, or possibly his co-pilot, Wallace A. Buford, who were shot down in 1954 in the last days of the French Indochina war. "That's incredible...