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He was an immense figure in the history of England. Just how immense, however, has finally been revealed after a study of his body armour exposed Henry VIII's extraordinary vital statistics. It found that by the end of his reign the 6ft 1in Tudor king had a whopping 52in waist and 53in chest - enough to make him severely obese by modern standards. The study by the Royal Armouries coincides with a forthcoming exhibition of his supersized battle dress at the Tower of London to mark the 500th anniversary of him taking the throne. Here, Philippa Gregory reveals the heavy...

A Virginia court found that Virginia Tech killer Seung-Hui Cho was "mentally ill" and dangerous. Then it let him go. Back in 2005, the District Court in Christiansburg said that Cho was a danger to himself but not others. He was ordered to undergo outpatient care. The ruling came after Cho was taken to a nearby psychiatric hospital for evaluation in December 2005, after two female schoolmates said they received threatening messages from him and police and school officials became concerned that he might be suicidal. That information came to light two days after Cho, a Virginia Tech senior, killed...

BAGHDAD, Jan 2 (Reuters) - Thousands of Sunni Arabs vented their anger on Tuesday over Saddam Hussein's execution as the Iraqi government promised an investigation into illicitly filmed footage of Shi'ite officials taunting him on the gallows. A court official said he nearly halted the hanging over the jeering, which has inflamed sectarian passions in a nation already on the brink of civil war. Data showed civilian deaths hit a new record in December and were over 12,000 in 2006. He also challenged government claims those who filmed the event were guards, saying they were senior officials. In the video,...

Watch what this machine did to Saddam's victimsIt's safe to watch this video. But think how this must have felt to a human being. Sometimes Saddam would have them thrown in head-first, but other times -- to increase the agony -- he would have them thrown in feet-first.Saddam deserves his fate.

Iraqi TV is now showing edited footage of the execution of Saddam.

WASHINGTON ? The U.S. government believes Fidel Castro's health is deteriorating and that the Cuban leader is unlikely to live through 2007, U.S. officials said.

A Fatwa on the Truth http://www.spectator.org/dsp_article.asp?art_id=10481 It is one of those uniquely modern Western paradoxes, to wit, that the most courageous Europeans are those forced into hiding. Ayaan Hirsi Ali, Salman Rushdie, the Danish editorial cartoonists -- all are paying the price for freely expressing their opinions and beliefs -- or lack thereof. Add to that exalted list one Robert Redeker. M. Redeker, a high school philosophy professor in suburban Toulouse, is in the bouillabaisse for a commentary he wrote last month for Le Figaro in which he accused Islam of "exalting violence," and christened the Muslim prophet Muhammad a...

AL-QAEDA leader Osama bin Laden, reported last week to have died, is alive and hiding in Afghanistan, Pakistani President Pervez Musharraf said in an interview published in The Times today. "It's not a hunch,'' Musharraf said. Afghanistan's eastern "Kunar province borders on Bajaur Agency. We know there are some pockets of al-Qaida in Bajaur Agency. We have set a good intelligence organisation. We have moved some army elements. We did strike them twice there. We located and killed a number of them there.'' Pakistan's military ruler also suggested links between bin Laden and Afghan warlord and former Afghan prime minister...

COLORADO SPRINGS, Colo. -- A Colorado man serving a life sentence on a high-profile murder conviction has claimed responsibility for up to 48 slayings throughout the United States including nine in Colorado, the El Paso County Sheriff's Department said Thursday.

We're going on day four of the latest fidel castro is dead rumors. Here are a couple more uncorroborated reports and speculations: - Hugo Chavez supposedly took an "urgent flight" to Cuba yesterday afternoon along with other high ranking Cuban officials. Details or news accounts of same unavailable. - Granma once again published articles profiling Raul Castro, heir apparent to the dictator throne. - WHPC reports that there is much action in Cuba at the moment, with reports from Granma stating that workers are "waging a fierce battle" in attempts to have construction and other related project complete for a...

RADICAL Muslim cleric Abu Bakar Bashir yesterday said the Bali bombing victims were destined to die by God and their families should now convert to Islam. He also called on Prime Minister John Howard to become a Muslim or burn in hell. Mr Howard has written to Indonesia's president to express disgust at Bashir. Just 24 hours after being released from prison for his part in the 2002 bombings, Bashir said becoming Muslims would give the bereaved relatives "salvation and peace". "For the Bali bomb families, those who are non-Muslims, my suggestion is just convert to Islam so they can...

FORMER heavyweight boxing champion Mike Tyson visited Mao Zedong's mausoleum in a token of respect to add to the Mao tattoo on his arm and his personal book collection of the father of Chinese communism. A long-time admirer, Tyson confessed to feelings of inadequacy when gazing upon Mao's remains on Saturday. "I felt really insignificant next to the remains of Chairman Mao," the China Daily on Monday quoted Tyson as telling the Beijing News, adding that it was a great honour to visit the memorial hall. Tyson bought several books on Mao before shouting "I love you!" to Chinese onlookers...

ALEXANDRIA, Va. -- Prosecutors in Zacarias Moussaoui's death penalty trial sought Tuesday to unravel his claims that he knew nothing of the Sept. 11, 2001, terrorist attacks, arguing that al-Qaida members are carefully scripted to lie when caught. FBI agent Michael Anticev, testifying for a second day, offered the jury a primer on al-Qaida cover stories and the organization's techniques of deception when cell members are questioned. Moussaoui's lawyers are portraying him as a pathetic loner who dreamed of becoming a terrorist but was shut out of Sept. 11 planning and considered by one al-Qaida leader a "cuckoo in the...

Andrea Yates granted bail by judge. Bail set at 200K. Husband is seeking the 20K for bondsman. Breaking from Fox.

History: The books that a president stacks on his nightstand might seem as mildly prurient as the contents of somebody else's medicine cabinet. But if he's touting a title to another head of state, then we care.Example: the volume President Bush pressed on Germany's Angela Merkel when she visited the White House two weeks ago. He'd just read "Mao: The Unknown Story," he revealed as the two talked of Merkel's upbringing in then-communist East Germany. Bonding with Merkel, Bush felt the new chancellor would recognize the sordid rise to power of China's late tyrant. She'd appreciate it in a way...

OSAMA bin Laden, even in hiding, may still be able to mastermind a major terrorist attack inside the United States, a senior aide to US President George W. Bush said. Asked whether the al-Qaeda chief could engineer such a strike, Bush adviser Dan Bartlett told CBS television: "We have to assume that he can. We have to be very vigilant in what we do to protect our country." His remarks came as the Bush administration waged an aggressive campaign to defend a controversial program by the National Security Agency (NSA) to intercept US citizens' international telephone calls and electronic mail....

MIDI - IT'S BEGINNING TO LOOK A LOT LIKE CHRISTMAS It's beginning to look like one sad Christmas for Saddam Hussein He tells his judge to go to h*ll...what is that awful smell His underwear's a week old, you can tell It's beginning to look like one sad Christmas for Saddam Hussein As we hear of atrocities...the entire world sees We'll soon bid farewell And although Ramsey denies it, the whole world knows it...the man is murdering scum He's plays defiant, but if you look closely, his face is certainly glum In his own mind he thinks he's still...

BAGHDAD, Iraq - Saddam Hussein told the judge at his trial Monday that "I am not afraid of execution" during an unruly court session in which the first witness took the stand and testified that the former president's agents carried out random arrests, torture and killings. The outburst was one of several by Saddam or his co-defendants at the trial that also saw a brief walkout by his defense lawyers. At one point, Saddam appeared to threaten the judge, saying: "When the revolution of the heroic Iraq arrives, you will be held accountable." Chief Judge Rizgar Mohammed Amin replied: "This...

There undoubtedly are many people who consider Stanley "Tookie" Williams a ruthless and cold-blooded killer, fully deserving the sentence of death by lethal injection awaiting him Dec. 13. But those people, say his supporters, only see the wild-eyed young man of the early 1970s — the co-founder of the notorious Los Angeles Crips street gang. They don't see the man he's become today. A small knot of Modesto activists hope to change all that through a teach-in Saturday on Williams and the transformation they say he's undergone while confined to Death Row at San Quentin State Prison. "He's valuable to...

NASHVILLE - Police say a man who has called himself "a monster" has confessed to slayings across the country. Garland Milam, 40, already is charged with killing two homeless men in Nashville. Investigators won't say how many slayings Milam has confessed to elsewhere, but police agencies from Texas, Arizona and possibly Ohio are coming to Nashville to interview him. "We do believe that he's been involved in other murders in other states," police Lt. Pat Taylor told WSMV-TV. Nashville investigators interviewed Milam over several days after the Nashville slayings last month, and during those interrogations, they say, he confessed to...