Free Republic

<p>In the early spring of 1940, half a year after Germany invaded Poland, but during a falsely hopeful period called the phony war that preceded the major Anglo-German hostilities of World War II, Winston Churchill spoke to the House of Commons. He told them that "I will not make any prophecies about the future, which is doubly veiled by the obscurities and uncertainties of war ... We must not boast, or speak in terms of vain conceit and overconfidence ... [But] we trust in God and in our own arm uplifted in a cause which we devoutly feel carries with it the larger hopes and harmonies of mankind."</p>

BAGHDAD (AFP) - The name of Saddam Hussein has been removed from the list of descendants of Islam's Prophet Mohammed, the head of the union of Ashrafs, who guard the genealogical tree, told AFP. Al-Sherif Najeh Mohammed Hassan al-Faham al-Aaraji admitted that the ousted dictator had been able to cheat despite the great value and honour attached to the line which is guarded in Baghdad. "Saddam had forced the origin experts to falsify his genealogical tree so that it went back to the Prophet," he said. "We will inform all the experts, and particularly those who yielded to Saddam and...