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Italy and France on Monday urged Iraq not to execute Saddam Hussein, saying it would be ethically wrong and would risk pushing the country towards civil war, Reuters reported. "In the dramatic, difficult situation in Iraq, the execution of Saddam Hussein could push the country towards a real civil war," Italian Foreign Minister Massimo D''Alema told reporters after meeting French counterpart Philippe Douste-Blazy in Paris. "This is the reason for the appeal we are sending to the Iraqi authorities -- to the democratic authorities of Iraq, which we respect and support -- that the sentence should not be carried out,"...

Nov. 9, 1989 and Sept. 11, 2001 each changed the modern world. The fall of the Berlin Wall marked the end of 75 years of communism, and the World Trade Center and Pentagon attacks the beginning of what may be a similar period of global Islamic terrorism. But not all of Western civilization wants to fight this not so cold war. Turkey, fearing attacks by Muslim insurgents, ended its anti-terrorism efforts in 2003. Spain followed suit after the 2004 Madrid bombings. Then Hungary and the Netherlands also all but capitulated, even without any dramatic, world-attention grabbing, attacks on their soil....

'The change for the moment is more in tone than substance," wrote Alec Russell, reporting on President Bush's European outreach in yesterday's Daily Telegraph. You don't say. My colleague is almost right. In Brussels yesterday, the President's "charm offensive" consisted of saying the same things he always says ¨- on Iraq, Iran, Palestine, the illusion of stability, the benefits of freedom, the need for Egypt and Saudi Arabia to get with the programme, etc. But, tone-wise, the Bush charm offensive did its best to keep the offensiveness reasonably charming ¨C though his references to anti-Semitism and the murder of Theo...

MIDI - GILLIGAN'S ISLAND Sit back my friends and I'll tell a tale...about a George Bush trip He'll visit those Euro-weasels and will not take their lip We have a man who's a president and not a spineless shill We had eight years of that kind of stuff with gonad-less Bill...with gonad-less Bill When we find our world's in jeopardy to whom will nations turn It's not the French to be counted on...that lesson has been learned...that lesson has been learned Bush makes his point and he tells it straight...it's clear as it can be With Condi Rice and...