Free Republic

CHICAGO - Carlos Bocanegra scored late to give the United States a 1-1 tie against Poland on Sunday in an exhibition game. Bocanegra headed Landon Donovan's corner kick in the 88th minute past goalkeeper Artur Boruc and forward Ireneusz Jelen. Jelen had an opportunity to stop the ball, but couldn't control it at the goal line. Bocanegra, who once starred for the MLS Chicago Fire (news), credited Donovan and a pick by midfielder Eddie Gaven for his goal. "(Gaven) just backed his guy and himself into my defender," Bocanegera said. "I just kind of ran on and Landon served a...

OTTAWA -- Here's a scoop that has Canadian Alliance MP Chuck Strahl holding his nose. A contemporary art gallery in Ottawa, supported by federal tax dollars, is staging a multimedia, interactive exhibition dedicated to excrement. The five-week show, which opens at an Ottawa art gallery next Thursday, is called Scatalogue: 30 years of crap in contemporary art. The Saw Gallery received a two-year, $72,000 operating grant from the Canada Council for the Arts last year, but no council funding was earmarked specifically for Scatalogue. A media release for the "living, interactive archive" says the exhibition is "a critique of the...

An exhibition of works of art devoted to Margaret Thatcher - but not produced by her devotees has opened. The exhibition, entitle Thatcher is at The Blue Gallery in London and remains open until May 17. Curator Tara Howard says she does not regard it as an anti-Thatcher exhibition. She claims neither an attack on her nor is it homage to her. "I think she is one of the most important political figures in British history in the past 100 years - Churchill and Thatcher, there is nobody else." The exhibition includes: A 3ft high statue of the former prime...

Ignored by the state but not forgotten by the people, Stalin is the subject of an exhibition that has opened at a Moscow museum to celebrate next month's 50th anniversary of the dictator's death. Playing on the growing nostalgia for the dictator, the exhibition - Stalin: Man and Symbol - covers two rooms in the Museum of Russian Contemporary History, formerly the Moscow Museum of the Revolution. An exhibition of propaganda to mark the 50th anniversary of Stalin's death They are filled with photographs, letters and gifts presented to him by workers and foreign dignitaries. Yesterday a small group of...