Free Republic

An attempt will be made this week to ban Europe's most successful far-right nationalist party, Belgium's Vlaams Blok. A quarter of voters in Flanders, the Dutch-speaking northern half of Belgium, support its policies for independence from Belgium and repatriation of many immigrants, especially Muslim ones. It is now the biggest party in Flanders, kept out of power only by an agreement among all the mainstream parties to exclude it from any coalition government. But tomorrow Belgium's highest court is expected to rule that the party is racist. The ruling will mean that the Vlaams Blok will have to disband. But...

BRUSSELS - The Belgian-Lebanese leader of the Arabic-European League, Dyab Abou Jahjah, sharply criticized the presence of Dutch troops in Iraq. "Every dead American, British or Dutch soldier I see as a victory", he says in an interview with the Flamish daily 'Het Laatste Nieuws'. Abou Jahjah, who is not as present in the news as he used to be since his political party didn't do well in the Belgium elections, however does not agree with the beheadings of hostages in Iraq. "Beheadings are wrong in an ethnic and religious sense. Muslims even don't slaughter a sheep that way." The...

FOR more than 85 years the body of Harry Wilkinson lay forgotten in the mud of Flanders, seemingly lost forever on one of the bloodiest battlefields of the First World War.The Lancashire Fusilier was killed during the first Battle of Ypres in November 1914, leaving a six-year-old son and a wife, Eva, who was pregnant with his daughter.Buried where he fell, his grave unknown and unmarked, Pte Wilkinson's body remained undiscovered for generations until last year when a farmer chose to plough a field for the first time since 1914.Unearthed beside his skeleton were fragments of uniform, his identity tag, ...

It's tough luck for Mark Philippoussis, but otherwise a great relief all around that it is over for another year. Wimbledon fortnight, that is - the most boring sporting event on Earth. Two weeks of wall-to-wall tedium, the only excitement coming when they pull the covers over when rain stops play. What brings people to it? After all, unrelieved boredom does not exactly come cheap. A seat can cost you as much as $175, while souvenirs such as baseball caps (especially designed to be worn backwards) can cost $45. A towel could set you back about $70. One reason for...

The last of the breedTennessean one of only about 300 World War I veterans still survivingBy Fred Brown, News-Sentinel senior writerNovember 11, 2002LAWRENCEBURG, Tenn. - The old soldier, now 105, sits in a wheelchair as a nurse straightens his pajamas and helps him slip into a dress coat. Harvel C. Edwards is getting ready to have his photograph taken wearing his most prestigious medal, the French Chevalier de la Legion d'Honneur, France's highest national order. His eyesight is gone now, and he can barely hear even with someone shouting into his ear, but he has not forgotten his military service...