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Yet it is a fact that Howard's comment has had such a big impact outside of Australia precisely because he was essentially correct. A designated and unconditional US withdrawal from Iraq by March 2008 would amount to a defeat for the multinational force and a victory for the insurgency, along with al-Qaeda, in Iraq. This should be recognised by those who oppose the allied commitment in Iraq as well as those who support it.Ask a blunt question and, every now and then, there is an undiplomatic answer. Certainly this was the case with the inaugural Sunday program for this year....

Rudd moves to censure Howard over Obama attack Steve Lewis, Chief political correspondent February 12, 2007 OPPOSITION Leader Kevin Rudd today moved a censure motion against Prime Minister John Howard over his attack on US presidential hopeful Barack Obama. Mr Rudd said Mr Howard should be censured over his comment yesterday that terrorist network al-Qaeda would be hoping for a Democratic candidate to win next year's US presidential election.

THE Prime Minister has fired another salvo in his growing war of words with US presidential hopeful Barack Obama, saying the senator had dodged his criticism of his Iraq withdrawal plan. Senator Obama today challenged John Howard to commit another 20,000 Australian troops to Iraq after the Prime Minister said his call to bring American troops home by March 2008 would be a victory for al Qaeda in Iraq, who would be hoping for a Democrat win in next year's presidential election. The US senator accused Mr Howard of "empty rhetoric" in his criticism of his stand, as Australia has...

Prime Minister John Howard has defended his comments about United States presidential candidate Barack Obama's proposed policies. The spat erupted when Democrat Senator Obama said he would like US troops out of Iraq by March 2008. Mr Howard responded by saying that if he ran Al Qaeda, he would put a circle around March next year and pray for Mr Obama to win. The attack on Senator Obama's plan has upset several US Democrats, including Senator Ron Wyden, who believes Mr Howard is meddling in US politics. But Mr Howard says he will continue to criticise policies that work against...

SYDNEY, Australia -- Australia's conservative prime minister slammed Barack Obama on Sunday over his opposition to the Iraq war, a day after the first-term U.S. senator announced his intention to run for the White House in 2008. Obama said Saturday at his campaign kickoff in Springfield, Ill., that one of the country's first priorities should be ending the war in Iraq. He has also introduced a bill in the Senate to prevent President Bush from increasing American troop levels in Iraq and to remove U.S. combat forces from the country by March 31, 2008. Australian Prime Minister John Howard, a...

PRIME Minister John Howard has been described as bizarre and irrelevant by US Democrats after he launched an attack on Democratic presidential hopeful Barack Obama. Mr Howard said yesterday al-Qaeda would be praying for an Obama-led White House because Senator Obama has promised to withdraw US combat troops from Iraq by March 2008. A string of Democrats have reacted angrily to Mr Howard's comments which have received widespread media coverage in the US. Terry McAuliffe, a former chairman of the Democratic National Convention, criticised Mr Howard's strong links to US President George W. Bush. "The prime minister has been a...

Excerpt from report by Radio Australia on 25 January The Australian prime minister, John Howard, has attacked the opposition Labor Party's position on Iraq, saying this is no time to appear to be letting down the United States. [passage omitted] Australia's opposition leader, Kevin Rudd, has said a Labor government would pull Australian troops out of Iraq shortly after a federal election [due by the end of the year]. Mr Howard says that would be ratting on an ally. [Howard] We're not living a very certain world. People are worried about North Korea, they are worried about a whole lot...

NEW YORK — Sirius Satellite Radio (SIRI) paid shock jock Howard Stern a bonus worth nearly $83 million on Tuesday for surpassing subscriber goals set in a 2004 contract that had already turned heads with its $500 million compensation package. The freewheeling and ribald Stern joined Sirius one year ago... His defection marked a turning point for the nascent business of satellite radio, with both Sirius and larger rival XM Satellite Radio (XMR) paying millions more to sign on other talent and attract listeners to their subscriber model. Sirius had roughly 600,000 subscribers when it signed Stern in 2004 for...

PHILADELPHIA -- The sheer force of Ryan Howard's gargantuan home runs cannot accurately be measured in speed or total distance, only by the gasps from those watching such a spectacle. The Baseball Writers Association of America collectively gasped, then stood and applauded on Monday, selecting the Phillies first baseman as the National League's Most Valuable Player. With 20 first-place votes and 12 second-place votes, Howard defeated last year's NL MVP, the Cardinals' Albert Pujols, by a total of 388 to 347. The Astros' Lance Berkman (230) and the Mets' Carlos Beltran (211) finished third and fourth, respectively. Howard becomes the...

TRUMBULL COUNTY, Ohio -- What would you do if you came face to face with a man charged with murdering a family member? It was a thought put into action Wednesday in a Trumbull County courtroom as family members attacked a man charged with murdering several of their loved ones, NewsChannel5 reported.

Row over Australian Muslims intensifies By Nick Squires in Sydney Last Updated: 12:28pm GMT 31/10/2006 A bitter row over the attitude among Muslims towards women in Australia intensified today when a senior Islamic cleric complained that Muslim men convicted of rape received much heavier penalties than white offenders. Sheik Mohammed Omran said Muslims found guilty of rape were dealt with more harshly than other sex offenders such as members of motorcycle gangs or “football stars”. He appeared to be referring to the gang rape of several white Australian girls by a group of young Muslim men in 2000. One of...

Australia Muslim cleric suspended Australia's top Muslim cleric has been barred from preaching for up to three months, after comparing immodestly dressed women to "uncovered meat". Sheikh Taj el-Din al-Hilali's comments, suggesting that women who did not wear a headscarf attracted sexual assault, have caused a storm of protest. Sydney's mosque association said the suspension would give the cleric time to consider the impact of his words. But Australian Premier John Howard said the action was insufficient. Many people - including some Muslim leaders - have called for the cleric to be dismissed from office. Sheikh Hilali sparked more controversy...

Howard Dean talked up Democrats, talked down Republicans and went door-to-door in a Portland neighborhood on Monday to rally Democrats for the upcoming election. Dean, chairman of the Democratic National Committee and a former Vermont governor, and Maine Gov. John Baldacci spoke to about 150 people at a breakfast fundraiser at the Italian Heritage Center before knocking on doors in a heavily Democratic Munjoy Hill neighborhood. Accompanied by a gaggle of reporters and cameras, Dean and Baldacci stopped at four houses to tout the Democratic message. One of them was owned by Jon Radtke, a high school teacher who said...

PRIME Minister John Howard has launched a scathing attack on Australia's left-wing intelligentsia, questioning its loyalty to the nation over the past decades. In a speech delivered last night for the 50th anniversary of the conservative magazine Quadrant, Mr Howard said the left had a history of denigrating the nation and was now doing the same with the war in Iraq, describing Islamic terrorism as the new tyranny. He said Australian universities were still breeding leftists and described pro-communists of decades past as “ideological barrackers for regimes of oppression opposed to Australia and its interests”, Fairfax reports today. Mr Howard...

PRIME Minister John Howard says he will continue to hold hands with his wife, Janette, despite criticism by Margaret Whitlam in a new biography. Mrs Whitlam, wife of former Labor prime minister Gough Whitlam, says in the book that Mrs Howard should not be holding hands in public with her husband and had no sense of humour. "For God's sake, they've been married for over 30 years!" Mrs Whitlam said in the biography to be launched next week, excerpts of which were published in today's The Bulletin magazine. Mr Howard today refused to say whether he found the comments hurtful....

Australia is once again making more sense than any other country on earth with regard to issues of culture and immigration. Like its Anglosphere cousins the United States and Canada, Australia’s political economy, personal freedom, rule of law, and other characteristics inherited from the British, make it an extremely attractive place for immigrants. A continental land mass able to accommodate a greater population completes the package luring many, including many Muslims, to dream of a better life there than in their own home countries. But unlike Canada, which has embraced a self-effacing attitude toward its own cultures, and the United...

DNC: Dean Sends Mehlman Letter on RNC Funded Discriminatory and Un-American Campaign Activities1 hour, 16 minutes ago To: National Desk Contact: Stacie Paxton or Luis Miranda, 202-863-8148, both of the DNC Press Office WASHINGTON, Sept. 12 /U.S. Newswire/ -- Democratic National Committee Chairman Howard Dean sent a letter to Republican National Committee Chairman Ken Mehlman today calling on him to stop RNC-funded campaign activities that promote discrimination and endorse violence against political opponents. The letter was sent after a Michigan newspaper revealed that an RNC-funded organizer in Michigan is coordinating "Catch an Illegal Immigrant" and "Fun With Guns" events at...

Howard call to Australian Muslims Mr Howard has been criticised for singling out Muslims Australian Prime Minister John Howard has called on moderate Muslims to be more critical of terrorism. In comments to mark the anniversary of the 11 September 2001 attacks in the US, Mr Howard said: "No decent genuine Muslim would support terrorism." He also said Muslims must fully accept that Israel had a right to exist. Islamic leaders in Australia have reacted angrily to the comments, saying Mr Howard should not single out Muslims for criticism. "Instead of constantly singling out Muslim people, he should be trying...

JOHN Howard has called on moderate Muslims to speak out more often against terrorism and declared it is no good "pussyfooting around" about Islamic terrorists. The Prime Minister believes Australians have a sensible, uncowed view of terrorism and that everyone, including Muslims, knows Islamic extremists are responsible for the threat and the tougher security laws that entails. "People in Australia are in no doubt that extreme Islam is responsible for terrorism," Mr Howard said in an interview with The Australian to mark the fifth anniversary of the September 11, 2001, terror attacks on the US that killed nearly 3000 people,...

In comparison with the US and Britain, the Howard Government's policies and pronouncements on the main issues facing the West are setting a refreshingly honest example JOHN Howard was quoted approvingly on a US radio show last week. Big deal, you say. He's a prime minister; what does he care if some rinky-dink talk-jockey recycles a couple of sound bites? Well, the radio host in question was Rush Limbaugh, and Rush has more listeners than there are Australians. That's to say, about 25million or so listeners, which is more than the number of Australians in Australia and Lebanon combined.