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United Nations — On the day U.S. President George W. Bush described as a moment of truth for the world, the United Nations Security Council had trouble figuring out in what room to meet. When it finally acknowledged a U.S.-Iraq war was all but inevitable, ambassadors on the council traded shots about who was to blame. Then, in an Alice-in-Wonderland touch, they scheduled a meeting for Wednesday to discuss the work of UN weapons inspectors in the weeks ahead, as if those same inspectors had not, hours earlier, been ordered to leave Iraq. Monday was one of those days at...

Statement by the President In Focus: Judicial Nominations Miguel Estrada is a well-qualified nominee to the U.S. Court of Appeals who has been waiting nearly two years for an up or down vote in the United States Senate. The decision today by 44 Senators to continue to filibuster and block a vote on this nomination is a disgrace. The Senate has a responsibility to exercise its constitutional advice and consent function and hold an up or down vote on a judicial nominee within a reasonable time. Some Senators who once insisted that every appeals court nominee deserves a timely vote...

Being irrelevant is the key The saying, “You can fool some of the people, some of the time, but not all the people all of the time,” use to be applicable. With O.J., Clinton and now Saddam’s defenses, never has the world’s moral compass become so tilted. Finally, comes the realization that the word IS to many, is not really IS. As many embrace the “all is relevant,” defense, facts become irrelevant. So what if O.J. was found guilty in civil court, Clinton was impeached and Saddam is in material breach. What one must realize, being irrelevant is the key....

London (CNSNews.com) - The Rev. Jessie Jackson will be one of the headlined speakers at a planned anti-war rally in London this weekend, organizers said Wednesday. A spokeswoman for the Stop the War Coalition said that Jackson decided to come to England because war protests in the British capital are "more important at the moment" than similar protests in the United States. Several members of Parliament from the ruling Labor Party will be marching in opposition to their party's official line, and the leader of Parliament's third-largest bloc, Liberal Democrat Charles Kennedy, has said he would speak at the rally....

French industry faces squeeze from Congress By Peter Spiegel in Washington In his nearly 20 years in the US House of Representatives, New Jersey's James Saxton has built a solid if low-profile record as a moderate Republican. But when it comes to Iraq, the unassuming Mr Saxton is an avowed hawk and he has now found a new target for his anger over European intransigence: the Paris Air Show. The senior member of the House armed services committee has drafted a resolution, which he intends to introduce this week, that would call on all US companies and government officials to...

**Exclusive** TECHNO PROTEST: MADONNA PLANS SHOCK VIDEO TO PROTEST BUSH, WAR

Background Members Functions and Powers Structure Sanctions Repertoire of the Practiceof the Security Council Security Council Round-up 2002 Counter-Terrorism Committee(established pursuant to Resolution 1373 (2001)) Formal meetings Report of the Security Council to the General Assembly 16 June 2001 - 31 July 2002 UN Monitoring, Verification and Inspection Commission (UNMOVIC) Sanctions Committees: Elected Chairpersons and Vice-Chairpersons for the period until 31 December 2003   Background The Security Council has primary responsibility, under the Charter,for the maintenance of international peace and security. It is so organized as to be able to function continuously, and a representative of each of its...

-------------------------------------------------------------------------------- -------------------------------------------------------------------------------- Berlin — Germany intends to work for more diplomatic pressure by European countries against a war in Iraq, a member of Chancellor Gerhard Schroeder's cabinet said in an interview published Monday that portrayed U.S. President George Bush as misguided. "Bush's priorities are baffling to me," said Development Aid Minister Heidemarie Wieczorek-Zeul, renewing an argument by many German officials that solving the Israeli-Palestinian conflict should come first. "War must not be the extension of politics or the economy by other means," she was quoted as telling the on-line service of Der Spiegel magazine. She said it was "depressing that...

Assad calls Blair conference irrelevant Ewen MacAskill, diplomatic editor Wednesday December 18, 2002 The Guardian (UK) The Syrian president, Bashar al-Assad, dismissed as irrelevant Tony Blair's planned Middle East peace conference yesterday less than 24 hours after Downing Street announced it. He predicted that the conference, to be held in Britain next month, will fail because it does not address the prime cause of the Israeli-Palestinian conflict, the Israeli occupation of the West Bank. Instead, he said it concentrates on the Israeli-US attempt to undermine the Palestinian leader, Yasser Arafat. "The result will be more turbulence and disruption in the...

Princess Diana's Brother Removed Royal Banner From Her Coffin"EARL'S COFFIN FLAG SNUB TO THE ROYALS" By Steve Dennis THE royal banner on Princess Diana's coffin was swapped for the Spencer family flag minutes before she was laid to rest in her island grave, butler Paul Burrell sensationally reveals today. Then Diana's brother, Earl Spencer, told Prince Charles and princes William and Harry over lunch at his ancestral mansion: "Diana is home...she's a Spencer now." For five years millions have believed Diana was buried as the world last saw her, in an oak casket covered in honour by the maroon, gold...

LOS ANGELES (Reuters) - Hell hath no fury like Joni Mitchell on the subject of the music industry. The veteran singer/songwriter, on the promotional trail for a new album, says she is "ashamed" to be part of the music business and may stop recording. "I just think it's a cesspool," the 58-year-old folk-rock icon said in the latest issue of Rolling Stone magazine. "I hope it all goes down the crapper. I would never take another deal in the record business, which means I may not record again, or I have to figure out a way to sell over the...

It's time to be honest. In the 1930's it was Europe's responsibility to stop Hitler. His book Mein Kampf provided a blueprint about his plans. European leaders did something worse than doing nothing however-they actively sought ways to avoid war, to avoid confronting the evil among them and chose instead to appease the devil. The most complicit in this was the British Prime Minister, Neville Chamberlain. Now, in 2002, it is our responsibility to stop Saddam Hussein and yet the whining Grandchildren of Chamberlain, now strewn throughout Europe and the world, have felt compelled to demand we not attack Iraq....

LONDON (Reuters) - More than 200 years after they went out of fashion in Britain, professional hermits are back in the job market. A newspaper advertisement seeking a resident hermit for the stately Shugborough Home in Staffordshire, central England, has prompted a flood of replies from men eager to ditch stressed-out modern life for a spot of peaceful cave-dwelling. "There have been a few hermits in Britain since their heyday but they've usually just been recluses and loners. This is the first time the job of a resident hermit has been advertised in more than 250 years," organizer Corinne Caddy...

This week the Supreme Court issued a landmark ruling. The court ruled that execution of a mentally retarded murderer constitutes cruel and inhuman punishment and is therefore in violation of the Eighth Amendment of the Constitution. The Justices who held this view (six of the nine justices, Rehnquist, Scalia, and Thomas still believe in the Constitution) relied on the "shifting consensus" regarding this issue. I always thought that the Supreme Court was charged with interpreting the Constitution, not reading public opinion polls. Is Dick Morris going to be the next Supreme Court Justice under these standards? In fact if they...