Many a commentator, in reflecting upon the country's fiscal crisis, has suggested that - whatever else happens - one important consequence will be Britain's finally withdrawing from the world stage and, in military and geopolitical terms, becoming a conventional medium-sized...

What Is A Caliph? The Caliph is the leader of an Islamic community that follows Shariah Law. The Pakistani Minister of State for Industries Ayatullah Durrani had made a plea for President Obama to offer Eid prayers on September 11 and declare himself the leader of the Muslim world. He has called for this to take place at Ground Zero... Read the story at the Homeland Security column at the Examiner...

Blair’s interview with the BBC’s Andrew Marr last night revealed the extent to which the former prime minister occupies a parallel universe, one signposted with moral absolutes and blind faith in his own divine mission to shape the world, regardless of the human cost. Safely incubated from reality in a bubble of self delusion, one which,

The explosive New York Times story is mostly about the News of the World and its practices. But it is also, perhaps more significantly, about Scotland Yard and how it conducted investigations during the episode.

On Sunday, Demos released a report, The Power of Unreason. We looked at the role conspiracy theories play in extremism, violence, and terrorism. Extremist groups use conspiracy theories to recruit, to justify violent acts and to maintain an ideology that sees violence as the answer to the world they find themselves within. Conspiracy theories can therefore be dangerous.

Fans of the alternative vote system would do well to look at the result of the Australian election. Australia and Fiji are the only two countries in the world to use AV. The two main parties got about 80% of the vote. A record* 2 million+ people voted for minor parties, that’s around 17% –

So says the New York Times in its detailed report on what the News of the World got up to with phone hacking during Andy Coulson’s time as editor: A dozen former reporters said in interviews that hacking was pervasive at News of the World. “Everyone knew,” one longtime reporter said. “The office cat knew.”

Long piece in the New York Times, summarised in The Guardian. It claims to highlight Scotland Yard's shortcomings, and gives fresh examples of phone hacking behind News of the World stories. Coulson is characterised as a driving editor - yet claims he was unaware of any phone hacking. Max Clifford also makes an entertaining cameo appearance. A good read and a story which shouldn't be all...

I haven’t seen it on many British bogs yet, so I’ll say that this New York Times investigation into the News of the World/Royal bugging affair is a must read, especially since it puts Andy Coulson front and centre. One...

The New York Times Magazine's article about phone hacking at the News of the World comes, it must be said, a little out of the blue. It's over a year since the story last exercised printing presses in the UK – and a year, too, since David Cameron's communications chief, Andy Coulson, was hauled in front of MPs to explain what happened under his editorship of the paper. Back th...