But I have to admit a slight curiosity about whether they had any fava beans and a nice chianti.

These gadgets are not firearms in the legal sense -- they are basically very big muzzle loaders. We typically launch cans filled with concrete a very long way.

Previous publicity stunts works include rolling along the pavement, complaining to the council that the sky's too big, strapping poultry to his head, crawling along the pavement with cotton wool in his ears and pushing a monkey nut along the pavement to complain about his student debt.

For the gods' sakes, someone give this man a job on daytime TV - it's clearly what he wants.

[Out of 300 protestors] There were three arrests for criminal damage, five for possession of an offensive weapon, four for drunkenness and three for theft [and one] for drink-driving plus possession of an offensive weapon and drugs, [...] two arrests over drugs, five for public order offences, one for assault and five for other offences.

Dear President Bush,
I'm sure you'll be having a nice little tea party with your fellow war criminal, Tony Blair. Please wash the cucumber sandwiches down with a glass of blood, with my compliments.
     Harold Pinter
      Playwright

There's a bomb/Up your arsehole/Chum/And if you want to shit it out/You can't/Chum/Because the president won't bloody let you/Chum.

Ha ha ha. Fuck the Caribineri fuck! [...]

good news! its about time them fascist fuckers got it [...]

Still a lot of laughs for the many Caribeneri scum who fucked off to hell.
Apparently there are some still buried under the rubble. Ha ha ha!b[...]

"I do not know who did this - it seems like ill-thought out vandalism."

From: robert.hinkley@btinternet.com
To: tariq.ali3@btinternet.com
Subject: Source for "at least 15,000 lives" in today's Guardian column?

In today's Guardian ("Resistance is the first step towards Iraqi independence") you say the invasion of Iraq "cost the Iraqis at least 15,000 lives". Was this based on the study by the Project on Defence Alternatives described as "the most comprehensive account so far of how many Iraqis died" when reported on Wednesday (see http://www.guardian.co.uk/ international/story/0,3604,1072955,00.html)? I imagine not, as that study gives a number of up to 15,000 killed, of which up to 4,300 civilians. If you were using that study as a source it woud have been incorrect to say the invasion of Iraq "cost the Iraqis at least 15,000 lives", but rather the invasion of Iraq "cost the Iraqis at most 15,000 lives".
So I assume you were using another source for your number of Iraqi deaths. I would be glad if you could tell me what that source is, please.
   Regards,
        Rob Hinkley

From: TARIQ ALI <tariq.ali3@btinternet.com>
To: <robert.hinkley@btinternet.com>
Subject: Re: Source for "at least 15,000 lives" in today's Guardian column?

Dear Rob:
That was the source, but the 'at least '/'at most' debate will go on. Iraqi sources say that many more died, but were buried hurriedly and not listed, especially the poor. That's why I put 'at least'........
   Best,
        Tariq

Construction industry experts say that if only some kind of mechanism could be evolved to transport sand from areas like the Rub Al-Khali (the Empty Quarter) then it might become a "very profitable proposition."

A former leading member of India's Congress party was convicted of murder yesterday for killing his wife, covering her in butter and attempting to roast her in a restaurant's tandoor oven.

There is widespread disgust in America, for example, at the Europeans' paltry contribution to the funds that will be devoted to the reconstruction and democratisation of Iraq. Saudi Arabia will provide $1 billion in loans and credits to Iraq. Between them, France and Germany will contribute precisely nothing.

31. Bloody hell.

As American "postwar" casualties now exceed those sustained during the invasion (which cost the Iraqis at least 15,000 lives)

The great poets of Iraq - Saadi Youssef and Mudhaffar al-Nawab - once brutally persecuted by Saddam, but still in exile, are the consciences of their nation. Their angry poems denouncing the occupation and heaping scorn on the jackals - or quislings - help to sustain the spirit of resistance and renewal.

Youssef writes: I'll spit in the jackals' faces/ I'll spit on their lists/ I'll declare that we are the people of Iraq/ We are the ancestral trees of this land.

And Nawwab: And never trust a freedom fighter/ Who turns up with no arms/ Believe me, I got burnt in that crematorium/ Truth is, you're only as big as your cannons/ While those who wave knives and forks/ Simply have eyes for their stomachs.

In other words, the resistance is predominantly Iraqi - though I would not be surprised if other Arabs are crossing the borders to help. If there are Poles and Ukrainians in Baghdad and Najaf, why should Arabs not help each other?

If there are Poles and Ukrainians in Baghdad and Najaf, why should Arabs not help each other?

Meanwhile, Iraqis have one thing of which they can be proud and of which British and US citizens should be envious: an opposition.

Indeed it has. Unfortunately the map in question is the "point and snigger" map.

The specific task (or "mission") for the aircraft carrier and crew had been to fly planes to support the troops and defeat the Iraqi army. They had successfully completed (or "accomplished") that mission. Hence "Mission Accomplished". The same was true for most coalition units - they had successfully completed their tasks to that date. The banner did not say "Everything Done & Dusted" or "No More Problems In Iraq Now" or "War Over, Peaceful Tranquility Ahead". The actual speech he gave specifically mentioned there was hard and difficult work still to do in Iraq, which would take time.

The crew of an aircraft carrier asked the White House to provide them with an accurately worded banner, and they did. Wow. Scandal City.

Posting seems to have taken a turn toward the serious lately, so to balance it out here's news of possibly the world's cutest rodent: a micro-hamster less than one inch long. Awhhh, look at the little mutant freak...

1. Regarding unilateralism and the lack of UN involvement. We're getting help from Albania and Azerbaijan and Bulgaria, Romania, Slovakia, the Czech Republic, Poland, Georgia, Estonia, Latvia, Lithuania and Ukraine. Also joining in are the Dominican Republic, El Salvador, Honduras and Nicaragua, Denmark, Hungary and Italy, Moldova, the Netherlands and New Zealand. Also Norway, the Philippines, Portugal, South Korea, Spain and Thailand, Kazakhstan, and Macedonia. I make that 30 countries as well as the US and UK, contributing over 15,000 troops. How many countries have to be involved in something before it ceases to be unilateral? Notably absent are those stalwarts whose governments were so brimming with concern for the Iraqi people and the spirit of multilateralism pre-war: France, Germany and Russia. Note also the absence of Iran, Syria, Egypt, Jordan and Saudi Arabia, who presumably prefer to bitch from the sidelines rather than chip in doing anything constructive. As far as the all-important UN involvement is concerned, when nearly 1/6th of the UN's members are putting their people on the ground, how can it be said that the UN is not involved?
2. Regarding the motives of the "Stop The Occupation" brigade. The week after the fall of Baghdad, Marina Hyde wrote in the 'Guardian' about her opposition to the war and there was a revealing sentence in the article about the reasons for her stance:

   No, even had there been no civilian deaths, had it lasted 40 minutes, had bunting clogged the streets of Baghdad, it was always the threat of future US imperialism and the bitter fallout from those who'd feel alienated by it that concerned most people opposed to this war.

   In other words "I did not give a fig for the welfare of the Iraqis. That talk about wanting to prevent Iraqi civilian deaths was just so much camoflauge to cover my real position. I would prefer them to stay miserable and afraid than for the Americans to score a victory."
   I suspect a lot of this thinking is behind the opposition to the "American" (and Albanian, Azerbaijani, Bulgarian, Slovakian, Dutch, Nicaraguan, Danish, Honduran, Thai, Kazakh...) occupation. Even though those most vocally opposed to the occupation may say they are motivated by concern for the welfare of Iraqis what really concerns them above all is that America must not win, and what's good for the Iraqis isn't really important.

Jacques Chirac talked of "the development by certain states of ballistic missile capability which could give them, one day, the means to threaten European territory with nuclear, biological or chemical weapons. If they were driven by hostile intentions toward us, the leaders of these states must know that they are exposing themselves to unacceptable damage." Specifically, an atomic attack against the "centres of political, economic or military power".

Contrast the silence greeting the news of this doctrinal shift with the loud outrage when the Americans reminded people of the decades-old doctrine to use nuclear weapons against those who use chemical or biological weapons against them, and announced the development of a new family of much smaller nuclear warheads to allow even the most strongly fortified bunker to be destroyed.

American mini-nukes: bad, crazy unilateralism! French mini-nukes: nuanced and sophisticated!

• Elephant polo.
• Elephant swimming races.
• Elephant racing.
• Pig racing.
• The Moscow Cat Circus.
• Kittenfilter - serious talk about cute animals.

Blah blah, blah blah blah. Blah blah blah blah blah blah blah? Blah blah blah! Blah blah blah...

I really can't stand that man. He couldn't be any more weaselly if he sprouted whiskers and a twitchy snout.

"Whose war is this?"
"It's a jihad, baby."
"Whose jihad is this?"
"It's Osama's."
"Who's Osama?"
"Osama's dead, baby. Osama's dead."

There's more detail of the speech here.

Mahathir said they could at least take a common stand on the Palestinian struggle against Israel and it was time to plan a "counter-attack" against the enemies of Islam who treated Muslims with "contempt and dishonour". ...
"[The Jews] invented and successfully promoted socialism, communism, human rights and democracy so that persecuting them would appear to be wrong, so they may enjoy equal rights with others.
"With these they have now gained control of the most powerful countries and they, this tiny community, have become a world power.
"We cannot fight them through brawn alone, we must use our brains also," he said.
"Of late because of their power and their apparent success they have become arrogant. And arrogant people like angry people will make mistakes, will forget to think.
"They are already beginning to make mistakes. And they will make more mistakes. There may be windows of opportunity for us now and in the future. We must seize these opportunities."

Anti-war activists including the Guardian columnist George Monbiot are planning to form a coalition to challenge the Labour party in the European and local elections in June.

Syria is, of course, Israel's enemy. The two countries are still in an official state of war, caused by Israel's occupation and illegal annexation of the Syrian Golan Heights.

And since the beginning of the Palestinian uprising, Israel has increasingly focused on the Palestinian opposition groups hosted by Syria.

[Members of the Palestinian Authority acknowledge Syrian support for Islamic Jihad, al-Aqsa Walking Bomb Brigade etc...] In response to Syria's anti-war, anti-occupation stance, the US has demanded that it clean up its act to fit the new regional order - one that increasingly defines all armed resistance, whether in Iraq or other occupied Arab territories, as "terrorism."

According to diplomatic sources, Damascus also urged the exiled Hamas and Islamic Jihad leaderships to accept the unilateral Palestinian ceasefire declared in June.
They did, but the truce has since broken down.

Update 08 Oct: the text of the third paragraph on the BBC website has changed since I wrote this - the "Last Edited" time is wrong.

Leader Kim Jong Il's famous work "Let Us Exalt the Brilliance of Comrade Kim Il Sung's Idea on the Youth Movement and the Achievements Made under His Leadership" was brought out in booklet on September 20 by the Publishing House of the Peace and Socialist Movement of Italy.

"I simply record music that a mushroom sings to me," he said... "Not all of them carry the same tune," Mr Halek said. "There are tones and melodies that only toadstools and mushrooms make, so that together they cannot be used to create a composition." He also claims to hear music coming from rocks and trees but prefers mushroom melodies.

• seems increasingly sad, lonely, angry or withdrawn
• has few friends
• has thoughts of hurting him/herself or others

We wouldn't know any of this stuff if it wasn't for groundbreaking research like this.