Obama: McCain is not racist
The Democrat presidential hopeful Barack Obama has denied he accused his Republican rival John McCain of racism, saying: "In no way do I think John McCain's campaign was racist." But he decried the
Republican campaign as "cynical" and "negative". On Friday, McCain's team accused Obama of playing the... [continued]
The political scandal America doesn't want to know about 
Bush drops McCain the warmonger in it
Solzhenitsyn dies aged 89
The soviet dissident and Nobel literature prize winner Alexander Solzhenitsyn has died at the age of 89. His son Stepan said he had died at home of heart failure. Solzhenitsyn's expose of the gulags, where tens of millions perished, cost him 20 years in exile during which he became one... [continued]
‘Green tax’ plans criticised
A committee of MPs has criticised the Government's plans to selectively increase road tax to discourage pollution. The Environmental Audit Commission says the plans are a "step in the right
direction", but the chairman, Conservative MP Tim Yeo, says the benefit to the environment would be "limited". And three members... [continued]
The Mole: Miliband tests Brown with call for ‘radical new phase’
Honeymoon shooting victim dies
Ben Mullany, the bridegroom whose wife was shot dead during a bungled robbery on their honeymoon in Antigua, has died in hospital. The 31-year-old never woke from the coma he entered after being shot at Catherine's side. He was flown home to Swansea by air ambulance in a desperate attempt... [continued]
Sixteen die in Chinese border attack
Four days before the opening of the Olympic games in Beijing, 16 Chinese policemen have died in an attack on a border post in the troubled Muslim region Xinjiang. State media reports that two
attackers threw grenades, before moving in to attack with knives. Both assailants were captured. Uighur... [continued]
Beijing 2008: speedy analysis, strong comment, enduring photographs
Seven ways it could still go wrong for China
India: 145 die in temple crush
As many as 145 pilgrims, including 30 children, have died in a stampede at a Himalayan temple in the north of India. Officials said most of the victims had died of suffocation after rumours of a landslide caused panic among the many thousands of pilgrims at the remote Naina Devi... [continued]
N Rock: negative equity rising
Northern Rock is to admit that around 20 per cent of its customers are in negative equity. The Government-owned mortgage bank says about 140,000 homes may now be worth less than the mortgage debt
their owners face, which could lead to the state reposessing homes. Many of the affected home... [continued]
America and Europe will rise from the financial ashes
A&L profits almost wiped out
Half-year profits at Alliance & Leicester have slumped to £2m from £290m for the same period last year after the bank was forced into massive write-downs triggered by the global credit crisis.
But the mortgage lender claimed its core business was still in "good shape". The A&L write-down was... [continued]
Freddie and Fannie: an American racket
