U.S. Defense Secretary Donald Rumsfeld admits to the BBC that Iraq is no safer than it was in 2003, when America brought freedom from tyranny.

If you like seeing movies in theatres (and there are some mutants out there who don't :) ) in the centre of the Canadian universe, you may be wondering about what the Cineplex Odeon-Famous Players deal means to you.

Ex-FBI agent Mike German talks to Democracy Now! about what he sees as the bureau's failure to deal effectively with white supremacist groups.

German has written: "Lone extremists pose a challenge for law enforcement because they're difficult to predict. It's like searching every haystack for a needle. Perhaps we'd have better luck if we paid more attention to the needle factories. This is especially true now that militant Islamic terrorist groups like al Qaeda are adopting the model of leaderless resistance that our homegrown terrorists mastered so well. ”

Florence Aubenas says talking to a fellow captive earned her a whupping during her five months as a hostage in Iraq.

Tsangyang Gyatso became the sixth Dalai Lamai in 1697 when he was only 14 -- and new translations of erotic poetry he wrote show a boy clearly torn between spiritual duty and the drive to get laid.

There is a Chinese equivalent to George Carlin's "seven words you can't say on television", except they are freedom, democracy and demonstration.

Antonia Zerbisias has a posting about Rogers' OMNI 1 getting slapped by the Canadian Broadcasting Standards Council for this little ditty from Jimmy Swaggart on same-sex marriage:

With Reuters pulling out today, London's Fleet Street is left without media organizations.

Former Fleet Street editor Bill Hagerty reminisces about the glory days for the BBC:

From time to time, I'm going to revisit some of the classic gangster films of the 1980s and onward. Donnie Brasco will be the lead-off film.