Even if weapons of mass destruction are never found in Iraq , the U.S.-led war was justified because it eliminated the threat that Saddam Hussein might again resort to "evil chemistry and evil biology," Attorney General John Ashcroft (news - web sites) said Monday.

"The engine of the global economy, the U.S., is running not on gas but on fumes, on little more than tax cuts and borrowing," Morgan Stanley chief economist Stephen S. Roach warned last week at the World Economic Forum in Davos, Switzerland.
In the first 10 months of 2003, wine imports from France dipped by 703,000 cases, or 7 percent, according to the Wine Institute in San Francisco. California's wine exports to France, although still relatively limited, rose 78 percent in that period, to 898,000 cases.
In the November issue of Fortune, Berkshire Hathaway chief executive Warren E. Buffett confessed that he had bet against the dollar for the first time in his life by purchasing foreign currencies.

We say we're so upset about the spread of Islamic fundamentalism--yet we stand by while rich Saudis set up Wahhabi madrassahs all over the Muslim world and invite poor parents to send their kids for free. These youngsters could be learning astronomy instead of memorizing the Koran. We could put our Mars money where our mouth is.

Some evangelical Christian and "family values" pressure groups, plus Senator Trent Lott, are urging Frist to use the "nuclear option" to abolish judicial filibusters. One such option involves having whichever GOP senator is presiding over the Senate at the time rule a filibuster against a nominee out of order and then rule that his position needs only fifty-one votes to be sustained, not the sixty needed to end debate. Some scholars, however, believe the "nuclear option" is unconstitutional and would end up in the courts. Democrats say it will shut down the Senate if used.

Last year Japan's central bank shelled out $187bn propping up the sagging dollar. The pace is quickening. Earlier this month it spent $38bn in one week alone.
Just to add a little icing to the cake, all those dollars that Japan is buying on the foreign exchange market are being spent on US government bonds - keeping US interest rates down and helping to finance Mr Bush's spending plans.
As a junior German economics minister noted earlier this week, an exchange rate of $1.25 is cause for concern, anything above $1.30 means real problems. France's trade minister, Fran?ois Loos, is already complaining that French firms are having to slash their margins to offset the impact of the greenback's fall from grace. "It is obvious this situation cannot last forever."
As long as China refuses to abandon the yuan's peg against the greenback and allow it to appreciate, Japan has little choice but to keep the lid on the yen, leaving the euro badly exposed.

A Church of England boarding school for girls has protested to the American ambassador after five members of its choir were branded potential illegal immigrants and banned from entering the US. "The sad comment made by the girls was, 'It's just because we are Chinese',"

Vice President Cheney, administration man of mystery, is suddenly everywhere.
Mary Matalin, Cheney's former counselor, said he is not raising his profile because of the campaign but is "just doing what he does best, which is presenting the long view and the rationale of any given policy."


It quoted FBI (news - web sites) director Robert Mueller as testifying that "(e)ach of the hijackers ... came easily and lawfully from abroad" and CIA (news - web sites) chief George Tenet as describing 17 of the 19 hijackers as "clean," and said: "We believe the information we have provided today gives the commission the opportunity to re-evaluate those statements."