This has been a truly astonishing week when it comes to fantasy fiction,that genre where people make things up and people blithely believe it for its thought free entertainment. Buffy, Angel and now Bush and Allawi.Bush, against all the evidence asse

The universe seems to be made out of nothing, and yet somehow it manages to exist. Why does the uiniverse go to the bother of existing at all? (Hawking)'A recognition of the unkowable is the only way to reconcile science and religeon' (spencer, first

It was Christmas Eve, 1953 and a train was taking hundreds of weary, tired travellers dreaming of tinsel and fire from Wellington to Auckland where they would meet their loved ones and celebrate Christmas the next day. It was a dark and foreboding ni

One of the wonderful things about South East Asia is that nearly everything is done out of doors in a bustling, hustling sort of activity. The drilling chatter broken by the clanking spatulas against iron woks, cut with the hiss of hot metal squeakin

It's a nasty habit I know, but occasionally I come across photographs left behind by other travellers. Some are worth keeping or looking at a least so although these are none of mine - share anyway!I'e seent the sand dune photograph before, the photo

The Piazza Navona, Roma. It's the morning after the night before.I stop in one of the many street cafes that line the Piazza and pause, to take stock, rest my weary feet and reflect on the week gone past. The hubub of the milling crowds flocking

I know this doesn't really belong here but on a long journey I happened across a wonderful poem that I've never heard before and thought I'd share it. Look, you don't have to read it! But if you do, it may be worth printing it out and curling up with

Yesterday was one of the bloodiest days in Iraq for several months. A total of 59 people were killed in two seperate attacks and hundreds more were injured. The targets, as they have been increasingly since the so called independence day, are focsuin

Dear all,Some more stories culled from around the world which just goes to show how truly daft people can be and how odd the world really is. I hope you enjoy the latest round-up of stories from around the world.In Texas, a pleasure boat was sunk yes

Dear all, Er, hello there. Arch angel Gabriel here.    Now listen up old chaps, I'm afraid that God has a little bad news for all of you that believe in him and that when you die you'll go to heaven.   The thing is, you see, well G

Nancy was a lady I developed a huge crush on in Lake Toba.I hadn't felt this way about a woman in years, it was bordering on the obsessional. But I'm getting ahead of myself, the story about Nancy starts a way back, shortly after I arrived in Lake To

Michael Moore in 'Stupid White Men' alleged that Bush stole the last election by ensuring that Florida fell to him by engaging in dubious tactics in that state. One of the allegations he made was the governor, his brother Jeb Bush, abused the felon l

The Bush administration is the most duplicitous and hypocritical for many decades.GWB has taken advantage of and abused this double standard throughout his life.I am British, and if anything could be described as pro-American, I am just very sad that

The following article is written by one of my most respected journalists and appeared in the British Indpendent Newspaper. It isn't available to everyone, but I thought that in the light of the terrible tragedy in Beslan that others may wish to share

Masu, an ethnic Hmong, from Burma paid a flesh trader to take her to Thailand where she hoped to find work so that she could support her impoverished family back home.She landed a job as a maid in a furniture shop owned by an army officer and his wif

Now, one day in a small town called Cacak in the North of Serbia, there was a tractor driver called Pavel. Pavel owned a farm, but now he was facing ruin. He could not afford the petrol to run his tractor fuel prices were to high. Not just that, b

Patagonia, in South America, is a place where many Welsh people fled in order that they could speak their own tongue and celebrate their ancient culture without fear or assault from the English.It is a vast area straddling the lands of southern

Whatever did happen to the old bardic tradition?I remember some years ago seeing a story teller at the edge of the Sahara.Just outside the souk, he set himself up with a waterskin and a dozen or so small glass tumblers scratched opaque by the sands.H

The Republican Convention has kicked off in New York, and what a load of bollocks it is. Just as was the Democratic convention. What we are seeing at work here is not so much a convention but a cheap, gimmicky side-show. As was the Democratic convent

Dear all, In case you were wondering I am still very much alive and kicking despite being incommunicado for the last ten days or so. This is just a short note to fill people in on the continuing odyssey. I left Georgetown, Penang in Malaysia