When, in the early 1960s, James Baldwin wrote The Fire Next Time to try to explain racism, he could not have imagined that half a century later it would remain relevant.

The decision by the High Court in Northern Ireland that it is “minded to quash” the warrants obtained by police to carry out raids on the homes and office of Belfast journalists Trevor Birney and Barry McCaffrey is a welcome sign that at least one branch of the justice system in Northern Ireland is prepared to respect and vindicate press freedom.

US President George W Bush today opened three days of intensive consultations on Iraq, aiming to reverse the course of the nearly four-year-old war and energise his final two years in office.

RETIRED military commanders have accused US Defence Secretary Donald Rumsfeld of putting Allied troops at risk by underestimating the strength of the Iraqi resistance.

IT may be a shadow of its former self, but Iraq's Republican Guard is still a combat-hardened force. And it stands at the gates to Baghdad.