Is the time of reckoning nigh?

As US politicians continue to debate how the lies on Iraq should be dealt with, British PM Tony Blair now appears irreveribly committed to a spiralling nose dive.

Blair says the BBC allegations against him are 'about as serious an attack on my integrity as there could possibly be'. But now the head of M16 has come out in support of the BBC. The UK government seem to be raising the ante in an increasingly desperate attempt to make the BBC back down, but the BBC are staying true to their line (God bless 'em!). The sad thing is, Tony Blair was doing a pretty good job until W. Bush came along with his war stories....

Meanwhile, in the far-flung British colony of Australia (still under the royal command of Her Maj), John Howard spent the day defending himself against revelations that US intelligence had informed his government that their justifications for war against Iraq were not credible.

"I am still very strong in my belief that Australia did the right thing," Mr Howard says. Well, that is debateable, but did you, John Winston Howard, (not Australia, since 80% of Australians opposed the war) do the right thing in the right way? It's a good thing to rid the world of despots, but destroying noble international institutions and legal milestones like the Geneva Convention along the way is just not the way to do it.

Also today:

- US warplanes locked thier weapons on Indonesian fighter planes.

- oil-producing, US-coup-surviving, Latin American Venezuela has refused to sign an agreement with the United States which grants US citizens immunity from the International Criminal Court (ICC). Along with Kyoto, this was one of the first international structures which the Bush boys attempted to destroy.

- British prisoners in Guantanamo Bay, Cuba, have been told to either plead guilty or face the death penalty.