Yesterday in Karbala, the young Shia cleric Muqtada al-Sadr let it be known that he would be "freezing" all activities of his Mahdi Army militia for six months. It remains to be seen whether the move...

What does it mean to talk about good and evil today? According to Nicholas Mosley—the novelist and son of Oswald Mosley, leader of the British Union of Fascists—it means writing off large swathes...

The great fear of homeowners is that a drop in prices will leave them in the state of negative equity—when you can only sell your home for less than you still owe on it—that afflicted so many at...

I may be missing something, but as far as I can see, the government's agreement to "review" the asylum cases of 91 interpreters who have worked with British armed forces in Iraq marks the first...

Earlier this week, Alex Salmond, the Scottish first minister, presided over a civic reception in Glasgow to honour the heroes of the failed Glasgow airport bombings on 30th June—the men and women...

The first law of bubbles is that they burst. It may take much longer for them to do so than anyone expects, but in the end, they do. It is a matter of simple arithmetic that house prices cannot...

Today the National Housing Federation published a damning report on England's housing market, describing it as "distorted and dysfunctional," with research by Oxford Economics predicting that house...

The Edinburgh Festival Fringe started yesterday (the main festival begins on Friday). In Prospect's August 2002 issue, playwright Samantha Ellis defended the fringe's position as the best launching...

According to today's cover story in the Independent, leading Khmer Rouge member Comrade Duch has been charged with crimes against humanity by a UN-backed tribunal in Cambodia. Duch (real name Kaing...

Heard of Balochistan? This vast region, straddling southeastern Iran, southern Afghanistan and southwestern Pakistan, is home to the Baloch people. The Baloch, while ethnically heterogeneous, are...