Alexander Litvinenko, who died horribly in a London hospital on Thursday, is only the latest critic of Russian President Vladimir Putin to meet a brutal death.
On October 7, another critic, the journalist Anna Politkovskaya was gunned down in the lobby of her Moscow apartment building. Two years earlier, in July 2004, the U.S. journalist   more

You’ll never know who will turn up in Washington to talk politics. On Wednesday, the city was graced by actress Eva Longoria, the sultry star of ABC’s Desperate Housewives. Addressing an audience of Latino business leaders, she explained the wide appeal of her show: “Everyone on Wisteria Lane has the money of a Republican, but   more

The 430 prisoners in the detention centre at Guantanamo Bay send and receive 44,000 pieces of mail per year. Lawyers fly in and out on the commercial flights from Miami to the U.S. base to meet with their clients. The International Red Cross inspects the camp and interviews prisoners.
And yet the idea persists that   more

The Bush administration woke up yesterday morning to a deeply ugly political situation. Those polls that show the president below 40% approval? They would look even worse if they surveyed only Republican members of Congress. As for the president’s opponents: They are slavering for a nice two-year-long munch on the administration’s haunches.
Worst of all,   more

Tuesday’s mid-term result contains two great lessons, one for liberals and Democrats and one for conservatives and Republicans. For liberals: America remains a very, very, conservative country. In a year that many called “the worst Republican environment since Watergate”, the GOP lost fewer than half as many seats as the Democrats lost in 1994. Control   more

Last night’s vote represents only the first great move in the great game for control of the White House in 2009.
For the first four years after 9/11, Republicans enjoyed a huge advantage over Democrats on the only issue that mattered: national security. In the first post-9/11 shock, Americans gave Republicans an almost 30-point lead   more

Most observers agree that the Democratic party will win the midterm Congressional elections. But which Democratic party? For there are two.
There is the Democratic party of MoveOn.org and the Daily Kos, the Democratic party whose supporters calls for the immediate withdrawal of troops from Iraq and acceptance of an Iranian nuclear bomb. It is   more