After almost a decade of involvement, a change of strategy was inevitable. The killing of Osama bin Laden last month fulfilled the primary goal of the original invasion of October 2001, and as the president noted, the al-Q'aida organisation has alrea...

Nation has cause to be angry Unfortunately, Sean O'Grady's perception of rioting Greeks as "a spoilt child's tantrums" (22 June) is probably widespread beyond Greece's borders. However, it is mistaken. I was in Athens last week visiting some of m...

The infusion of troops, including US Marines, was part of President Obama's surge and despite widespread suspicion of Nato's spin, it genuinely seems that their arrival had an impact, especially in Helmand and neighbouring Kandahar – although neither...

Users might buy the same packet containing a substance that looks the same as one they bought previously from a website or headshop, but the drugs might be different – with different potency or effects. There is no more "quality control" in the legal...

And this week, by coincidence, an Essex teenager, Ryan Cleary, was arrested on suspicion of involvement in cyber attacks which may have targeted CIA and other US computer systems. Before any extradition request is considered, key changes are needed i...

The obvious question is: why? The answer is that – incredibly, a decade into the 21st century – this is the price that has to be paid for trying to tell the truth about an apparently modern and open country: Thailand. Thailand claims to be a democrac...

Yesterday the Government sank to a new low with a series of parliamentary shenanigans, attempting first to impose a three-line whip on MPs, before realising this would embarrassingly fail. In an extraordinary speech, the Tory MP Mark Pritchard laid b...

Still, ugly people – as well as plain people generally – must fight back, which is why I have established PlainPeople.com, the first service of its kind, and an exciting advance in dating. Or, as our MD puts it: "This will allow plain people to conne...