I bet the women of Afghanistan can hardly contain themselves now that the Taliban have gone and they are once again free. Or maybe not.

Make yourself a Steve Bell card.

I find it ludicrous that Ronaldo keeps harvesting player of the year awards, Nike must have been greasing a few palms. For a kick off, he is just plain chuffing ugly. Over the year he has played in the grand total of 17 games. Moreover, he crapped all over Inter Milan, who frankly, deserved better. So, he has hardly kicked a ball, and has proven himself to be of low moral character, yet has performed consistently better than any other player in world football? It stinks. Even though Simon Hattenstone takes a polar view, I would still recommend reading his profile of the snake.

A romance

Don't let Waterman et al steal the Christmas number one slot! Fight back !

"The Catalán preoccupation with shit would make Sigmund Freud proud,": Christmas delicacies in Catalonia.

Latest proposals for the rebuilding of ground zero.(NY Times)

A pox appears to be upon this house.

This is a very sad, odd and intriguing story about a woman who was a highly experienced and well travelled hiker, but who managed to starve herself to death, seemingly unintentionally, a days hike from civilisation.

John Pilger on the "secret" war with Iraq. It's not so secret actually, I would think anyone who tries to keep even slightly abreast of world events is aware of it. He makes some interesting points though. In the Mirror of all places.

The coolest albums of 2002

e Christmas cards.