The retreat came as Wednesday's vote on the government's embryology bill, seen by anti-abortionists at first as a once-in-a-generation opportunity to change the law on a woman's right to choose, risked descending into farce.
Downing Street had still not resolved a cabinet row over how to handle the bill yesterday. But it is expected that the time allotted for debate will be so sharply curtailed that dozens of rival abortion amendments tabled by both sides in the argument will not be put to a vote, meaning that the law is likely to stay unchanged.
TVNL Comment: Sanity reigns across the pond!
A former head of MI5 today describes the response to the September 11 2001 attacks on the US as a "huge overreaction" and says the invasion of Iraq influenced young men in Britain who turned to terrorism.
The medical profession in particular has been hollowed out. Iraq's health-care system used to be the envy of the Arab world. Even in the 1990s, when sanctions and Saddam Hussein's worsening misrule crippled much of the country, people came from all over the region to study medicine or seek treatment. But after the U.S. invasion, doctors became targets for ransom kidnappings and assassination. Upwards of 120 physicians were killed. 
For more than 60 years Britain's Bomber Command led by Arthur 'Bomber' Harris has been vilified for causing up to 500,000 deaths in the carpet bombing of Dresden during World War II.
