Liverpool continues to turn into Dodge City. Its all intertwined with children’s football too. Presumably this will make the nationals eventually.

Liverpool again. This one won’t make the national dailies.

Moscow Times shows that Medvedev is still trying to do something about the rule of law in Russia. But as the officer quoted at the end of the article says “They will never allow cuts to the staff at central headquarters”. Never seems to happen here either…or at least never for long

Preparations fo an offensive in Kandahar…and recognition that organised crime may be an obstacle to obtaining popular support from Afghans. Special Forces “taking out ” insurgent leaders, but a huge suspicion that someone much higher up the tree needs to be removed too.

The comments from times readers are as depressing as usual. But remember there is a General Election on and seats at stake in Northern Ireland too. lets see what happens once this interminable campaign finally comes to some sort of result

No link from the title today. Just to tell you that I have returned from a visit to South East Asia, studying the Redshirts in Thailand, the border scams on the Thai-Cambodia border and discovering that the Buddhist festival of Songkran as celebrated in Luang Prabang is a two-day water fight. I will be bringing … RETURN OF THE BLOGGER

It has been great to be away from the UK election! the crime rate has been falling for a while now, but you wouldnt know it from the redtops. It goes back to policies pioneered in Scotland after the safer Cities initiative of the 1980s, for any PhD students who want to research the stuff

Your blogger has been attached to the title of “expert on grey crime” ever since he made a silly throwaway remark to an audience of retired folk in Exeter many years ago, without knowing the press were present. the following day the local headline was; OAP Crime Wave…and Ive never looked back. Please note the … GREY CRIME WAVE?

The story of the stolen Leonardo…or is it? Not proven, m’lud. The Times tells a good story. At least the picture is safe. There will be books on this one. And lawsuits too.

Three “not proven”, two “not guilty” of one of the FBI’s top ten world arts thefts. This relates to the previous post.