Alastair

Britain's role in the war in Iraq is one to be proud of, a defiant Alastair Campbell told the ongoing Iraq Inquiry on Tuesday. During five hours of questioning on the decision to invade Iraq along with the U.S., Campbell, who was Tony Blair's communications director in 2003, put on a robust defense of his boss at the time, insisting that the British prime minister was not President George W. Bush's "poodle." Campbell told the independent panel that Blair had been convinced by intelligence sources that Saddam Hussein's chemical and biological weapons could be unleashed within a 45-minute time frame.

Britain's role in the war in Iraq is one to be proud of, a defiant Alastair Campbell told the ongoing Iraq Inquiry on Tuesday. During five hours of questioning on the decision to invade Iraq along with the U.S., Campbell, who was Tony Blair's communications director in 2003, put on a robust defense of his boss at the time, insisting that the British prime minister was not President George W. Bush's "poodle." Campbell told the independent panel that Blair had been convinced by intelligence sources that Saddam Hussein's chemical and biological weapons could be unleashed within a 45-minute time frame.

Alastair Macdonald, a longtime Van Nuys general practitioner and surgeon, has died at a Tarzana hospital. He was 79. A Tarzana resident, Macdonald died Saturday of complications of a stroke, his son, Cameron Macdonald, said. Born in Windsor, Ontario, Canada, Macdonald graduated from the University of Toronto Medical School and came to California where he worked for a few years as a physician at the former Ross-Loos Medical Group in Los Angeles.

YOU may not be able to judge a book by its cover, but sometimes what is pictured there can give you a definite hint. The sight of a bemused Tony Blair looking up at his stern-visaged press secretary suggests pupil and teacher, and after reading these 700-plus pages of the diaries Alastair Campbell kept of his nine years as spin doctor extraordinaire, you might well decide that a better title would have been "His Master's Voice" -- thus raising the question as to just who the master was.

Alastair Forbes, 87, a British writer, journalist, reviewer and gadfly who was also an uncle of Sen. John F. Kerry (D-Mass.), died Thursday in a London hospital, according to family members. No cause of death was given. Born near London in 1918, Forbes was the son of James Grant Forbes, a lawyer from a well-known Boston family. His older sister, Rosemary, was the mother of Kerry, the Democratic nominee for president in the 2004 election. She died in 2002.

Alastair G.W. Cameron, an astrophysicist who was among the first to develop the now widely accepted theory that the moon was formed after a planet collided with Earth billions of years ago, has died. He was 80. Cameron, who also mapped out planetary exploration for the U.S. space program, died of heart failure Oct. 3 at his home in Tucson, his family said.

YOU may not be able to judge a book by its cover, but sometimes what is pictured there can give you a definite hint. The sight of a bemused Tony Blair looking up at his stern-visaged press secretary suggests pupil and teacher, and after reading these 700-plus pages of the diaries Alastair Campbell kept of his nine years as spin doctor extraordinaire, you might well decide that a better title would have been "His Master's Voice" -- thus raising the question as to just who the master was.

Sir Alastair Morton will take a place in the history books as overseer of the long-awaited tunnel between England and France. Yet the British chairman of Eurotunnel is reluctant to boast about the magnitude of the achievement, balking at comparing the tunnel with other human-made marvels. "The Suez Canal, the pyramids and all that stuff," Morton says. "I wasn't there. I mean, I have no idea."

The son of Britain's top law enforcement officer pleaded guilty Thursday to stalking and threatening the boyfriend of a woman he wanted to date. Orange County Superior Court Judge Christopher Strople sentenced Alastair Irvine, 25, to 16 months in state prison and ordered him deported upon his release. The judge also issued a 10-year restraining order prohibiting the defendant from making contact with the victims.

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Alastair G.W. Cameron, an astrophysicist who was among the first to develop the now widely accepted theory that the moon was formed after a planet collided with Earth billions of years ago, has died. He was 80. Cameron, who also mapped out planetary exploration for the U.S. space program, died of heart failure Oct. 3 at his home in Tucson, his family said.

Alastair Forbes, 87, a British writer, journalist, reviewer and gadfly who was also an uncle of Sen. John F. Kerry (D-Mass.), died Thursday in a London hospital, according to family members. No cause of death was given. Born near London in 1918, Forbes was the son of James Grant Forbes, a lawyer from a well-known Boston family. His older sister, Rosemary, was the mother of Kerry, the Democratic nominee for president in the 2004 election. She died in 2002.

The characters and predicaments detailed in Mexican writer Ignacio Padilla's concise and intense short-story collection "Antipodes" remind us that things are not always what they seem.

Alastair Campbell, the director of communications seen as the second-most-powerful man in Prime Minister Tony Blair's government, resigned Friday after nine years as the strategist who helped Blair shake up Britain's political culture. Campbell's decision was the latest development in a three-month crisis pitting the British news media against the government in a dispute over the justification for going to war in Iraq.

The son of Britain's top law enforcement officer pleaded guilty Thursday to stalking and threatening the boyfriend of a woman he wanted to date. Orange County Superior Court Judge Christopher Strople sentenced Alastair Irvine, 25, to 16 months in state prison and ordered him deported upon his release. The judge also issued a 10-year restraining order prohibiting the defendant from making contact with the victims.

Giangiacomo Feltrinelli, international publisher of enormous inherited wealth, a socialite, womanizer and radical anti-capitalist political crusader, was, after nearly three years underground, one of Italy's most wanted men in 1972, the year of his death. Still troubled by its wartime Fascist past, the country was in the grip of paranoia erupting in violence on both left and right. Feltrinelli, in hiding, making bombs, felt he was at war.

Alastair Campbell, the director of communications seen as the second-most-powerful man in Prime Minister Tony Blair's government, resigned Friday after nine years as the strategist who helped Blair shake up Britain's political culture. Campbell's decision was the latest development in a three-month crisis pitting the British news media against the government in a dispute over the justification for going to war in Iraq.

Steven Soderbergh's complex drug thriller, "Traffic," was nominated this week for five Oscars, including best picture and director. Its writer, Stephen Gaghan, is up for best screenplay adaptation for the box-office hit, which stars Michael Douglas, Catherine Zeta-Jones and Benicio Del Toro. "Traffic" was adapted from an award-winning British miniseries, "Traffik," which aired in England in 1989 and on PBS' "Masterpiece Theatre" in 1990 and was written by Simon Moore.

Steven Soderbergh's complex drug thriller, "Traffic," was nominated this week for five Oscars, including best picture and director. Its writer, Stephen Gaghan, is up for best screenplay adaptation for the box-office hit, which stars Michael Douglas, Catherine Zeta-Jones and Benicio Del Toro. "Traffic" was adapted from an award-winning British miniseries, "Traffik," which aired in England in 1989 and on PBS' "Masterpiece Theatre" in 1990 and was written by Simon Moore.

Sir Alastair Morton will take a place in the history books as overseer of the long-awaited tunnel between England and France. Yet the British chairman of Eurotunnel is reluctant to boast about the magnitude of the achievement, balking at comparing the tunnel with other human-made marvels. "The Suez Canal, the pyramids and all that stuff," Morton says. "I wasn't there. I mean, I have no idea."