As you may have already read, Miley Cyrus is totally embarrassed by the semi-topless (back view) photos printed of her in this month's Vanity Fair. In a statement put out by her publicist, Ms. Cyrus, age 15, said, "I took part in a photo shoot that was supposed to be 'artistic' and now, seeing the photographs and reading the story, I feel so embarrassed... I never intended for any of this to happen and I apologize to my fans who I care so deeply about."

Representatives of the magazine responded that during Annie Liebovitz's shoot, "Miley's parents and/or minders were on the set all day... Since the photo was taken digitally, they saw it on the shoot and everyone thought it was a beautiful and natural portrait of Miley."

This isn't the first time a star has felt stung by VF. Dewey ingenues like Lindsay Lohan and Paul Wolfowitz have complained of being misquoted and beloved icons like Courtney Love and Paris Hilton blame the magazine for their subsequent vilification. Here, a look back in anger, denial, and occasional admission.  read more »

While international organizations such as the International Monetary Fund, the World Bank and the United Nations may still seem remote to most Americans, those institutions symbolize the increasing integration of a planet that deeply needs capable, trusted and farsighted guidance.  read more »

I would like nothing better than to be able to get involved in this debate [over Iraq]. I would particularly like to be able to clear the record of some of the garbage about myself personally, but if I start doing that, the people I work for would say, 'You are not doing your job,

The guy's whistling in the wind, hoping against hope that the World Bank will somehow eclipse Iraq in the world's memory of him. It won't. We can chisel the epitaph now: "the Iraqis will welcome us as liberators". Wolfowitz should take a cue from McNamara, and start apologizing now, not thirty years on.

Block: At the United Nations yesterday there were envoys from Muslim countries warning of massive political instability in the region, of huge numbers of deaths and injuries as well as refugees.

Wolfie: Clearly some of the fears come from I think probably exaggerated notions of what may happen... But at the end of the day I think many of these governments understand that...that it will be an act of humanity [to] the Iraqi people, that it will be an act that will bring more stability to the region, not less.

Block: There are concerns, too, though about the rise of Muslim extremism in the region inflamed by the U.S. occupation of Iraq...

Wolfie: We're not talking about the occupation of Iraq. We're talking about the liberation of Iraq. We're talking about the liberation of one of the most talented populations in the Arab world and perhaps the most long-suffering population in the Arab world. Therefore, when that regime is removed we will find one of the most talented populations in the Arab world, perhaps complaining that it took us so long to get there... basically welcoming us as liberators.... The Arab world is going to see that and it's going to have a very big impact not just in Iraq but throughout the Arab world.

Block: The presence of U.S. troops in Saudi Arabia has been one of the most inflammatory things for al Qaeda and groups like that. That they see U.S. occupation or U.S. presence in that country as something that they must fight against. How would it be any different in Iraq? Wolfie: The Iraqis are among the most educated people in the Arab world. They are by and large quite secular. They are overwhelmingly Shia which is different from the Wahabis of the [Saudi] peninsula... But the most fundamental difference is that, let me put it this way. We're seeing today how much the people of Poland and Central and Eastern Europe appreciate what the United States did to help liberate them from the tyranny of the Soviet Union. I think you're going to see even more of that sentiment in Iraq. There's not going to be the hostility that you described...There simply won't be.

Aluminum tubes... Yellow cake from Niger....Chemical labs in train cars....All the warmongering claims duly parroted to the world by George Bush, Condoleezza Rice, and Colin Powell, thereby damaging themselves forever.  read more »