If there were heavy forces, such as the 4th Infantry Division, on the ground in the north and advancing south towards Tikrit and Baghdad, Iraqi resistance would be divided, enabling allied units moving up from the south to do so more quickly.

ECONOMIST: The coming war

But Howard Hughes, strange, shy, intense and beetle-browed, fell in love with them, and decided that much of the money he was dispensing through Hollywood in the 1940s should go towards advancing them.

ECONOMIST: Jane Russell

The French Defence Ministry have acknowledged that one of its mirage jets in Chad fired warning shots towards rebels advancing on N'Djamena from the east on Wednesday.

BBC: NEWS | Africa | Chad confronts rebels in capital

"The fiction of a Europe advancing at the same speed towards greater integration, already damaged by the Maastricht setbacks, is now dead, " it says.

BBC: European press review

And I also want to take a minute before I begin to thank the Senators who, just a few hours ago, took another big step towards sensible gun safety reforms by advancing a federal gun trafficking bill.

WHITEHOUSE: President Obama Signs the Violence Against Women Act Reauthorization | The White House