Great Britain

CAMP DAVID -- British Prime Minister Gordon Brown is regarded as a somber figure in his home country, in contrast to his predecessor, the energetic Tony Blair. But after spending four hours alone with the new British leader during dinner Sunday and a long breakfast yesterday, President Bush declared that conventional wisdom about Brown is distorted, and he said the relationship between the U.S. and Great Britain was as strong as ever, despite a change in leadership. "He's not the dour Scotsman that you describe him, or the awkward Scotsman.

Freedom's Power The True Force of Liberalism By Paul Starr Basic Books / 276 pages / $26 By 1988, when George H.W. Bush derided Michael S. Dukakis as a card-carrying member of the ACLU, "the L word" occupied a privileged position in the demonology of the American Right and, to no small extent, in the country at large. Dismissed as weak, feckless, process-oriented relativists, liberals began to call themselves progressives or disavowed any label at all. The Democratic Party lost its way - and its majority in both houses of Congress.

WILMINGTON, Del. -- The setting will be similar, a steamy afternoon that will only add to playing in the heat of the final round in a major championship. This time, even more might be at stake for Juli Inkster.Buoyed by her victory in the U.S. Women's Open three weeks ago, Inkster will be going after something other than just another major championship here in the McDonald's LPGA Championship at DuPont Country Club.Inkster will be chasing a piece of history, trying to follow Hall-of-Famers Pat Bradley and Mickey Wright as the only other LPGA players to have won all four Grand Slam events in their careers.

MONTREAL -- The glory days are gone, but the sun still doesn't set on the British Empire, reduced now to a dozen or so forlorn and far-flung colonies, from the rearing rock of Gibraltar to the South Pacific specks known as the Pitcairn Islands.Queen Elizabeth II still reigns over 15 independent nations, large and small, in addition to Britain. While her role is symbolic, all acts of government in those countries are done in her name, and she is officially the head of state of each. These countries, most notably Canada and Australia, all slipped from Britannia's imperial embrace over the past 130 years but have clung steadfastly to the British monarch as their own.That devotion, however, is being tested in the waning days of the 20th century.

LONDON -- Desperate to inject life into the fraying Northern Ireland peace process, the British and Irish governments yesterday unveiled their joint blueprint of a deal to end the conflict that has cost more than 3,000 lives since 1969.The power-sharing agreement amounts to an artful compromise, offering something to nearly everyone in a bid to defuse decades of religious and political struggle between majority Protestants and minority Roman Catholics.The document envisions the two sides cooperating in a new Northern Ireland Assembly.

DUBLIN, Ireland -- Jenny Gilbert stood for three hours in a sweltering hall yesterday to hear President Clinton give a speech and to shake his hand. And she had no regrets."

STIRLING, Scotland -- Tony Murray doesn't have a high opinion of Hollywood's version of his country."Most Americans have an image of Scotland as a cross between Brigadoon and Disneyland," Murray says. "Take that movie 'Braveheart' with Mel Gibson. A superb adventure film. But as far as history goes, it was Mad Max in a kilt."Which is not to say that Murray doesn't have a problem with the English. He doesn't like their politicians, their big cities or their fast-paced lifestyles.Murray is a proud Scot, knowledgeable about tartans, clans and the long-ago fight for Scottish independence that raged on fields surrounding Stirling Castle.

Jawaharlal Nehru, India's first prime minister, began his speech a few moments before midnight. It was Aug. 14, 1947. India was about to become independent from Great Britain, and Pakistan was about to be born. Lord Mountbatten, the last British viceroy, would formally relinquish his office in the morning."At the stroke of the midnight hour, when the world sleeps, India will awake to life and freedom," Nehru told his country by radio. "A moment comes but rarely in history, when we step out from the old to the new, when an age ends, and when the soul of a nation, long suppressed, finds utterance.

Ten miles from the finish of the Fastnet Race yesterday in England, it appeared Italy might again knock the United States from first place in the final competition for the prestigious Admiral's Cup.But yesterday morning off Plymouth, the leaders in the Admiral's Cup IMS and ILC40 fleets were becalmed about five miles from the finish line, enabling the United States to recover and win the Admiral's Cup for the first time since 1969.According to reports from the Royal Ocean Racing Club, while the Italian ILC40 Brava Q8, leader in its class at the time, was becalmed, the trailing boats were able to ride a rising wind and finish much better than expected.

SOTOGRANDE, Spain -- It is like a lot of septuagenarians these days. Having survived a prolonged mid-life crisis that threatened its future, it has been rejuvenated. Having been energized by a new-found rivalry between its participants, it has been rediscovered.When the 32nd Ryder Cup begins Friday at Valderrama Golf Club, its luster will be more vibrant than ever before. Not even the Cup debut of the game's biggest star, Tiger Woods, can add much to what it has become."It's a pretty awesome golf tournament," U.S. captain Tom Kite said earlier this year of the competition that was held for the first time 70 years ago. "The way it has grown, now it's the tournament that creates the most interest of any tournament in the world.

In the summer of 1776, more than a year after the start of the Revolutionary War, Maryland was among the last holdouts among the 13 colonies in authorizing a declaration of independence from Great Britain. The colony's major landholders, who dominated political affairs, were reluctant to take that step, but tradespeople, merchants and common citizens became increasingly convinced that reconciliation with England was impossible and agitated for a formal separation. The state's convention finally agreed to support independence on June 28, but communications in those days were slow.

Radcliffe runs down NYC Marathon title No. 3 running Paula Radcliffe defended her title at the New York City Marathon yesterday to become the second woman to win the race three times. Marilson Gomes dos Santos of Brazil won the men's race for the second time in three years, passing Abderrahim Goumri of Morocco with about a mile left. Unlike Radcliffe's tight victories in 2004 and 2007, the world-record holder from Great Britain pulled away from Ludmila Petrova in the 22nd mile to win comfortably in 2 hours, 23 minutes, 56 seconds.

President Bush's vision of a new Middle East was a badly executed push to encourage democracy around the world. It never fully appreciated the need for democracy movements to be home-grown and vastly underestimated the suspicion generated by U.S. interest in promoting such movements. And yet Mr. Bush wasn't wrong about the genuine desire of people to live in a country governed by democratic principles. Democracy has a robust following, especially among non-Western democracies, according to a recent poll of 19 nations by WorldPublicOpinion.

CAMP DAVID -- British Prime Minister Gordon Brown is regarded as a somber figure in his home country, in contrast to his predecessor, the energetic Tony Blair. But after spending four hours alone with the new British leader during dinner Sunday and a long breakfast yesterday, President Bush declared that conventional wisdom about Brown is distorted, and he said the relationship between the U.S. and Great Britain was as strong as ever, despite a change in leadership. "He's not the dour Scotsman that you describe him, or the awkward Scotsman.

Freedom's Power The True Force of Liberalism By Paul Starr Basic Books / 276 pages / $26 By 1988, when George H.W. Bush derided Michael S. Dukakis as a card-carrying member of the ACLU, "the L word" occupied a privileged position in the demonology of the American Right and, to no small extent, in the country at large. Dismissed as weak, feckless, process-oriented relativists, liberals began to call themselves progressives or disavowed any label at all. The Democratic Party lost its way - and its majority in both houses of Congress.

Rupert Murdoch's $5 billion bid yesterday for Dow Jones & Co. typifies the audacity of the often-controversial chairman and chief executive of News Corp. Audacity and fast moves are Murdoch's style. And mostly, he makes a lot of money. His News Corp. kingdom includes the Fox TV and cable network, the New York Post, DirecTV, British Sky Broadcasting, Twentieth Century Fox, Myspace.com, Harper Collins and much more in America, Britain, continental Europe, Australia and elsewhere. Born into a wealthy regional newspaper family in Australia in 1931, Keith Rupert Mudoch - named Keith at his father's insistance, but called Rupert at his mother's - was educated at Oxford University.

"We are confident that we have stopped an attempt to create mass murder on an unimaginable scale" Paul Stephenson Stephenson, London's deputy metropolitan police commissioner, was commenting on the arrest of 21 alleged terrorists accused of plotting to blow up as many as nine U.S.-flag airliners while flying from Great Britain to the United States.

WASHINGTON -- Do u lk bks? I lk bks lotz. Dats y dis sux. OK, I'll stop now. The copy editor is giving me the stank eye. If you are below a certain age, the foregoing is probably clear as Aruban seas. If you are above that same age, it is likely as murky as Mississippi mud. For the benefit of the latter, what you've just read is a few words written as a text message - or at least my best approximation thereof. I can only be so fluent, after all, given that I am of middle age and this quasi-language of symbols and truncated words is mostly used by Kids These Days to communicate electronically with their peers.

On September 14, 2005, DOROTHY I. MYERS, beloved wife of the late Wilson Myers, dear sister-in-law of Pauline Crockett, loving aunt of Patti Davidson and Ross Mise. Great-aunt to Dorline Davidson-Harvey and Robert Davidson and great-great-aunt to Rachel Harvey. Also survived by family in great Britain and friends and caring neighbors. Friends may call at the Bruzdzinski Funeral Home, P.A., 1407 Old Eastern Avenue, Essex at Rt. 702 (beltway exit 36), on Thursday from 3 to 5 and 7 to 9 P.M. A Requiem Mass will be celebrated at Holy Trinity Episcopal Church, 1131 Mace Ave. on Friday 11 A.M. Interment Holly Hills Memorial Gardens.

WHERE'S THE late, great Walter White when we need him? Last week, members of the U.S. Senate made a great whoop in "apologizing" for their predecessors' failure to pass a law against lynching. The good senators conveyed their "deepest sympathies and most solemn regrets of the Senate to the descendants of victims of lynching, the ancestors of whom were deprived of life, human dignity and the constitutional protections accorded all citizens of the United States." An article in The Sun noted that "the resolution offers no compensation to victims for their families."