1. IHT The 'legacy' question trails Bush on his European Tour
2. BBC Bush and Brown's warning to Iran
3. BBC Bush compliments Sarkozy on wife
4. Washington Post On European tour, Bush visits Queen Elizabeth II

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For an update of Bush's European farewell tour see this IHT article.

The main aim of the tour is to bolster support for clamping down on Iran.

UPDATE: Roger Cohen of the New York Times comments on the lack of protests over Bush's visit. Not so long ago, Bush was greeted with massive protests whenever he went to Western Europe. Europeans not even bothering to protest the vilified George W. is a clear sign that his lame-duck status has taken effect.
UPDATE 2: Soon after updating this post I read this foxnews article about Italians protesting Bush's visit to Rome.

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Sec. Rice thinks she'll get a Palestinian-Israeli peace deal before the end of the year. See this BBC report. I wonder what kind of pressure can the U.S. put on Israel and Palestine to goad them into signing a deal. Also, how does Sec. Rice deal with the Hamas problem in the Gaza strip? Would a peace deal be accepted by Hamas? Wouldn't their opposition to a peace deal bolster their support in the West Bank and possibly threaten President Abbas' position? I'm a skeptic because I see the U.S. having to balance too many complicated and explosive issues. It'd be nice to be proven wrong, though.

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