Founded in 1856, the National Portrait Gallery in London was established to collect the likenesses of famous British men and women. For persons with a penchant for portraiture, this website will be a welcome addition, and one with enough material to merit a number of extensive visits. Besides information about visiting the Gallery (which is available in several languages, including German and...

Britain's Prime Minister Tony Blair barely survived two rather harrowing challenges to his position of power in Britain this week. On Tuesday, the House of Commons passed his highly controversial higher education reform bill for the country (which will allow English universities to charge top-up fees of up to £3000) by only five votes. The following day, the greatly anticipated Hutton Report was...