And here I thought the Geneva Conventions were really, really important. Apparently not:

I just checked Amnesty International’s web site for to get a copy of their demand that the Iranians release the British prisoners and condemning the statements made under coercive conditions and the broadcast of the images of the prisoners.

Surprise. There isn’t one.

There is, however, a report titled “USA: Justice delayed and justice denied? Trials under the Military Commissions Act.” I eagerly await the report similarly condemning the show trials Iran may be planning for the kidnapped soldiers.

Speaking of useless international organizations, the U.N. has expressed “grave concern” over the standoff between the U.K. and Iran — but heaven forbid it go further and, you know, specifically condemn the Iranian action and demand the soldiers’ immediate and unconditional release. That would be taking sides! Nevermind that one side is violating international law, and the other isn’t…

The Security Council’s statement was a watered-down version of a stronger draft sought by Britain to “deplore” Iranian actions and urge the immediate release of the prisoners, primarily because Russia and South Africa opposed putting blame on the Tehran regime, diplomats said.

As I said: useless.

More apparent British hardening and Iranian softening of their respective lines on the kidnapped-soldier kerfuffle:

Britain said it was freezing talks on all other issues with Iran until it freed 15 Royal Navy crew members seized last week, and the British military released what it said was proof its boats were within Iraqi territorial waters when they were seized.

Iran’s foreign minister said meanwhile a female British sailor held captive by Iran may be released later Wednesday or on Thursday, a Turkish TV station reported.

“The woman soldier is free either today or tomorrow,” CNN-Turk television quoted Foreign Minister Manouchehr Mottaki as saying on the sidelines of an Arab summit meeting in Riyadh, Saudi Arabia.

On the other hand, Drudge now has a siren for the headline: “Iran TV to air footage of captured Britons.” Will they be paraded around blindfolded and subjected to a mock execution this time? And then there’s this:

Russian military intelligence services are reporting a flurry of activity by U.S. Armed Forces near Iran’s borders, a high-ranking security source said Tuesday.

“The latest military intelligence data point to heightened U.S. military preparations for both an air and ground operation against Iran,” the official said, adding that the Pentagon has probably not yet made a final decision as to when an attack will be launched.

Dunno how much to make of that (a commenter points out that the Russian media has a reputation for reporting bizarre “news” stories, like UFO crashes), but certainly, these are perilous times.

More from the first article after the jump.

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Apparently, setting up a new government in Northern Ireland and trying to secure the release of 15 soldiers kidnapped by Iran isn’t enough for Tony Blair to consider his plate full. He’s also pushing for stronger U.N. action in Darfur:

Tony Blair is pushing the United Nations to declare a no-fly zone over Darfur, enforced if necessary by the bombing of Sudanese military airfields used for raids on the province, the Guardian has learned.

The controversial initiative comes as a classified new report by a UN panel of experts alleges Sudan has violated UN resolutions by moving arms into Darfur, conducting overflights and disguising its military planes as UN humanitarian aircraft.

Mr Blair has been pushing for much tougher international action against Sudan since President Omar Hassan al-Bashir reneged earlier this month on last November’s agreement to allow UN peacekeepers into Darfur to protect civilians. …

Speaking in Berlin on Sunday, Mr Blair described the situation in Darfur as “intolerable” and said: “We need to consider a no-fly zone to prevent the use of Sudanese air power against refugees and displaced people.”

According to Downing Street, he is pushing for a no-fly zone to be passed at the same time as the new sanctions package, in the form of a ‘Chapter 7′ security council resolution, allowing the use of force.

I wonder how folks who are both anti-genocide and “anti-war in principle” will react to this move.

(Hat tip: InstaPundit.)

Is Tony Blair preparing to follow dcl’s advice? At first blush, it sounds like he’s stepping up the warmongering:

Efforts to secure the release of 15 Royal Navy personnel held by Iran will enter a “different phase” if diplomatic moves fail, Tony Blair has said. …

“These people have to be released,” the prime minister told GMTV.

“What we are trying to do at the moment is to pursue this through the diplomatic channels and make the Iranian government understand these people have to be released and that there is absolutely no justification whatever for holding them.

“I hope we manage to get them to realise they have to release them. If not, then this will move into a different phase.”

Apparently, though, “different phrase” simply means more harshly-worded memos and such:

The prime minister’s official spokesman said Mr Blair’s remarks about a “different phase” did not refer to any extreme diplomatic action, such as expelling Iranian diplomats from Britain or military action.

“We have been clearly stating that we are utterly certain that the personnel were in Iraqi waters.

“We so far have not made explicit why we know that, because we don’t want to escalate this.”

Britain’s former ambassador to Iran, Sir Richard Dalton, said “different phase” could mean generating pressure on Iran from the international community.

“I expect he means that we shall have to step up criticism and generate additional international pressures on Iran,” he said.

“It could be that they think that by dramatising the fact that these people were taken on an international mission while in Iraqi waters even further, will give Iran pause and give them a chance to rethink.”

Meanwhile, the U.S. is conducing war games in a show of force in the Gulf.

I apologize for the lack of updates on the Iran-U.K. crisis. Over the weekend, there was a definite hardening of the British tone, as indicated by what the Telegraph reported yesterday: “Tony Blair warned Iran last night that it has only a few days to find a diplomatic solution to the escalating crisis over the 15 missing British sailors and Marines.”

Of course, this raises the question, only a few days… or what? Blair didn’t say, and that has The Times of London upset:

[The soldiers’] kidnapping is an outrage. In earlier times it would have been an immediate casus belli. It would fully justify the use of force to obtain their release. There is, however, an even greater outrage compounding this insult to international law: the pusillanimous timidity of British officials and politicians, who have failed disgracefully to confront Iran with the ultimatum this flagrant aggression demands.

Frankly, I’m not sure if Blair’s words were even as obliquely confrontational as the Telegraph suggested (”only a few days to find a diplomatic solution”). This CNN video includes his actual statement, so you can judge for yourself:

Meanwhile, an article in The Australian quotes a White House spokeswoman referring to the incident as a “hostage-taking” and saying the Bush Administration shares Britain’s “concern and outrage.” (Hat tip: Right Wing News, via Melissa Clouthier.)

The good news (potentially, at least) is that Iran’s tone appeared to soften on Monday:

Iran said Monday it was questioning 15 British sailors and marines to determine if their alleged entry into Iranian waters was “intentional or unintentional” before deciding what to do with them—the first sign it could be seeking a way out of the standoff. …

The Iranian emphasis Monday on the detainees’ intent was a noticeable pullback from the certainty expressed Saturday by Iran’s military chief, Gen. Ali Reza Afshar. Afshar said then that the 15 confessed to “aggression into the Islamic Republic of Iran’s waters.”

Meanwhile, oil prices spiked because of “fears that tensions over [the kidnapping] and Tehran’s nuclear programme could escalate into a wider confrontation.”

Pajamas Media has a continually updated roundup post.

P.S. Admiral Sir Alan West explains the rules of engagement for British soldiers in the situation they were confronted with:

The rules are very much de-escalatory, because we don’t want wars starting. … So we try to downplay things. Rather than roaring into action and sinking everything in sight we try to step back and that, of course, is why our chaps were effectively able to be captured and taken away.

If we find this is going to be a standard practice we need to think very carefully about what rules of engagement we want and how we operate. One can’t allow as a standard practice nations to capture a nation’s servicemen. That is clearly wrong.

In their first-time-ever official, nonaccidental Meeting,

…Ian Paisley and Gerry Adams, sitting side by side for their first news conference in Stormont, confirmed that power-sharing would begin on 8 May.

Mr Paisley said the DUP was committed to full participation in government and Mr Adams said it was a “new era”.

…The British and Irish governments had said they would shut the assembly if an executive was not agreed on Monday.

Emergency legislation will now be rushed through Parliament on Tuesday to give effect to the 8 May power-sharing deal.

Mr Adams - wearing his Easter lily to commemorate those who died in the 1916 rebellion - and Mr Paisley were sitting at one corner of a table at Stormont.

[Guestblogger’s note: at far right in that linked photo is First Minister-presumptive Paisley’s probable Deputy First Minister, Martin McGuinness, former member of the IRA Army Council high command. Oh wouldn’t I love to be a fly on the wall at the upcoming governmental Meetings :]

…Prime Minister Tony Blair said it was “a very important day for the people of Northern Ireland, but also for the people and the history of these islands”.

“Everything we have done over the last ten years has been a preparation for this moment.”

Irish Prime Minister Bertie Ahern said this had “the potential to transform the future of this island”.

…In the assembly election earlier this month, the DUP and Sinn Fein emerged as the two largest parties.

…The Northern Ireland Assembly has been suspended since October 2002, amid allegations of an IRA spy ring at Stormont.

A subsequent court case collapsed. Direct rule has been in place since that date.

Read the rest. Also, here are Paisley’s statement, and Adams’s. (Both remarkably sparing of the customary partisan/sectarian bombast.)

Good job, boys. / Now hold fast to that spirit.

UPDATE: Here’s a good BBC wrap-up re the Significance of the day’s events. Money quotes:

…Such was the symbolic power of it all that the image of Gerry Adams and Ian Paisley side by side at the conference table will surely come in future as the image that defines the peace process.

… Ian Paisley and Gerry Adams still represent two parties which will disagree about almost everything once power-sharing is restored but almost everyone in Northern Ireland understands the significance of this moment; in future, differences will be resolved inside a parliament, not in the streets beyond it.

What the hell is Iran up to?

Fifteen British Navy personnel have been captured at gunpoint by Iranian forces, the Ministry of Defence says.

The men were seized at 1030 local time when they boarded a boat in the Gulf, off the coast of Iraq, which they suspected was smuggling cars.

The Royal Navy said it was doing everything it could to secure the release of the sailors and marines who are based on HMS Cornwall.

They were said to be carrying out a routine patrol in Iraqi waters.

The Ministry of Defence said: “The group boarding party had completed a successful inspection of a merchant ship when they and their two boats were surrounded and escorted by Iranian vessels into Iranian territorial waters.

“We are urgently pursuing this matter with the Iranian authorities at the highest level.

“The British government is demanding the immediate and safe return of our people and equipment.”

It is understood the men being held are safe and well.

Foreign Secretary Margaret Beckett has summoned the Iranian ambassador in London to the Foreign and Commonwealth Office, in an attempt to get the sailors and marines released as quickly as possible.

In a statement, leader of the Liberal Democrats, Sir Menzies Campbell, also called for their immediate release.

“Whatever the rights and wrongs of military action, British forces in Iraq are now there with the authority of a UN security council resolution… and the Iranian government should be left in no doubt of the serious implications of their action,” he said.

I can’t wait to hear what Tony Blair has to say about this. Iran had better comply with the Brits’ demands, and fast, or this could get very… interesting. You don’t mess with Texas, and you don’t f**k with the British and their troops.

UPDATE: BBC has live streaming video.

UPDATE 2: Pajamas Media has a roundup of blogospheric reaction, which ranges from the bellicose (”This could justifiably be called an act of war”) to the bellicose and racist (”Tony Blair I beg you… give these sand monkeys what they want, nuclear weapons. If this is not the catalyst for World War 3 Blair then what the hell is?”) to the decidedly unconcerned (”My thinking is that this will cause a short media kerfuffle, will ratchet up the rhetoric for a while, and then be resolved peacefully with both sides believing and publicly stating that they were in the right”).

It should be noted that a similar incident in 2004 — during which the captured British soldiers were blindfolded, paraded on Iranian TV, and also subjected to a mock execution — ended without, uh, World War 3 breaking out. However, it should also be noted that that was pre-Ahmadinejad, so the Iranian government was considerably less hardline, and tensions between Iran and the West were considerably less high. Also, let’s not forget that Ahmadinejad was personally involved in the taking of American hostages in 1979. Just saying.

P.S. The Jawa Report asks:

Isn’t this an act of war?

Another update: Given that embassies in Tehran were making evacuation plans yesterday…..er, I hate to place the tinfoil hat on here, but what are the chances that this was a planned operation?

I think the fundamental question remains the one I asked at the top of this post: What the hell is Iran up to? They’re clearly up to something.

Daily Pundit doesn’t think we (by which he presumably means, the West) will respond to this provocation adequately:

[W]hat will we do about it? Nothing. They could hang these men on live TV (let’s hope they don’t) and still we would do little except bluster ineffectually.

The Iranians are feeling their oats, and with good reason. The extent to which they are supporting the Shia terrorists in Iraq, and fomenting unrest generally, should by now have had very serious consequences for them. Our pusillanimity is astounding.

I don’t know. I’m not so sure the Brits would tolerate a live TV hanging of their soldiers. The English have a stiff upper lip, but they also have a stiff upper-cut when forced to fight. I keep thinking of that line from some awful TV movie back in the late 90’s, where the British officer closes a runway so an American plane suspected of carrying a deadly virus can’t land on British soil, and when an American officer asks him “What was that about?” he responds defiantly: “Sovereignty, sir… ours.” The British are proud people. If you push them hard enough, the Empire will strike back.

UPDATE 3: Hot Air:

I figure they’ll be released soon and the incident will be dismissed as a misunderstanding. Iran can’t have meant to do this, not with Ahmadinejad set to address the Security Council tomorrow about the nuclear program and not to the British, who’ve been adamant in opposing any military action on Iran.

That presumes Iran’s leadership is rational, which I believe is an open question.

Re: Ahmadinejad addressing the U.N., Becky suggests: “Why not take him hostage?” Heh.

Strata-Sphere:

Iran is playing a very, very stupid game in the seizure of British forces in Iraqi waters. … It is stupid because it is an assault on the UK and EU - not the US. Therefore there will be little media or liberal sympathy [for the Iranians]. It was in Iraqi waters, which is the equivalent of an invasion on land over a border and capturing soldiers. Sadly, the British are not going to like having their sailors captured by Islamo Fascists in rubber boats. So the pride angle here is also going to be a big factor.

It is stupid because now it is clear to everyone Iran’s beligerence is dangerous and out of control. What concerns me is why do this unless you had something in your hip pocket and you were going to play some poker. Why do this kind of escalation? And what will our Democrats do - say the West cannot confront Iran? Talk about bad timing. We are heading into some seriously perilous times right now. We have amassed a large navy force in the region, so we could respond. I doubt we will immediately. Iran may just be trying to do a prisoner swap. But it was a dumb and dangerous move all the same.

UPDATE 4: The Counterterrorism Blog asks a bunch of pertinent questions:

Is this an intentional act approved by senior Iranian leadership in response to findings of the British personnel, or possibly in reaction to the upcoming U.N. vote against Iran? The official IRNA news site includes a story complaining that the White House is throwing up a last-minute obstacle to the issuance of a visa for President Ahmadinejad to take part in the U.N. Security Council meeting Saturday on the Iran sanctions resolution - could that be the reason for this action? Is this a provocation similar to the Hezbollah seizure last year of Israeli soldiers, which led the Israelis into invading Lebanon, to test how the British and Americans move military assets in advance of armed action? Is this a calculated measure due to Iranian claims that the waters are, in fact, Iranian and not Iraqi (a 1975 treaty gave the waters to Iraq, but Iran disputes Iraq’s jurisdiction)? Or is this the action of a local commander, unauthorized by leadership, and due to anything from bad navigation equipment (hard to believe but it happens), one too many drinks, or a misinterpretation of orders? Recall that (a) Iranian forces did something like this in 2004 and held British servicemen for three days, then released them, and (b) local commanders’ mistakes have had devastating consequences, such as the accidental American shoot-down of an Iranian civilian airliner in 1988.

The phone lines are burning up but nothing else should at this point. Interestingly, the price of crude oil, often a sound indication of international skittishness, has not shot up in reaction to the event. The Iranians have not issued any information on the event on the IRNA site. Let’s wait and watch.

(Hat tip: InstaPundit, who suggests a naval blockade — a response that would fall somewhere in between “harshly worded memo” and “nuke the bastards.” Sounds about right.)

Though little noted, thus far, in the US MSM, one Occurred last Wednesday ~ for the lately-Deadletter NI Assembly, last elected in 2003, last Dissolved not very long thereafter due to Failure to Coalesce as required by Law.

In due Irish Time :) the Results are now In, revealing that exactly As Expected, the two most diametrically-opposed parties ~ Ian Paisley’s ultra-loyalist Democratic Unionist Party (DUP) and Gerry Adams’s hyper-republican Sinn Fein (SF) ~ now dominate the Norn Iron political landscape even More than they did Before, infused by the ongoing Hemorrhage of formerly-”moderate” votes from their pale-Orange & light-Green fellowtravellers, the Ulster Unionist Party (UUP) and the Social Democratic & Labor Party (SDLP), respectively.

* * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * *
Interlude:

Some geneticists now Report that [emphases Added] ~

…both Britain and Ireland have been inhabited for thousands of years by a single people that have remained in the majority, with only minor additions from later invaders like Celts, Romans, Angles, Saxons, Vikings and Normans. The implication that the Irish, English, Scottish and Welsh have a great deal in common with each other, at least from the geneticist’s point of view, seems likely to please no one…

…Dr. [Stephen] Oppenheimer [a medical geneticist at the University of Oxford], said genes “have no bearing on cultural history.” There is no significant genetic difference between the people of Northern Ireland, yet they have been fighting with each other for 400 years, he said.

As for his thesis that the British and Irish are genetically much alike, “It would be wonderful if it improved relations, but I somehow think it won’t.”

Well, maybe he’s right & maybe Not. Let us note that on Wednesday the Alliance Party, which bills itself as “the Alternative to the Tribal parties”, did make a net Gain of one (1) Assembly seat: up from 6, to 7. (The Tribal parties ~ Extremely tribalist & Moderately tribalist Combined ~ have a total of 99.)
* * * * * * * * * * *

BBC Best analysis:

…It’s best to think of the democratic process in Northern Ireland as consisting of two, separate elections conducted in parallel, one within the Protestant community, and one within the Catholic.

On the Protestant side, Ian Paisley’s DUP is by far the dominant force, increasing its share of the vote by 4.4%

And Sinn Fein easily won the battle within the Catholic community - with its vote up by 2.6%

It is the outcome that was expected, these are after all the two parties who were at the centre of multi-party talks in Scotland last year which the British and Irish governments believe brought us very close to a restoration of devolution.

But curiously, in a sense, the election has resolved nothing.

The big question going into the campaign was would Ian Paisley be ready to cut a political deal which would involve sharing power with Sinn Fein, and that remains the political question now.

He has a veto simply because none of the parties can go into government unless they all agree to - and while the DUP has plenty of smart, ambitious politicians in its ranks, it remains to some extent a personal vehicle for Ian Paisley.

Rarely in modern politics do important decisions depend so completely on what’s in the heart and mind of one man.

Ian Paisley has managed to campaign cleverly, conveying a general sense that he might be ready to share power with Sinn Fein, whilst still raising problems over specific issues like policing which could yet provide him with a smokescreen for pulling out at the last minute.

But this is not just about smart tactics. The truth is, that the DUP leader may not have made up his mind himself what to do.

It still ain’t human-to-human yet, but the trend is worrisome as Britain deals with its first outbreak of H5N1.

What in the devil is going on in England? “A growing disaster that could destroy Labour… Downing Street looking increasingly like a crime scene and less like a seat of government… a discredited administration that is falling apart by the day…” Cripes!

In a bid to deprive Ian Paisley’s Democratic Unionist Party of yet another Excuse for refusing to join in a coalition government, Gerry Adams’s Sinn Fein has voted to Support its Local Peelers ;} ~

DUBLIN (Reuters) - London and Dublin will push this week to revive power-sharing between Northern Irish Catholics and Protestants after Irish nationalist party Sinn Fein reversed decades of opposition to the province’s law and order system.

Sinn Fein’s mostly Catholic membership voted on Sunday to back a policing and justice system in Northern Ireland that it has long viewed as biased in favour of the majority Protestants.

The landmark vote removed a key obstacle to the restoration of a Belfast-based regional power-sharing government by a March 26 deadline set by the British and Irish governments.

…The IRA killed nearly 300 police officers during the conflict and was responsible for nearly half the 3,600 deaths in its struggle to unite the northern province with Ireland.

While London and Dublin may yet achieve their goal of restoring a regional government in time for Blair’s departure from office and an Irish election, both later this year, the DUP is still far from being on board.

Party leader Ian Paisley has yet to overcome years of vociferous opposition to Irish nationalists on his own part* and signs of serious resistance from hardliners within his party.

“Dr. Paisley’s authority and political direction is under assault within the DUP,” the Irish Times said in an editorial.

However, it noted he had said repeatedly he would “not be found wanting” if Sinn Fein moved to support the police.

[*Let us pray that Dr. Paisley finds the strength to Overcome at least his Own vociferousness :>. ~ the guestblogger]

“Yesterday we did see a piece of history being made,” political analyst Harry McGee wrote in the Irish Examiner.

“With it came an acceptance that it was all over as far as the IRA was concerned, bar the shouting, of course. And be assured, with Ian Paisley and the DUP involved, there will be plenty of that over the next few months.”

Read the whole thing. Also here are two takes, Jan. 28 and Jan. 29, from Radio Telefís Éireann.

As expected, the usual suspects are upset about Fox’s airing of that f-word t-shirt during Saturday’s Eagles-Saints game. (Warning: both links contain profanity.)

Oh well, at least it’s not Celebrity Big Brother U.K.

Now this is starting to get Serious. :>

LONDON — The wife of an ex-KGB agent fatally poisoned in Britain and the Italian security expert he met the day he fell ill both showed traces of the same radioactive substance found in the dead man’s body, friends and officials said Friday.

The inquiry into the death of Alexander Litvinenko widened with the new positive test results, the evacuation of a hotel in southern England, and the sweep of an Irish hospital that treated a Russian opposition leader for what his aides described as poisoning. In Italy, the government sought to reassure the public there was no danger.

…In Ireland, meanwhile, authorities tested Dublin’s James Connolly Memorial Hospital, which treated former Russian Prime Minister Yegor Gaidar after he became violently ill during a conference last week — an incident his aides have described as another poisoning.

Irish health officials said tests were carried out to gauge any risks to public health, but said they found no traces of radiation.

Gaidar, 50, who served briefly as prime minister in the 1990s and is one of the leaders of a liberal opposition party, began vomiting and fainted during a conference in Ireland on Nov. 24.

His daughter, Maria, said in Moscow that his life was no longer in danger and he was slowly recovering.

“It seems to me that it’s probable that he was poisoned. I think that it could be somehow connected with Litvinenko, I don’t know how, but it seems so strangely connected in the time and even geographically connected,” she told AP Television News.

Irish police have launched an inquiry into Gaidar’s illness, but they said the investigation was routine and should not worry the public. “Tracing the movements of the subject and establishing the facts is the focus” of the investigation, police said.

Traces of radiation have been found at a dozen sites in Britain and five jetliners were being investigated for possible contamination…

Read the whole thing, for much more on this ever-Ramifying international murder mystery. (Irrelevant Footnote: the fellow Memorialized by Dublin’s James Connolly Memorial Hospital, himself died suddenly of Lead poisoning ~ in a manner of Speaking ~ administered by British firing squad on May 12, 1916.)

( Hopeful reminder for celtic-averse readers: this Unseasonable post is very Soon to be Submerged beneath mountains of material documenting tomorrow’s Next-scheduled Embarrassment to The Irish. :)

This sort of served to Punctuate DUP leader Ian Paisley’s refusal ~ again ~ to head up a Northern Ireland coalition government with Sinn Fein’s Martin McGuinness as his Deputy ~ in part pending, the Reverend Doctor had said shortly before the gun-&-knife-toting Unionist’s assault on the parliament building, the Nationalists’ bringing “…a complete end to paramilitary and criminal activity and the removal of terrorist structures.”

From the AP version:

BELFAST, Northern Ireland — The Northern Ireland Assembly missed another deadline for forming a government Friday, then politicians fled the building as one of the province’s most infamous Protestant militants burst in, claiming to have a bomb.

Police subdued Michael Stone, who killed three people at an Irish Republican Army funeral in 1988, after he tossed a bag into the building and claimed it contained a bomb.

Politicians and journalists were ordered out of the building as the fire alarm sounded — and two security guards pinned Stone by both arms to the main doorway. He was later wrestled outside, into pouring rain and wind, as he shouted a favored Protestant militant slogan: “No surrender!”

…Northern Ireland Secretary Peter Hain ordered an immediate investigation into what he called a “very serious breach of security.”

[Ya think? / ~ the guestblogger :]

Stone’s demonstration came minutes after Protestant leader Ian Paisley refused to accept a nomination as the future leader of Northern Ireland’s power-sharing administration.

…The prime ministers of Britain and Ireland, Tony Blair and Bertie Ahern, said Stone’s threat illustrated why rival British Protestant and Irish Catholic politicians should compromise and form a stable coalition as the Good Friday peace accord intended.

[Ya think? / ~ the guestblogger :]

More Blarney after The Jump :)

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British women spend an average of £36,903.75 and two years on their hair throughout their lifetimes, according to a new study. Which is a shame, because there are other things they might want to consider prioritizing instead… just saying… ;)

P.S. In an entirely unrelated story, also out of Britain, the world’s meanest cat has been cornered, collared and captured. Mrrrooowwww!