Nic Robertson Quotations

There is an awful lot of what might be construed as bad news here. But it is the dominant information. It's the prevailing information.

I think our expulsion ... points to the increasing stress and pressure being put on the Iraqi leadership. And that is only going to increase.

But it's a soft start. The U.N. has been checking sites familiar to both sides. Contentious presidential palaces have so far been avoided.

The general atmosphere here is one of relatively heavy security. It appears that they're just putting on a very heavy security presence, moving around the center of the city.