Current affairs

U.S. President Barack Obama's trip to Europe marked the culmination of a generational shift in leadership among Western democracies. The generation yielding power -- the Baby Boomers -- are so strongly connected to the 1960's that they are often called "68ers" in Europe.

GENEVA - Leaders of the G-20 have now declared that "the era of banking secrecy is over," and have threatened to take action against "non-cooperative jurisdictions, including tax havens." No one should include Switzerland among these, for the Swiss government has already o

The new Israeli government led by Likud leader Benjamin Netanyahu has raised
many conflicting feelings among those concerned about the fate of the
Arab-Israeli peace process. Will Netanyahu scuttle the little progress that was

Long before Barack Hussein Obama was sworn in as the 44th president of the United States of America, people in Turkey had expressed a sentiment of hope about his presidency.

ISTANBUL - "If we can show that a big Muslim nation can modernize itself with the help of friends," former German Foreign Minister Joschka Fischer has argued on behalf of Turkey's admission to the European Union, "it demonstrates that a strong civil society, equa

Wall Street cheered the Geithner Plan to save the American financial system unveiled on March 23. The S & P has rallied by over 22% at this writing (April 2) since the outline was leaked in early March. Shares of selected fund management companies took off like a rocket.

ROME/STOCKHOLM - The ongoing global economic crisis is shaking beliefs and approaches that have long been enshrined in European policies. Indeed, the crisis is calling into question the very foundations of the European Union.

In several years books will be radically different. I don't know what form they will take, but one thing for sure is that they won't be ink on paper.

When Benjamin Netanyahu became Prime Minister in 1996, he ran on a platform dedicated to ending the Israeli-Palestinian peace process. That is what he said in Israel. For U.S.

Today, the leaders of the world's 20 largest economies are meeting in London.

PARIS - Negotiations over Iran's nuclear program have been stalled for more than three years. For six years, the voices of reason have largely been drowned out, with passions and delusions claiming primacy.

Where's the gravitas? Where are the leaders? I know there's talk that people want to be forever young, but I'd like to make a counter-argument. If there was ever a time that the world needed some grownups (or at least some grownup behavior), it's now.

CAMBRIDGE - A huge struggle is brewing within the G-20 over the future of the global financial system. The outcome could impact the world - and not only the esoteric world of international finance - for decades to come.

BBC headlines reports" Banned Dutch MP held at Heathrow -A Dutch MP who called the Koran a "fascist book" is to be sent back to the Netherlands after attempting to defy a ban on entering the UK.