Germany only recently admitted that it is an immigration society in which citizenship does not depend on bloodlines. In the United States, hyphenated Americans are the norm, but the concept of hyphenated Germans is new.
The Orange Revolution has left a deep rift in Ukraine, with one half facing the EU and the other looking to Russia. Neither, though, seems to be able to help the country itself.
Evidence is mounting that Vice President Cheney may be personally handling a "Ukraine portfolio," involving the destabilization of Prime Minister Yanukovych's government, or even splitting the country in two.
Sudan says its armed forces have clashed with the Chadian army in the western region of Darfur, with 17 of its soldiers killed and 40 injured.
Sudan is unlikely to ease its opposition to the deployment of UN troops in Darfur this week when a top US official visits, but there are signs it may be flexible on boosting African troops in the troubled region.
Indonesia is a nominally secular democracy. But the influence of conservative Islam is gaining in the world's biggest Muslim country. A further step away from tolerance may be just around the corner.
Iran has come in for heavy international criticism after saying it had achieved the capacity to enrich uranium on an industrial scale. The announcement has upped the stakes in the dispute over Iran's nuclear program.
The international community has sharply condemned Iran for announcing on Monday, its "National Day of Nuclear Technology", that it had begun industrial-scale nuclear fuel production. The move is a fresh snub to the UN Security Council.
Anywhere else, Nicolas Sarkozy would be considered centrist. But in France, the "neoliberal with a French passport" raises eyebrows everywhere he goes. He speaks his mind and is not afraid of controversy. It may be the perfect recipe for presidential victory.
Few Americans give much thought to the Federal Reserve System or monetary policy in general. But even as they strive to earn a living, and hopefully save or invest for the future, Congress and the Federal Reserve Bank are working insidiously against them. Day by day, every dollar you have is being devalued.
With President Chávez setting a May 1 deadline for an ambitious plan to wrest control of several major oil projects from American and European companies, a showdown is looming here over access to some of the most coveted energy resources outside the Middle East.
In general, we can slip up in a verbal conversation and get away with it. A colleague may be thinking, "Did she just say 'irregardless'?", but the words flow on, and our worst transgressions are carried away and with luck, forgotten. That's not the case with written communications. When we commit a grammatical crime in emails, discussion posts, reports, memos, and other professional documents, there's no going back.
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