With President Obama's Libya policy staggering from one embarrassment to another, last week he and Secretary of State Clinton outdid themselves. They publicly welcomed Russia's effort to insert itself as a mediator, an act of such strategic myopia that it must leave even Moscow's leadership speechless.

Shareholders are rightly fearful that any sovereign debt rescheduling in the periphery right now will trigger contagion and a full blown banking crisis in Europe's core countries.

Attempts at austerity and deleveraging in Europe have converted an economic problem into a political dilemma, with leftist governments rising against Germany's austerity-laced rescue packages. Germany now faces a tough economic decision that will involve choosing between a breakup of the current euro system and a movement toward a common fiscal policy in Europe.

Hafiz Gul Bahadur, the most powerful Taliban commander in North Waziristan agency and an ally of the Haqqani Network, menaced recently that he would tear up a long-standing peace deal with the Pakistani military.The threat comes after the Pakistani military caused significant collateral damage when it retaliated against a militant attack on one of its positions.

The end of American military presence in Iraq is not the end of Iraq or the end of America’s interests in Iraq.  The worst manifestation of the Vietnam complex that has informed so many decisions about American policy in Iraq is the inherent conviction that Iraq will disappear into the dustbin of history once America leaves, as Vietnam did.

Jan Nowak-Jezioranski, a Polish Second World War hero who spent his life fighting for an independent democratic Poland, died late on Thursday aged 91. A symbol of Polish patriotism, Nowak-Jezioranski is revered by his countrymen alongside anti-communist icon and Poland's first post-communist President Lech Walesa and Pope John Paul.

The amount of 20 percent enriched uranium Iran has and is continuing to produce far exceeds any civilian requirement it needs for the Tehran research reactor (the ostensible reason for which the regime says it needs to produce such material).

By keeping the focus on better health for real people, perhaps we’ll develop both the humility to recognize how little we still understand as well as the drive to ensure — and emphatically demand — that our advances ultimately wind up not only in papers, but also in patients.