Sustainable social development is impossible without a competent state, while genuine democracy is a fundamental condition for developing a state designed to serve public interests.

Real democracy...

Pakistan's parliament should do something to protect people in Balochistan by stopping the intelligence agencies from carrying out their criminal activities, showing power, an editorial has said....

Delaware's Elena Delle Donne, seen here during a game against Princeton, made headlines when she turned her back on the University of...

Curried goat, one of the national dishes of Jamaica, melds piquant curry with the slightly earthy taste of goat that has been marinated and cooked long enough to be meltingly...

From the archive But not to worry. The Congressional Budget Office estimates that it's possible to sustain today's level of federal spending and even achieve a balanced budget. All that...

Egypt's generals are playing a dangerous game. Facing angry protests and a sinking economy since the ouster of autocratic Hosni Mubarak a year ago, the army rulers have found scapegoats. The...

Thank you for your editorial regarding Bevan Dufty ("A new homeless czar for San Francisco," Feb. 4). You were correct in pointing out the feeling of futility that has arisen from the last...

W ow, hope all you taxpayers liked that Clint Eastwood Super Bowl ad. It won rave reviews from all manner of ad critics and from the public that liked its "Halftime in America" theme, its...

T his wasn’t the way it was supposed to turn out. In the warm glow of the Arab Spring, democracy was in the air and spirits were high on the streets of Cairo. Today rioters are protesting what...

Montreal Canadiens right wing Erik Cole has his shot stopped by Penguins goalie Marc-Andre Fleury during the second period tonight's game in...

The man accused of raping two women in Ross and another in Hopewell was indicted by a federal grand jury on a charge that he illegally possessed body armor, the U.S. attorney's office said...

This devil will be given his due, thanks to "Antiques Roadshow." When the venerable PBS appraisal show airs the three hours shot in Pittsburgh beginning Monday, one of the locals who made...

Longtime Democratic state Rep. Bill DeWeese has lost his right to public office. That conclusion is inescapable whether one believes the jurors who listened to seven days of testimony and convicted...

You know it's a hyper-partisan age when GOP svengali Karl Rove professes offense at a Super Bowl ad extolling American resilience. Judging by the howls of protest over a TV commercial featuring...

Whatever the prospects are for diplomacy by Russia to end the Syrian conflict, the tragedy is that the bloodshed will continue while that occurs. The fighting -- now near civil war -- has gone on...

The expression "political football" refers to something kicked around for political effect. But, nowadays, everything is kicked around for political effect. In truth, politics has become...

LA PAZ, Bolivia None of my other trips to South America had ever included Bolivia; thus, I have found its complexity somewhat daunting. What brought my wife and me here was my stepson's wife,...

Please provide your name or a pen name, and your country of residence. Lengthy letters run the risk of being cut. Please...

WHEN Facebook goes public later this year, Mark Zuckerberg plans to exercise stock options worth $5 billion of the $28 billion that his ownership stake will be worth. The $5 billion he will receive...

Jerusalem


THE public debate in America and Israel these days is focused obsessively on whether to attack Iran in order to halt its nuclear weapons ambitions; hardly any attention is being...

Washington


THE digital tsunami that swept over the Capitol last month, forcing Congress to set aside legislation to combat the online piracy of American music, movies, books and other...

To the Editor:
Re "For G. O. P., Pipeline Is Central to Agenda" (news article, Feb. 2):
It is no surprise that Republicans are pushing the Keystone XL pipeline, as they are by far the top...

Moscow


To observe the democratic awakenings happening in places like Egypt, Syria and Russia is to travel with a glow in your heart and a pit in your stomach.
The glow comes from watching...

To the Editor:


Every four years a handful of the same old states effectively pick party nominees for president, voting earlier and earlier with campaign spending mattering more and more. ...

This nation still has a long way to go to overcome one of the great remaining barriers to full equality and fairness, but a federal appeals court panel brought it a big step closer with a...

Two years ago, while delivering his State of the Union address, President Obama looked the Supreme Court justices in the face and told them they were wrong to have allowed special interests to spend...

Caitlin Flanagan asked, ';How much does [marriage] matter?'; She summarized her long article: ';There is no other single force causing as much measurable hardship and human misery in...

abortion.'; No mention is made of breast cancer screenings.Evidently, this skirmish was never about breast cancer prevention and women’s health. It’s about demanding massive funding...

Mobile technology has the potential to improve all aspects of our lives, and in many cases, it is already doing so. From getting step-by-step directions when we’re lost to playing video games...

Nancy Pelosi , San Francisco Democrat, dismissively referred to as ';this conscience thing.'; It’s an important illustration of why it is important to know what is in legislation...

Obama seized upon last week’s improved jobs report as ';more good news'; on the economy, though the true unemployment rate never made the headlines.Anytime jobs are created it’s...

GOP members of the House Energy and Commerce Committee are also weighing contempt charges against the White House in the Solyndra probe. Rep. Cliff Stearns of Florida told Fox Business Network last...

As if we all haven’t endured enough political ads this election year, an environmental activist group now wants to compel every TV meteorologist to promote its flawed policy agenda....

The governments in Russia and China very much want to uphold the principle that every now and then, the state must crush people who want freedom. That is why they worked together to veto a fairly...

Secretary of Defense Leon Panetta is refreshingly frank, sometimes stunningly so. He outdid himself on a trip to Europe last week, telling a Washington Post columnist that he's worried Israel...

It's no surprise that the state's first judicial discharge of a civilly committed sex offender would prompt questions about the decisionmaking behind the man's upcoming release. But...

A majority of U.S. Catholics support President Obama's decision to require religious institutions to include birth control in health insurance plans, according to two new...

January's increase in hiring is good news, but it masks a bigger and more disturbing story -- the continuing downward mobility of the American middle class. Most of the new jobs being created...

To Gingrich, an enemy; to others, an inspiration ," Jan. 31), as a "community organizer" representing "the best American traditions of protest" is like describing Benito...

American comedy duo Jerry Lewis (left) and Dean Martin (right) with the English playwright and actor Noel Coward at an unknown location in 1953. Lewis and Martin were famous for their cabaret acts in...

February 7, 2012 Robert Siegel and Audie Cornish read emails from listeners responding to a story about a group that's trying to reduce the amount of cheese Americans...

Gray Column, 1975 - 1976, by De Wain Valentine The intersection of art and science gets a lot of ink these days, for good reason. Art can help us relate to and understand science. In a culture...

Costa Concordia .Yet in a sophisticated Western world that has seen unprecedented man-developed life-style changes even over the last decade or two - think cell phone invasion and the Internet -...

In light of the recent controversy surrounding Yair Lapid's pursuit of an M.A, the Supervisory Committee of the Council for Higher Education has revoked Bar-Ilan University's authority to...

at the heart of Scotland's capital . It is a pity that the fashion for clubs with literary associations never caught on. If it had, Manchester City might be The Way We Live Now, its rival United...

Covering 180 miles of Oregon coast travel: Astoria, Seaside, Cannon Beach, Manzanita, Nehalem, Wheeler, Rockaway, Garibaldi, Tillamook, Oceanside, Pacific City, Lincoln City, Depoe Bay, Newport,...

The president has allowed spending to explode on his watch, from a historical average of about 19% of GDP up to 25% of GDP. While no other president had ever run a $1 trillion deficit, he will run...

Add in a Congress that blocks every attempt at compromise and an election year, and there's every reason to believe that when the president presents his annual budget next week, he will once again...

Monica Chacon and girlfriend Breana Hansen celebrate outside of City Hall, Tuesday February 7, 2012, after the 9th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals ruled that the voter approved Proposition 8 measure...

European politicians are far too often and far too easily beguiled by the surface glamour of American elections. This year in one vitally important respect, however, Europeans should look across the...