Of the 500 films archived in the National Film Registry at the Library of Congress, less than two dozen were directed by women. As I bemoaned this shameful statistic to everyone within earshot, my colleagues reminded me that very few women have ever written or directed a major Hollywood...

Last week in Manhattan, veteran journalist Tom Brokaw presented the 2009 Human Rights Award to Gabriel Gonzalez, a young activist who opposes the inhumane treatment of Colombian prisoners. The thoughtful young man then flew home to Colombia, where he is charged with being a terrorist and faces seven years...

"We're here to thank the U.S. taxpayers. Your investment in global health is working."

That's the "official" reason Melinda French Gates and Bill Gates are in Washington, D.C., today.

As spin goes, it's a nice line. But obviously the Gateses didn't go to all the trouble and expense of...

Detroiter Tim Burke calls himself an artist, a scavenger, and a non-practicing alcoholic. Devoted to the reuse of refuse, the 40-something sculptor uses cast-off scraps from Detroit's past to create creatures that conjure up the future. The process of giving old materials new life is a labor of love for...

It's starting to look like basketball-player-turned-political-reporter-turned-overnight-authority-on-Wall-Street Matt Taibbi may have fallen for a stock-trading ruse. Heaven knows he's an easy mark. "I can't even balance my checkbook," he told radio talk show host Don Imus.

Taibbi, Rolling Stone magazine's teen heartthrob, became a sensation last month after calling Goldman...

According to government data released today, the unemployment rate rose to a 26-year high
of 9.8 percent in September as 263,000 more Americans lost their jobs. The last president to govern with such high unemployment was Ronald Reagan in 1982. Back then, the TV news media often...

Buried in Iraq's clay and dirt is the history of Western civilization. Great empires once thrived here, cultures that produced the world's first wheel, first cities, first agriculture, first code of law, first base-sixty number system, and very possibly the first writing. A brutal plundering of this rich cultural heritage...

Renowned journalist and academic Haleh Esfandiari used to fly from Washington, D.C., to Tehran every Christmas to visit her elderly mother. This pleasant routine changed dramatically in 2007 when Esfandiari was arrested and charged with plotting to overthrow the Iranian government, with a little help from the United States....

Dear Gen-Yers,

I hear over and over that you are not readers. On the other hand, I can see for myself that you are indefatigable writers. You blog, tweet, chat, and "text" like nobody's business. You write in coffee shops, on park benches, even while watching television. Somehow you can...

(Regular Updates Follow The Post)

On Saturday, the Iranian government opened an extraordinary mass trial against a surprisingly high number of election protesters -- over 140 -- accusing them of being pawns in an international plot to undermine the Islamic republic.

The indictment was wide-ranging, but focused heavily on...

(To get Ms. Palin's attention, I'm afraid I used an unforgivable number of ice hockey terms in this post.)

Dear Sarah Palin,

During your resignation speech on Sunday, you complained the media is constantly roughing you up. So I hate to pile on with another attack. Especially since...

This is HuffPost World's regular feature that highlights interesting musicians and musical trends around the world. Know of a great musician doing ground-breaking work outside the United States? Send us your ideas for bands to profile or up-and-coming musicians to follow. Please fill out this survey form.

Updates, and video screen grabs from the ceremony in Paris, follow the post.

AUSTIN, TX -- When a reporter asked Vaclav Havel to comment on Iran's post-election crisis, the former Czech president said, "Expressions of solidarity with students and others who are defending human rights are important."...

"It was innocent," insisted Gov. Mark Sanford while recollecting his first encounter with Maria Belen Chapur on a beach-side Uruguayan dance floor.

Oh really? You're in my wheelhouse now, Mark Sanford. I know a thing or two about rhythm and romance.

That sultry evening at Punta...

Updated 7.14.09, 7.25.09

ANN ARBOR, MI -- Years ago in Ann Arbor, an Iranian expat repaired part of my piano. Ahmad lived and worked in the basement of an apartment building on the leafy University of Michigan campus. His "space" was lined with musty old books and funky metal filing...

Most Recent Update 8.1.09

Look closely at the pictures of demonstrations taking place in Iran this week and you will see them: thousands of women taking to the streets to peacefully protest an election they say was stolen. "We feel cheated, frustrated and betrayed," said an Iranian woman in a...

All over the earth, people once danced in public. It's a universal image of joy -- like those two barefoot kids who danced in the rain during the finale of the Oscar-winning film Slumdog Millionaire. But in Afghanistan, where music was banned for five years by the Taliban...

Updated 7.15.09, 7.24.09

By day, Russian teenager Artur Ryno studied at a Moscow icon painting school, where he carefully burnished thin sheets of gold leaf onto the same kind of religious pictures that centuries ago were thought to protect the devout from evil.

By night, Ryno became evil incarnate,...

TIME.com followed several members of the "elite Twitterati" as they attended the White House Correspondents' Dinner in the ballroom of the Washington Hilton on Saturday. They followed the tweets of Meghan McCain, Newt Gingrich, Ashton Kutcher, Demi Moore, and -- to my astonishment -- John McCain's presidential campaign advisor...

For centuries tourists have traveled to the walled city of Shibam in eastern Yemen to see the world's oldest skyscrapers: 500 mud-brick structures rising up to 16 stories high, earning Shibam the nickname Manhattan of the desert. Several weeks ago, four South Korean tourists had their picture taken while...