Elisabeth Braw

Previously published in Metro www.metro.lu

The task Alexey Navalny has set himself, exposing corruption in Russia, seems too big for one person. Russia is, after all, a country near the bottom of Transparency International's Corruptions Perceptions Index. But Russians are sick of corruption -- and this could topple...

Published in Metro www.metro.lu in April.

Jonas Kaufmann, the world's leading tenor, was practicing in the hotel suite next to Ban Ki-moon's. The opera arias lent an upbeat note to the UN secretary-general's otherwise glum day: the UN secretary-general has Syria on his mind. In an exclusive interview,...

A President of France who has never been a cabinet minister? Until recently, the thought would have been absurd. But the Dominique Strauss-Kahn scandal has thrown France into turmoil. François Hollande, the mild-mannered regional governor brought in to replace DSK, is leading the polls. Metro interviews the man who may...

Israel, war-mongering? Not Dan Meridor. The Deputy Prime Minister and Minister of Intelligence and Atomic Energy is the Israeli government's leading moderate -- and he leads Israel's formidable intelligence agencies with the touch of a true intellectual. And Meridor now has an serious emergency at his hands: Iran's nuclear weapons,...

As you're reading this, people next to you on the bus or the subway platform are playing Angry Birds. The game, launched by a tiny Finnish company only two years ago, has transfixed the world with its angry -- but cute -- birds launching pigs. Its new game is based...

Around the world IKEA is synonymous with cheap, trendy furniture. What's behind the company's success? Metro travelled to IKEA's home country to meet CEO Mikael Ohlsson -- in an IKEA store, of course. Ohlsson, a down-to-earth Swede who favors sweaters over business suits, started his IKEA career selling rugs. In...

It has branches in some 50 countries. It has members of parliaments and city councils. The Pirate Party, founded only five years ago, is today's fastest-growing party among voters under 30. Its core message: internet piracy should be legal.

In fact, party founder Rick Falkvinge ("falcon wing" in Swedish...

People call him "The Godfather of the new Islamist Middle East." Rachid Ghannouchi, whose Ennahdha party won Tunisia's first free elections last November, does indeed spearhead the post-Arab Spring Middle East. After being imprisoned and forced into exile by President Ben Ali for his Islamist views, Ghannouchi triumphantly returned during...

The most powerful man in world sports is purging corruption. Jacques Rogge, who succeeded Antonio Samaranch as President of the International Olympic Committee in 2001, prizes transparency. He's also on the forefront in the fight against doping, and trying to root out illegal betting.

With his wire-rimmed glasses and measured...

¨Serbia deserves EU membership¨: Country wants to join despite recent rejection, says Foreign Minister Vuk Jeremic

Vuk Jeremic is an energetic 36-year-old Serbian tennis fan. He speaks English with an American accent, favors elegant suits and has a warm handshake. An unlikely foreign minister? Perhaps. But Jeremic is one of...

Foreign Minister Zalmai Rassoul of Afghanistan has the demeanor of a veteran physician -- indeed, he's one. Rassoul studied medicine in Paris and later worked in Saudi Arabia and at the Paris Research Institute of Cardiac Diseases. His calm nature serves him well in what may be the world's hardest...

Ellen Johnson-Sirleaf, Liberia's President, has been awarded the Nobel Peace Prize for her peaceful leadership of the war-torn country. Johnson is Africa's first elected female head of state -- and she and other female leaders on the continent have Graca Machel to thank. Thanks to an illustrious career in African...

Previously published in Metro www.metro.lu.

They've been talking about it. They've been negotiating about it. Some have used violence to achieve it. Now, say Palestinians, they'll finally become a state. For the past two years the Palestinian National Authority under President Mahmoud Abbas and Prime Minister Salam Fayyad...

Most people can name two South Africans: Nelson Mandela and Desmond Tutu. Today, July 18, Mandela turns 93. Because the political prisoner-turned-president is very frail, he'll celebrate his birthday surrounded only by his family. But three years ago, friends like Tutu created Mandela Day, an invitation for people to spend...

Previously published in Metro www.metro.lu.

Sudan: half a century of civil wars. Mass deaths in Darfur. Poor infrastructure. Potential oil wealth. And now the secession of the country's southern part. On July 9, Southern Sudan officially became an independent country. The secession is the culmination of a decades-long...

The Middle East is erupting in flames -- and Tony Blair has to fix it. When the former British Prime Minister became the international community's Middle East envoy in 2007, that meant leading the Israeli-Palestinian peace process. It still does, but now his job includes democratic transformations and civil wars,...

Washington will notice for sure that its new IMF boss has arrived. Christine Lagarde plans to bike to work, a concept inconceivable from her smart but not exactly fitness-oriented predecessor.

When I interviewed Lagarde at France's Finance Ministry earlier this month http://www.huffingtonpost.com/elisabeth-braw/christine-lagarde-i-dont-_b_881021.html, she was so certain that she'd...

Attention, Hollywood: you need Johannes-Martin Kränzle's comic services. No, you don't know him. That's because he's an opera singer. While you, Hollywood, have been cranking out bad comedies, opera has been cranking out new productions that will wow even the unmusical.

Kränzle does exactly that in the new production of...

For her exclusive interview with Alexandre Zalewski and me at France's Ministry of Finance, Christine Lagarde sported an ensemble in bright yellow -- the color Queen Elizabeth wore at April's Royal Wedding. The Queen promptly turned the color into a fashion trend.

Lagarde, for her part, is...

Previously published in Metro http://www.metro.lu.

Most former Cabinet ministers are soon forgotten. Not so Donald Rumsfeld. As George W. Bush's Secretary of Defense, he led the United States into war against Iraq and Afghanistan. He minted memorable catch-phrases like "Old Europe, New Europe" and "unknown...