Previously published in Metro www.metro.us/newyork/news/international/2013/04/05/vitali-klitschko-world-heavyweight-boxing-champ-hopes-to-become-next-president-of-ukraine/

Let it be known that Vitaly Klitschko has the world's firmest handshake. And these days, Klitschko is using his hand for more handshakes than knockout: the world heavyweight boxing champion has emerged as Ukraine's leading opposition politician. But if he's elected President, how...

Previously published in Metro http://www.readmetro.com.

Until recently, Beppe Grillo was simply a successful comedian. But these days, the powerful in Italy -- and beyond -- fear Grillo The Protest Leader. In Italy's recent election, young people catapulted his nascent Five Star Movement (M5S) to political power as it...

Previously published in Metro www.readmetro.com.

Nobody takes the European Parliament seriously, right? Well, they didn't use to. But since Martin Schulz was elected President last year, things have changed: Schulz is on a mission to make the Parliament feared in Brussels and national capitals. And he's succeeding. Metro...

Previously published in Metro www.readmetro.com

Kristalina Georgieva is hereby nominated for the title Most Enthusiastic EU Commissioner. The Bulgarian, Commissioner for Humanitarian Aid and Crisis Response, tirelessly travels around the world to visit its most depressing corners, places where wars, natural disasters and appalling governance have created humanitarian...

Previously published in Metro www.readmetro.com.

Less than a year into the job, Prime Minister Laurent Lamothe of Haiti has already made a mark. The young former entrepreneur travels around the world to promote Haiti as an investment opportunity, not an aid recipient. And he's aggressively building infrastructure at...

Previously published in Metro www.readmetro.com.

Young, dynamic - and Hispanic. Julian Castro, the young mayor of San Antonio, gives a glimpse of America's political future. Hispanics like Castro, a Mexican-American, are the fastest-growing ethnic group in the United States. Pundits predict that Castro will become the United States'...

Mobile phones are transforming Africa. Mo Ibrahim is the man who brought them there. Spotting a new market in the 1990's, the Sudanese-born entrepreneur introduced a vast mobile-phone network covering East Africa. Today his company, Celtel, covers 23 African countries. Ibrahim sold Celtel in 2005 for $3.4 billion and now...

Previously published in Metro

Israel and Gaza are again attacking each other, Syria is descending into civil war, four American diplomats killed in Libya: the Middle East is more fragile than ever. "Both sides should cease all hostilities," says former US President Jimmy Carter. "Israel...

Previously published in Metro www.readmetro.com

European federation, Greek bailout -- and artists. European Commission President Jose Manuel Barroso remains in the center of the European storm. And, he says, the solution to the current crisis is more integration. But Barroso, a long-time connoisseur of modern art who always...

The Proms: bustling, elegant and down-to-earth at the same time. For over a century the BBC Promenade Concerts have excited Londoners and visitors alike: they've flocked to the eight-week classical music festival in central London to listen to an extraordinary line-up of orchestras and soloists, with none of the stiffness...

She's pure royalty: the daughter of King Hussein of Jordan, sister of Jordan's reigning King Abdullah, and married to Dubai's ruler, Sheikh Mohammed. But Princess Haya is also a power woman in her own right: as President of the International Equestrian Federation, she's in charge of horse sports around the...

For the first time ever, a woman could win Mexico's presidential election. Josefina Vázquez Mota is the candidate for the governing PAN party in Sunday's elections. But she's trailing behind Enrique Pena Nieto, the PRI (Institutional Revolutionary Party) candidate. Recently Vázquez Mota added an unexpected twist to the campaign by...

Previously published in Metro www.metro.lu

Torbjørn Jagland is Chairman of the Nobel Peace Prize Committee -- but most of his work is spent combating radicalism. As Secretary-General of the Council of Europe, Jagland is charged with promoting "greater unity" in Europe. In an interview with Metro, he explained...

Michelle Bachelet is a crusading feminist: she was Chile's first female president (and first female defense minister). Two years ago she was appointed the first-ever Executive Director of UN Women, the UN organ representing the world's female population. And gender equality isn't just about doing the right thing, she says:...

Outside the front door, the air smells of manure. But step inside Adidas's headquarters in Herzogenaurach and you find yourself in a futuristic world of sportswear. Metro travelled to Herzogenaurach to speak with the CEO of the adidas Group, Herbert Hainer, about world sports events, where sportswear is heading --...

Who said sex and politics don't mix? Led by Leymah Gbowee, a young mother, Liberian women went on a sex strike to end the country's brutal civil war. They were successful: in 2003 warlords agreed to end the violence. Last year Gbowee won a Nobel Peace Prize for her campaign....

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,...