Hamid Karzai tolerates corruption, accommodates warlords, is not doing enough against drug trafficking and looks the other way when it comes to the Taliban. That's why the West is annoyed at the Afghan president, considers him and his government as a bottomless pit and is now wondering how Afghanistan can...

After a year of crisis nothing is certain: A society loses its footing

Stephanie Burkek has put a light gray plastic chair in front of the door to her room, number 112, and made herself comfortable in it. She sits there and watches what is going on in the parking...

Barack Obama may be the anti-Bush. But make no mistake: That doesn't mean he is a European. This at least has become crystal clear in the weeks since he took over at the White House. Barack Obama is an American president making politics for America. If his ideas coincide with...

Was the building of a missile shield in close proximity to Moscow ever a good idea? Hardly. Not only because it is technically dubious. But most of all it politically produced so much bad blood that the costs and potential benefits never came anywhere near a reasonable ratio.

So Mr....

Americans are just finishing up eight years of George W. Bush. Their judgment of him is reflected in Bush's miserable popularity ratings. What remains of the Bush era?

He's the most unpopular president since Harry Truman. Experts and historians constantly give his policies poor grades. The inheritance he leaves his...

WASILLA, ALASKA -- Dan Kennedy hops out of his '92 Chevy Blazer, sprints up the grassy hill and points to a marble slab protruding from the ground. "We have Sarah to thank for that," he says. Engraved is a sentence from the American Constitution, a stone's throw away the Stars...

He who finds nothing else lands here: Altgeld Gardens, 20 miles south of elegant downtown Chicago, in the middle of the notorious Southside -- a housing project for those who cannot pay more than 50 dollars a month for rent. Altgeld Gardens is grey and dismal -- and dangerous. Every...