Forget the worst global economic crisis in 75 years, the terrorist atrocities in Mumbai, the continuing genocide in Darfur or the Russian invasion of Georgia. As far as the users of the Yahoo! search engine were concerned, 2008 was still Britney Spears' year.
President-elect Barack Obama has chosen a highly experienced, pragmatic A-team to run U.S. national security during his administration. He appears to have opted for forceful, passionate individuals who can be expected to clash on some key issues. The talent level looks high. But the dangers of serious collisions between key individuals on major policy issues down the road are already clear.
The wave of Islamist terrorist attacks in Mumbai has claimed at least 143 dead so far, and it augurs a grim new chapter in international terrorism.
President-elect Barack Obama is said to be asking Robert Gates to stay on at least a year longer as U.S. secretary of defense. The move may anger many liberals among Obama's base, but it looks likely to be widely welcomed in the U.S. armed forces and the Pentagon.
U.S. President-elect Barack Obama warned of tough days ahead when he introduced his new economic team Monday. Yet the markets rose following his news conference for the second day in a row.
Sen. Hillary Clinton had better order up lots of late night coffee and round-the-clock pizza when she replaces Condoleezza Rice as secretary of state: Around the world, threats to U.S. national security and global interests have metastasized. Cleaning up those messes will make mucking out the Augean Stables look easy.
Now it's official -- sort of. The United States is in decline.
The global economic crisis triggered by the Great Wall Street Meltdown in September passed another grim historical mark on Wednesday: The Dow Jones Industrial Average closed below 8,000 for the first time since March 2003.
Piracy is back. And in a big way. The heirs of Blackbeard -- 18th century Caribbean pirate Edward Teach -- and Anne Bonny are alive and well on the Somali main, looting the great ships of the world.
President-elect Barack Obama continues to confound friends and foes alike with his centrist but bold moves. The latest, naming Sen. Hillary Clinton, D-N.Y. -- his archrival in the presidential primary campaign -- as secretary of state, carries considerable risks. But if it works, it will prove to be a masterstroke.
Chinese President Hu Jintao Monday proclaimed his huge nation's commitment to boosting its power in the Western Hemisphere by paying a state visit to Cuba.
The G20 summit is unlikely to establish a secure global financial structure for generations, like Bretton Woods did in 1944, but it's an epochal meeting just the same.
U.S. Treasury Secretary Henry "Hank" Paulson's "rescue plan" for Wall Street already has proved a total fiasco, and Paulson has admitted it by completely changing its direction.
It's triage time for Motown. General Motors has warned it will go under if the federal government doesn't bail it out immediately. GM and the other Detroit auto giants look certain to get the money, but the conditions under which they get it will reveal plenty about whether old-style or new-style Democrats will be running the United States.
One of the biggest challenges the nascent Obama administration will face in the medium term is the fate of the ballooning numbers of U.S. combat veterans. The ability of the new president to keep his promises to these American heroes will be a litmus test of both his integrity and his technocratic skills, because providing the services they have been promised will require both fighting political battles and overcoming management inefficiency.
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