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Advocates await specifics of Obama’s plan for vets program

As President Obama reminds Americans that Memorial Day is more than the casual start of summer, many veterans advocates are eagerly waiting for more details about his plans for a revamped veterans program. Monday is “a time to reflect on what this holiday is all about; to pay tribute to our fallen heroes; and to remember the servicemen and women who cannot be with us this year because they are standing post far from home — in Iraq, Afghanistan and around the world,” Obama said in his weekly address Saturday

International groups worry over Venezuela’s stance on free press

The United Nations and the Organization of American States said Saturday they are worried over Venezuelan government statements about an independent TV station that has criticized President Hugo Chavez. In a joint release, freedom of expression investigators Frank LaRue of the U.N

Can Formula One Run Without Ferrari?

Formula One is all about twists and turns on the track. But now it’s the offtrack maneuvers that are revving up drama. Talks in London among the teams and authorities in motor sport’s blue-ribbon championship ended without agreement Friday, failing to settle an ugly row over plans by the FIA, Formula One’s governing body, to impose a voluntary $60 million budget cap on teams next year

‘I imagine that my hands and body are bleeding’

A walk through Afghanistan’s only psychiatric hospital is a walk through misery.

The Heartthrob from the Vatican

When Pope Benedict XVI touches down for his first papal visit in the United States next week, you may notice that he doesn’t have the same onstage flair as his predecessor, John Paul II. But you may also begin to notice a very handsome man of the cloth never far from the pontiff’s side. That would be Monsignor Georg Gänswein, the Pope’s personal secretary, responsible for everything from deciding who gets to see Benedict, to keeping His Holiness on schedule, to discreetly handing him his papal reading glasses just before a homily or other public discourse

Whatever Happened to Muqtada al-Sadr?

Sunni parliamentarian Salim al-Jubouri took Muqtada al-Sadr’s recent appearance in Turkey as a good sign. Sadr surfaced in Ankara ostensibly to discuss the situation in Iraq with top Turkish leaders, including President President Abdullah Gul and Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdogan. Turkey is a predominantly Sunni country, Jubouri noted, and maybe the militant Shi’ite warlord was making a show of nascent sectarian reconciliation.

North Korea Invades! (And Other Pentagon War Games)

North Korean forces are invading South Korea. Drug gangs along the U.S.-Mexican border are seizing parts of El Paso, Texas.

The GOP Plans a Rebirth, with Pepperoni and Protests

If House and Senate Republican leaders have their way, Saturday’s gathering at Pie-Tanza, a strip-mall pizza joint in Arlington, Virginia, will be remembered as the beginning of the rebirth of the Grand Old Party. In addition to pizza, the venue, selected by the freshly born, center-leaning National Council for a New America , served up symbolism: suburban areas like this one, on the outskirts of Washington, D.C., were GOP bastions not so long ago, and they’ll need to come back to the fold for a Republican resurgence.

Sarkozy’s Big Plans for a Greater Paris

The frightful Battle of Paris that many observers expected has been averted — at least for now.

Hamas: U.S. Diplomacy’s Final Frontier

Israel’s new government is a headache the Obama Administration doesn’t need. Compared with Tzipi Livni, the woman he narrowly beat out, and even Ehud Olmert, the man he succeeds, incoming Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahuis cool toward a Palestinian state. And although it includes the moderate Labor Party, Netanyahu’s ruling coalition teems with right-wing figures like Foreign Minister Avigdor Lieberman, whose call for a loyalty oath directed at Israel’s Arab citizens dismays even Israel’s staunchest friends.