On April 10, 2002, then British Prime Minister Tony Blair told the House of Commons, "Saddam Hussein's regime isdeveloping weapons of mass destruction, and we cannot leave him doing so unchecked."...

That Athens controls this wisp of land implies it could (but does not yet) claim an exclusive economic zone (EEZ) in the Mediterranean Sea extending 200 nautical miles to Kastelorizo. This would...

U.S. Court of Appeals for the 9th Circuit just ruled that Proposition 8, California’s constitutional marriage amendment defining marriage as between one man and one woman, is unconstitutional....

Mr. Gingrich .The Occupiers are describing CPAC as ';a gathering of bigots, media mouthpieces, corrupt politicians and their 1 percent elite puppet masters,'; but what seems to have enraged...

Iran must be prevented from getting a nuclear weapon.'; This has been the stated policy of the United States for many years. In his most recent State of the Union...

Clean Green ’s owner pocketed $9.1 million in cash, which he then used to collect quite a carbon footprint from more than two-dozen luxury and sports cars, including several Ferraris, a...

Alexei Navalny , a famous Russian anti-corruption lawyer, opposition leader and blogger, for publishing an online interview with him, which he described as ';100 percent...

Japan , I thought of the left-wing press. You see, I read the left-wing press. Not the urban throwaway rags, but I read the Nation, the Progressive, the American Prospect and more - I read them all....

Mr. Gingrich overlooked the appeal of the candidate who actually lives by the family values they say they admire. Even in an expectedly unflattering portrait...

There always have been bank failures and always will be. The trick is to allow sufficient risk to promote economic growth but not so much that it leads to widespread failures and financial panic....

The marriage amendment, from all angles " (Jan. 14), Marilyn Carlson Nelson, chairman of Carlson, a travel and hospitality company, argues that if Minnesota voters pass the Marriage Protection...

The Opinion section is produced by the Editorial Department to foster discussion about key issues. The Editorial Board represents the institutional voice of the Star Tribune and operates...

President Barack Obama pumps up a gun designed by Joey Hudy, left, of Phoenix, Ariz., left, to shoot a marshmallow in the State Dining Room of the White House in Washington, Tuesday, Feb. 7, 2012,...

"Minnesota went for Santorum," national pundits proclaimed, not long after straw ballots were cast at Tuesday night's Republican precinct caucuses. Former Pennsylvania Sen. Rick...

Oakland's City Council had a chance to send an unambiguous message to the Occupy movement that the unruliness and vandalism that has plagued recent demonstrations must stop. Instead, the...

(FILES) This February 3, 2012 file photo shows US President Barack Obama speaking on jobs for veterans at Fire Station #5 in Arlington, Virginia. Boosted by rising US jobs figures, President Barack...

Proposition 8 violates the constitutional rights of same-sex couples ("Court says Prop. 8 is unconstitutional," Feb. 8), and I applaud their decision. Make no mistake: Prop. 8's...

How will America stop the flight of U.S. high-tech manufacturing operations from going overseas? Step one, the United States has to acknowledge that the primary obligation of a public corporation is...

I first heard about Mohamed Nasheed in 2008, when, immediately after taking office as the first-ever democratically elected leader of the Maldives, he decided not just to repair his country's broken...

Two days after a court-appointed deadline calling for their eviction, Occupy Pittsburgh members said they were voluntarily leaving their camp site. The group said in a statement that its members...

TAMPA, Fla. -- South Florida snapped Pitt's four-game winning streak by beating the Panthers, 63-51, tonight at Tampa Times Forum. The loss dropped the Panthers to 4-8 in Big East Conference...

Richard McGee, who reportedly crashed an SUV into the PNC Firstside Center on Tuesday, turns himself into the Pittsburgh Bureau of Police Headquarters on...

Shawn Carlson and Drew Danver, right, from Cafe Phipps serve the White House's suggested school lunch Wednesday to Peyton Walker and Jacy Willis, left, at The Environmental Charter School in...

"Elder Hostages," a trilogy of one-acts tells the stories of people coping with the indignities of aging, takes the stage for its first full production after an acclaimed reading in 2010. ...

Last year, at his inauguration, Tom Corbett took office with a desire to "unleash a new common prosperity to benefit all Pennsylvanians." Two budget proposals later, it's hard to see...

Unless America is visited by biblical plagues -- and maybe not even then -- Rick Santorum, the former Pennsylvania senator and perpetual moral scold, is unlikely to be the next president. But...

When the Post-Gazette editorialized Tuesday about the threat of closure to the 911th Airlift Wing, we suggested that the best way to save the base was to make an argument on the military merits of...

The Bonusgate scandal is winding down in Harrisburg even as the list of convicted lawmakers grows, but there's still one item that isn't quite resolved: bonuses themselves. The good news...

Port-au-Prince, Haiti


IT has been painful to watch as Jean-Claude Duvalier, who inherited the brutal dictatorship that once ruled Haiti, swanks around the hot spots of Port-au-Prince, flanked...

A stubborn standoff is playing out this week between a nearly bankrupt Greece and the wrongheaded European partners it needs to pay its bills. The outcome is, sadly, foreordained. Greece will have to...

House Republican leaders appear ready to bow to election-year pressure and pass a bill banning lawmakers from using nonpublic information they hear on the job to make financial investments. The House...

Persistent poverty is America's great moral challenge, but it's far more than that.


As a practical matter, we can't solve educational problems, health care costs, government spending or...

Frankfurt


WITH Greece once again nearing default, calls are going out this week for Germany to step in to help. And many Germans are, once again, responding with indignity, saying they...

This is a really old story, but let me tell you anyway.


When I was first married, my mother-in-law sat down at her kitchen table and told me about the day she went to confession and told the...

Male, Maldives


DICTATORSHIPS don't always die when the dictator leaves office. The wave of revolutions that toppled autocrats in Tunisia, Egypt, Libya and Yemen last year was certainly cause...

But the ruling, and the twisting political trail that led to it, prompts these questions: Who exactly is harmed if gay marriage is legal? Or, alternatively, if it's illegal but gays possess all the...

Erwin Chemerinsky, in the Los Angeles Times: "One central criticism of the 9th Circuit's decision is that it was wrong for the court to substitute its decision for that of the voters. However, it is...

In addition, the group's decision to defund Planned...

However, the Social Security Administration's Office of the Inspector General (OIG) has reported that third-party representatives engaged early in the process can actually save claimants time and the...

In a big win for gay rights and common decency, a federal appeals court has pronounced California's Proposition 8 unconstitutional, arguing that there's no "legitimate reason for the...

The Lake Vostok drilling site in 2001. Outer space is not the only frontier. There is also inner space, pockets of unexplored regions within our own Earth. Granted, they are becoming very scarce,...

("We Are All Khaled Said"). Ghonim identified himself only as "administrator" on the Kullena Khaled Said page, and he used a proxy program called Tor that constantly changed his...

City of London police and Her Majesty's Revenue and Customs are the keepers of the specialist skills that, in theory, enable them to crack down on the cheats, whether they are damaging...

subject of theft . Identifying new cultivars of snowdrop takes an expert eye. It is a question of a little more green here, a slightly sharper indent there, a hint of variegation on a leaf or...

Today: The widening political divide. Bob: President Obama is the most partisan president ever...

theory of untouchability. The solution was presented in the form of a return to Buddhism. It was clear that individuals who would experience cruelty at the hands of some forms of institutional...

political parties do give free laptops to high school students if elected to power, it could be a major game-changer in education. The digital divide bet-ween urban and rural areas as well as social...

Punjab , political parties have thrown in a new gimmick for election campaigns this year: the promise of free laptops and tablets for 11th and 12th standard students. But given the abysmal standards...

Proposition 8 unconstitutional can be easily explained: There is no legitimate government interest in prohibiting same-sex marriages. It is for this reason that the Supreme Court is likely to affirm...

(The New Republic) Another week, another set of primaries -- and soon enough, undoubtedly, another cascade of speculations about the prospect of a brokered convention. Predictions of an unpredictable...