Five years after the fall of the Taliban, the police force in Afghanistan is largely incapable of carrying out routine law enforcement work, a U.S. report found.
A tape provides the first concrete glimpse inside the incarceration of Jose Padilla, whose detention became a test case in the fight against terrorism.
Question: What's the most dangerous geopolitical development in the 21st century? Answer: Iran's emergence as the Middle East regional superpower. Why? Because it places the center of the world's increasingly stretched energy resources more and more under the influence of an oil-rich, fundamentalist, pro-terrorist, anti-Semitic regime that has not only nuclear ambitions but the means to realize them.
Last Friday was World AIDS Day. People across the planet held hands in solidarity against a lethal microbe hellbent on finding a warm human body in which to incubate, replicate, and from which to transmit itself to others. The HIV virus has killed 25 million people since its appearance in 1981; today, at least 40 million people worldwide are infected. The awareness day stems from a United Nations initiative (its slogan: "Keep the Promise") intended to help nations cope with the epidemic. Governments, private foundations, and corporations have committed billions of dollars to make the highly active antiretroviral drugs, which can turn AIDS into a chronic manageable disease, available to poorer nations. The promise is powerful, especially if one looks at how the drugs have transformed the face of AIDS in the United States. But there's something odd going on: Despite the commendable enthusiasm for helping victims beyond our borders, a strange complacency has set in at home. Many people think the new blockbuster drugs have solved the AIDS problem. They're wrong. HIV is alive and well in America and spreading vigorously, with 42,000 new cases of HIV infection a year.
What should you do if you're among the millions of Americans with a drug-coated stent protecting your heart–or might be a candidate for one? Here's a dose of personal guidance.
AP - While President Bush acknowledges the need for major changes in Iraq, he will not use this week's Iraq Study Group report as political cover for bringing troops home, his national security adviser said Sunday.
AP - Leftist President Hugo Chavez won re-election in Venezuela by a wide margin Sunday, giving him free reign for a more radical turn toward socialism and six more years to counter U.S. influence in Latin America and beyond.
AP - Sen. Hillary Rodham Clinton met on Sunday with New York's Democratic governor-elect to solicit his support for her likely White House bid, the latest indication she is stepping up plans to join a growing field of potential contenders for 2008.
White House national security adviser Stephen Hadley said Sunday that President Bush realizes "we need to make some changes" in the Iraq war policy. Hadley was reacting to questions about a Donald Rumsfeld memo that offered a variety of options for the future of the nearly 4-year-old war.
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