SCIENCE!

It was inevitable that the world would eventually realize the unhappy fact that President-elect Barack Obama will not represent a complete break with the past 60 years of American diplomacy. By tapping Rahm Emanuel, a fierce partisan of Israel who volunteered as a mechanic in northern Israel during the first Gulf War, it is fair to say that process has already begun.For example, what does Abu Jayab, the young Palestinian in Gaza who was cold-calling ...

As news of Barack Obama's victory spread across the globe, the foreign press questioned how the incoming Obama administration will influence politics in their parts of the world. Foreign analysts reacted with emotions ranging from elation to cautious hope, but a few also revealed frustation with how the election campaign was run, and a sense of realism about the daunting task facing President-elect Obama. Above, a celebratory sand sculpture on a beach in Puri, India. ...

In the 2006 midterm elections, Americans living abroad returned only a third of the approximately one million absentee ballots mailed out to them. With roughly six million Americans serving in the military overseas or living abroad eligible to vote, that works out to a pretty dismal 5.5% turnout rate. In this election, expatriate voting rates should be much better -- and not just because of the presidential race at the top of the ballot.The voting ...

First, they came for the small-chested people... A ban on small-chested people riding motorbikes is just one of the novel criteria recently proposed by Vietnam's Ministry of Health. People whose chests measure less than 28 inches would be prohibited under this new recommendation, as well as people who are too short or too thin. This proposal is meant to improve driver safety in Vietnam, which has one of the world's highest road death tolls, presumably ...

Twenty-five years ago this week, a truck laden with explosives crashed through the security gate surrounding the compound housing the U.S. Marine presence in Beirut. The suicide bomber drove straight into the lobby of the Marine barracks and detonated explosives equivalent to 12,000 pounds of TNT. The force of the explosion collapsed the building, killing 241 American servicemen.The bombing entered the 2008 U.S. presidential campaign when John McCain bragged that he stood up to President ...

Gert Eggenberger/Getty ImagesAustrian politics are turning out to be uncharacteristically interesting these days. Stefan Petzner (right), the successor to Jörg Haider, was sacked yesterday after admitting to having a long-running affair with the leader of Austria's far right.Haider died earlier this month in a high-speed car crash after drinking heavily at a gay club. Then on Wednesday, Petzner announced that Haider was "the man of my life," and that "we had a special relationship that ...

Mario Tama/Getty ImagesWithout taking anything away from former Finnish President Martti Ahtisaari, who was awarded the Nobel Peace Prize today for his work as an “outstanding international mediator” in conflicts from Indonesia to Northern Ireland, the entire institution of the Nobel Committee has grown so self-important that this is a worthwhile opportunity to question its judgment and ultimately its usefulness.The 1973 Peace Prize, awarded to then-Secretary of State Henry Kissinger and Vietnamese negotiator Le Duc ...