The Nobel Peace Prize is one of the most powerful platforms in the world. Winners get immediate global attention and the chance to meet and influence leaders and governments everywhere. Think of it as a megaphone through which worthy, but very often obscure, activists or politicians or environmentalists can shout their message to a gathered crowd. That's just one of the reasons the Nobel Committee's decision to award this year's Peace Prize to Barack Obama is such a ...

The Nobel Peace Prize is one of the most powerful platforms in the world. Winners get immediate global attention and the chance to meet and influence leaders and governments everywhere. Think of it as a megaphone through which worthy, but very often obscure, activists or politicians or environmentalists can shout their message to a gathered crowd. That's just one of the reasons the Nobel Committee's decision to award this year's Peace Prize to Barack Obama is such a ...

President Obama was awarded the 2009 Nobel Peace Prize on Friday. The first African-American to win the White House, Obama was praised by the Norweigan Nobel Committee for "his extraordinary efforts to strengthen international diplomacy and cooperation between peoples." "Only very rarely has a person to the same extent as Obama captured the world's attention and given its people hope for a better future," the committee said. "His diplomacy is founded in the concept that those who are to lead ...

Defense Secretary Robert Gates declared Monday that the United States will remain in Afghanistan for the foreseeable future, no matter what President Obama decides on immediate troop levels. "We're not leaving Afghanistan," Gates said in an interview with CNN's Christiane Amanpour that also included Secretary of State Hillary Clinton. "There should be no uncertainly in terms of our determination to remain in Afghanistan and to continue to build a relationship of partnership ... with the Pakistanis," Gates said. ...

Paid for with U.S. dollars, Afghanistan's Highway 1 was supposed to symbolize a path toward a bright future when it was repaved five years ago. The $300 million project smoothed over the highway's rough potholes and cut in half the 12-hour drive time from the capital, Kabul, to the country's political center, Kandahar. But today, roadside bombs have re-scarred the road, and Taliban militants routinely stage brazen attacks on its travelers. The journey between the two cities now takes ...

Giancarlo Fisichella earned Force India's first pole position in Formula One on Saturday as series leader Jenson Button and world champion Lewis Hamilton failed to make final qualifying for the Belgian Grand Prix. Fisichella clocked 1 minute 46.308 seconds on the Spa-Francorchamps circuit to head an unlikely top three from Toyota's Jarno Trulli (1:46.395) and BMW Sauber's Nick Heidfeld (1:46.500) for Sunday's race. It was the veteran Italian driver's first pole position since Malaysia in 2006 when he was at ...

In his sorrow last summer, he seemed larger than anyone had remembered. Forgotten were the early misadventures of the youngest son of a rich and famous family. Like Shakespeare's Prince Hal, he was not what he had seemed to be, and friends and critics alike saw not an immature Senator from Massachusetts but the legend's last guardian. That summer he avoided a chance for the presidential nomination. It would have been premature. But who could doubt that, if spared ...

The central theme marking this weekend's general election in Japan is much like the one that dominated the U.S. presidential contest a year ago: change. Yukio Hatoyama, president of the opposition Democratic Party of Japan , is striving to paint his party as the party of change on the campaign trail, much like U.S. President Barack Obama positioned his Democrats. And if the election goes as expected — the DPJ commands a comfortable lead in polls over the ruling ...

Van Thy says the government evicted her from her home in the Cambodian capital and trucked her and others out to a town an hour away where she now lives in a hot green metal shed with no running water and dim prospects. Before the move, she had a job as a dishwasher, but now the 36-year-old woman is unemployed, penniless and her health has taken a turn for the worse. She has AIDS like many of the others in ...

At least two police officers in Russia's restive region of Chechnya were killed Friday when two bombs went off in the capital, Grozny, the Russian Interior Ministry said. Those who snapped up a ticket to the event that has been dubbed "Avatar Day" will be privy to footage of the much-hyped, technically-advanced 3D science fiction epic that some are saying will revolutionize the way we watch movies. The Oscar-winning director is famous for pushing the boundaries of technology in ...