Books: Cambodia’s brother number one

It is 1975 and Khmer Rouge troops are forcibly evacuating Phnom Penh’s residents to the countrysidean exodus that will ultimately lead to the deaths of hundreds of thousands. Monitoring events from Beijing, an elderly Mao Zedong asks visiting Vietnamese leader Le Duan whether he could ever mount such a merciless purge.

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Does Sarah Palin Want to Be President, or Just Famous?

For the longest time, Sarah Palin was leery of Facebook. Some of the comments left on her page during the 2008 vice-presidential campaign were so withering and unpleasant that it took months of coaxing by her staff and her daughters Bristol and Willow to convince Palin that she should give it another try.

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Reid Signals Delay in Passing Health Bill This Year

Still struggling to line up the 60 votes that are needed to overcome a potential filibuster of health care reform, Senate majority leader Harry Reid sent a strong signal on Tuesday that President Obama is unlikely to be signing his top domestic priority into law this year, as Democrats had hoped. “We’re not going to be bound by timelines,” Reid told reporters as he emerged from a weekly lunch with Democratic Senators.

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Tsvangirai’s party boycotting Zimbabwe government

Zimbabwe’s Movement for Democratic Change — the party of Zimbabwean Prime Minister Morgan Tsvangirai — is boycotting the country’s unity government, the party’s leader said Friday. “This is a constitutional crisis,” said Tsvangirai as he railed against President Robert Mugabe’s party.

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Obama team tries to hash out new plan for Afghanistan

As tensions mount over the best way forward in Afghanistan, top aides say President Obama is adamant about coming up with a new plan before deciding on troop levels. Rising violence and the resurgence of Taliban and al Qaeda fighters in Afghanistan have put the Obama administration on defense as the war enters its ninth year

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