In my work as a cardiovascular surgeon, I use the most sophisticated tools of modern medicine to separate patients from their diseased hearts and replace these organs with healthy ones. While my training was in the science of the Western world, I also rely heavily on an ancient Eastern technique--meditation--to help my patients prepare for surgery and to steer them gently toward recovery. Why? Because it works. Every patient who comes to Columbia Presbyterian Medical Center in New York ...

When the U.S. confronted Pakistan after the terrorist attacks of Sept. 11, 2001, there were no discussions of common goals and shared dreams. There was just a very direct threat: you're either with us or against us. Pakistan had to choose between making an enemy of the U.S. and taking a quick and dirty deal sweetened with the promise of a lot of cash. In the end, Pakistan's cooperation was a transaction that satisfied the urgent needs ...

The United Nations' dramatic military operation in the Ivory Coast civil war came at a crucial juncture in the struggle between the country's two Presidents. Over the weekend, forces supporting Allassane Ouattara, the man recognized as president by most of the international community, arrived at Abidjan, the city where both Ouattara and his rival Laurent Gbagbo, the incumbent, were holed out. The Ouattara troops had marched in from their northern strongholds, where they had been rebel troops ...

When western diplomats seek concessions from Iran, they typically dish out tough rhetoric and threaten sanctions. Neil MacGregor, the cherub-faced director of the British Museum, uses a more refined arsenal: cultural relics and priceless artifacts. In January, MacGregor traveled to Tehran to finalize the loan of treasures from eight of Iran's best museums. In exchange, he promised to loan the National Museum of Iran the Cyrus Cylinder, a 2,500-year-old clay cylinder inscribed with decrees from the Persian emperor Cyrus the ...

For more than a decade, Bonnie Burnett and her husband Truman have owned a second home in the hilly farmland of Bradford County, in northeastern Pennsylvania. It was a getaway for the Burnetts , a place to take their grandchildren for a swim in the wooded pond that lies just a few steps from their front door. "It used to be heaven here," says Bonnie. "We were going to move here to live." The Burnetts say their plans changed when a natural gas ...

From time to time, I have felt Dick Cheney's pain. We are both about the same age--I am some months older--and we both had our first heart attacks in our mid-30s. Over the years, we have been similarly inconvenienced by heart attacks. The elephant has stepped on his chest four times, and on mine twice. Cheney has had one multiple-bypass operation; I have had two of them. We have both had angioplasties, with stents. A couple of years ago, I ...

When the severed heads of seven French Trappist monks were found in a remote mountainous region of Algeria in May 1996, it was natural to assume the murders were the latest gruesome act by jihadists in their long-running and bloody campaign against the Algerian government. Thirteen years on, however, the victims' families, church officials and the French and Algerian publics have been shocked by the revelation that the monks may have been killed as the result of ...

Four U.S. service members died in a roadside bombing attack, and two civilians were killed in crossfire during a military operation, military authorities in Afghanistan said Friday. "This is a constitutional crisis," said Tsvangirai as he railed against President Robert Mugabe's party. "ZanuPF [Mugabe's party] cannot run government alone constitutionally and legally." Tsvangirai said his party will not attend cabinet meetings and the prime minister has also boycotted his meetings with Mugabe which occur every Monday. The party is not ...

A worldwide network of fraudsters conned thousands of people into buying fake golf clubs on eBay, a London court has heard. In allegedly the largest fraud uncovered by the online auction site, the counterfeit clubs, as well as clothing and other golf accessories, were sold "on a scale, it is believed, has never been seen before," prosecutors told Snaresbrook Crown Court. The mastermind behind the million dollar operation, Greg Bellchambers, from east London, has already admitted fraud and conspiracy. His ...

A brazen, daylight suicide bombing on the African Union's peacekeeping mission in Somalia's capital has killed at least 21 people, mostly peacekeepers, the mission said Friday. Suicide bombers, disguised in two U.N.-marked vehicles, Thursday rammed through the security gate of the mission's headquarters, which is attached to Mogadishu's airport. They detonated their explosives just as Somalia's transitional government and mission representatives concluded a high-level meeting inside the compound, said the African Union's special representative for Somalia, Nicolas Bwakira. The attack ...