Barack Obama arrived in Strasbourg on Friday for this weekend's NATO summit enthusing about the military organization, which he described at a joint press conference with French President Nicolas Sarkozy as "the most successful alliance in modern history." That it may have been. But Obama's praise contrasts starkly with the scathing assessment of the state of NATO, now 60 years old, by European military analysts, who say that the gap in military capability between the United ...

There is a well-known saying in Afghanistan: "You can rent an Afghan, but you can't buy him.""There's been an amnesty program for low-level Taliban in place for many years now and thousands of people have taken advantage of it," he said. "So this is not entirely a new idea. The idea of bribing people, local guys, to come over. ... It's one of the most cost-effective ways to get people to lay down their arms, either to negotiate a peace ...

Over the last two decades humanitarian organization International Medical Corps has cared for hundreds of thousands of victims of wars and natural disasters in more than 25 countries.

"Lions hate circuses" has long been a bumper sticker slogan of the animal rights movement, and Bolivia has heard the message: The left-leaning government of the Andean country recently passed the world's first legislation prohibiting the use of all animals in circuses. That's a huge victory for the London-based organization Animal Defenders International , which agitated for the ban. But it has left the organization, and others like it, facing the challenge of finding homes for 22 ...

Global philanthropists Bill and Melinda Gates are launching a major push to convince the United States to maintain government spending on worldwide health initiatives, despite the financial crisis and a soaring U.S. budget deficit.The Gates Foundation said it cannot solve all these problems alone, despite having a budget that is bigger than the economies of many countries, and it says it needs the help of the United States and other governments. In an interview, Melinda Gates said, "Our money is ...

The Supreme Court tentatively agreed Tuesday to accept an appeal from a group of native Chinese Muslims who had asked to be released into the United States from American military custody at Guantanamo Bay, Cuba. The case may soon dissolve, however, because nearly all the men have been or are expected to soon be sent voluntarily to other nations. The Pacific island nation of Palau has agreed in recent weeks to take in 12 of the 13 remaining prisoners, U.S. ...

Afghan President Hamid Karzai is expected to announce Tuesday whether he will accept findings that indicate he did not secure enough votes to win a second term. Karzai is scheduled to speak at a news conference, a day after an independent analysis of election data found that the U.N.-backed Electoral Complaints Commission invalidated nearly a third of Karzai's votes from the August 20 presidential election because of "clear and convincing evidence of fraud." Those findings brought Karzai under the 50 ...

An all-male college in Atlanta, Georgia, has banned the wearing of women's clothes, makeup, high heels and purses as part of a new crackdown on what the institution calls inappropriate attire. No dress-wearing is part of a larger dress code launched this week that Morehouse College is calling its "Appropriate Attire Policy." The policy also bans wearing hats in buildings, pajamas in public, do-rags, sagging pants, sunglasses in class and walking barefoot on campus. However, it is the ban on ...

Representatives of deposed President Manuel Zelaya said Friday that the interim government of coup leader Roberto Micheletti has the weekend to decide whether to accept their proposal to resolve the leadership crisis. "President Zelaya has decided to wait until Monday to find out if they accept the proposal, which includes a consult with the Supreme Court," said Ricardo Martinez at the Hotel Capitalino in the capital city of Tegucigalpa. Zelaya's proposal would give the decision about resolving the crisis to ...

Up to 30 million people are facing "a humanitarian disaster" as one of Africa's biggest lakes shrinks, a United Nations agency warned Thursday. Lake Chad was about the size of Maryland -- bigger than Israel or Kuwait -- in 1963, satellite images show. By 2001, it covered less than one-fifth of that area -- making it smaller than Delaware or Mauritius. The drying-up of the shallow lake is fueling conflict and migration, the U.N.'s Food and Agriculture Organization said. Once ...