Current affairs

U.S. presidential candidate Barack Obama strengthened his hand in several important ways by choosing Senator Joseph Biden as his Democratic vice presidential running mate.

How are the two putative candidates in the US Presidential race treating the evangelical vote thus far? In one answer: seriously. If the evidence is anything to go by, the evangelical vote will still prove thumping come November. Figures

A cease-fire went into effect in Gaza in June, offering some respite from the violence that has killed hundreds of Palestinians and five Israelis in recent months. It will do nothing, however, to address the underlying cause of the Israeli-Palestinian conflict.

Washington - In a recent interview, Homeland Security czar Michael Chertoff thundered that the "struggle" against terrorism is a "significant existential" one-carefully differentiating it, apparently, from all those insignificant existential struggles we have waged in the past.

Tokyo - Because Americans are more proactive than the Japanese, they are likely to avoid the same kind of deep slump as we had for almost a decade. Nonetheless, with the value of their key assets-their homes-diminished, they will become a land of cautious consumers.

As Middle East oil climbs to record highs, research into alternative energy sources is attracting a wave of new science, much of it still experimental and untested.

A book review: A Beautiful Math: John Nash, Game Theory, and the Modern Quest for a Code of Nature

When I was young and the world was different, I used to hide Stendhal's classic novel "The Red and the Black" in the dust jacket of a Bible and read it on Sunday mornings in church.

Reports that archenemies Syria and Israel are conducting indirect discussions about permanent peace under Turkish mediation are the latest and a most unexpected development in the Middle East.

The EU's preoccupation with its global competitiveness is more than cancelling out its measures to protect the environment, says Friends of the Earth's Tony Juniper. He calls for a radical reassessment of sustainability policies in Europe.

At the heart of the French advanced research program is a little-known project for a giant laser cannon -- not for shooting down satellites but for something potentially much more powerful.