A Four-Letter Word

MANY IMPORTANT struggles in Israel are calling out to people of conscience. Among others (in random order):

I’m only guessing, but a major problem with being President has to be people around you being more likely to stick their face in a cast iron oscillating fan than tell you the truth. Let’s say you slip and fall and rip a hole in your pants down to your ankle while spilling hot coffee on a little blind girl in a wheelchair in front of a nationally televised audience. The worst you could expect to hear from a staffer is “well, that could have gone better.”

Finkelstein says no to Crocodile Tears

Sarah Palin, the icon of US conservative politics, has addressed delegates to the national convention of the emerging Tea Party movement, proclaiming that America is "ready for another revolution".

The US city of New Orleans, which is predominantly African American, has elected its first white mayor in 32 years.

Group of Seven countries (G7) have pledged to cancel their bilateral debts with earthquake-ravaged Haiti, and urged international lenders to do the same, Jim Flaherty, the Canadian finance minister, has said.

An anti-whaling protest group has accused a Japanese whaling vessel of "intentionally ramming" one of its protest boats during a standoff in Antarctic waters.

Four Afghan police officers have been killed and two civilians injured after a roadside bomb hit a police vehicle in the southern city of Kandahar, police have said.

Washington is not in "direct contact" with the Taliban as part of efforts to reintegrate anti-government fighters, the US envoy for Afghanistan has said.

Iran has cut links with the British Museum over its failure to lend the Islamic Republic an ancient Persian treasure, according to Iranian media.

A US military contractor is believed to have been kidnapped in Iraq after an armed group released a video  showing a man being held captive.

Mahmoud Ahmadinejad, the Iranian president, has instructed Iran's Atomic Energy Organisation to begin enriching uranium for use as nuclear fuel, casting doubt on the prospect of a deal with the West.

Yemen's government has presented northern Houthi fighters with a detailed ceasefire agreement in a bid to end a six-year conflict.

Sheikh Anwar Awlaki, a Yemeni religious scholar, said that the suspect accused of attempting to blow up a US passenger jet on Christmas Day, was one of his students.