As if Haiti needed another plague, former dictator Jean-Claude “Baby Doc” Duvalier made a surprise return to the country on Sunday after 25 years of exile, raising alarm about his intentions and complicating efforts to resolve a paralyzing electoral crisis.The one-time “president for life” is a polarizing figure who governed Haiti during one of its most wretched eras. His return is yet another dos

The pieces just don’t add up.Credit card debt outstanding has fallen 27 straight months for a total decline of $177.2 billion.The unemployment rate has been stuck above 9 percent for 20 months.Average hourly earnings rose 1.9 percent in 2010.Personal income rose less than 4 percent in the 12 months ended November.About 23 percent of homes with mortgages are worth less than the amount of the loan.F

Shenzhen is famous for being the guinea pig for China’s development over the past three decades. It became China’s first special economic zone in 1980 as the government pioneered the nation’s economic opening-up in this former fishing village adjacent to Hong Kong. Now higher education is the latest area in which the city is blazing a trail for the rest of the country, as it is setting up a univer

Few were expecting any surprises from the ASEAN Ministerial Retreat in Lombok, Indonesia over the weekend. So when news emerged that the 10-member group was urging an easing of sanctions against Burma (Myanmar), we found it rather shocking, if not altogether disturbing.The introduction of a regime sanctioned constitution, general elections and the release of Aung San Suu Kyi are grounds for Indone

In the past 12 and a half months great areas of the world have experienced extreme, crazy and topsy-turvy weather. Both the western and eastern worlds suffered a midsummer breakdown:The hottest summer (more than 100 degrees F for the first time) in Russia, sparking wildfires and blanketing Moscow with toxic smog;The heaviest monsoon rains in Pakistan, causing rivers to rampage over the countryside

All the bluster on Capitol Hill about punishing China for suppressing the value of its currency misses the bigger picture: We and the Chinese need each other to remain strong.China holds almost $1 trillion in U.S. debt. That gives it a huge stake in our nation’s future. Much like a landlord or banker, China relies on us to pay our bills. Considering how the U.S. is asking the world to keep lending

As expected, U.S. President Barack Obama and his Chinese counterpart Hu Jintao addressed two issues concerning North Korea during their summit on Wednesday ― its hostility against South Korea and its nuclear weapons program. They made agreements in broad terms. But their post-summit remarks provided no indication that they agreed to take any concrete steps with regard to the two issues.At a joint

South Korea has recently started negotiations with the United States on extending the range of its ballistic missiles beyond the permitted 300 kilometers. The talks, though belated, should be welcomed. Still better, the United States is reportedly more receptive to South Korean demands than in the past.South Korea’s efforts to develop a new generation of ballistic missiles as a deterrent against N

Healthsense, a technology company based just outside Minneapolis, uses wireless sensors to provide an early warning system for health problems among the elderly or frail. The sensors send out an alert when they detect trouble ― a fall, for example, or a significant change in sleep patterns. Demand for this kind of innovation is soaring, and companies are responding with a host of new products that

Once you get a look at the evil smirk captured by the mug shot of Jared Lee Loughner, it’s hard to believe that mere heated political rhetoric was the decisive factor in his allegedly pulling the trigger over and over and over again.But that doesn’t mean there’s no link between politics and violence, or even, to some degree, mental illness.A psychologist will tell you that plenty of factors may pu

When the needles of greed, corruption, and cronyism popped the economic bubbles of Asia between 1997-98, much of the Western world gloated and wasted little time in criticizing irrational Asians for their lack of financial transparency in borrowing and expanding beyond their means. From their mighty computers, some Euro-Americans thought it was self-evident that Asians were not only irrational, bu

After years of warning that an Iranian atomic bomb is right around the corner, Israeli officials now say Iran is at least four years away from deploying a nuclear weapon, maybe more. And Obama administration officials agree, although they shy away from endorsing a specific time frame. “We’ve gained some breathing space,” a senior U.S. official told me last week. “The good news is that we have slow