Rarely have the differences between a U.S. president and an Israeli prime minister been so prominently displayed as they were last week when Barack Obama hosted Benjamin Netanyahu at the White House. Netanyahu’s visit capped a week of activity: Jordan’s King Abdullah visited a few days before and then Obama delivered a speech outlining his views of an eventual peace agreement.To no one’s surprise,

My grandmother didn’t have much money. She was a widow who had raised five children on her husband’s paycheck from the textile mill. So when she tried to give me $1,000 not to go into the Peace Corps, it was a very big offer.I told her that I wanted to serve and that it wasn’t about money.And I went ― to Togo, West Africa, in 1983. My grandmother’s fears were about the kind of men I would meet the

Earlier this month, The China Post reported that a meeting was held by the Council of Labor Affairs (CLA) to discuss the possibility of relaxing some of the current restrictions on hiring foreigners as “white-collar” employees. Immigration officials and others in the fields of education and economics attended the conference, but the report stated that the meeting concluded without any consensus be

Chinese power companies are trying hard to make a big fanfare about the urgent need to raise the price of electricity to avoid the country’s worst power shortage in decades. The country’s leading power distributor, State Grid Corp., warned on Monday that some 26 provincial regions will suffer combined power shortages of 30 million kilowatts this year. Should that be the case, enterprises should br

Mizuho Financial Group Inc., one of the country’s three major banking groups, is being put to the test over whether it can evolve into a financial group with a sense of unity by carrying out necessary reforms.On Monday, the company announced a plan to integrate the operations of Mizuho Bank, Mizuho Corporate Bank and other banking units under its wing in a few years.The integration is aimed at reg

Last week, Arnold Schwarzenegger joined the club of leading male political figures who are known to have cheated on their spouses. Other members have included presidents (John F. Kennedy, Bill Clinton and Franklin D. Roosevelt, for example), members or former members of Congress (among them, John Edwards, Newt Gingrich and John Ensign), and governors (including Eliot Spitzer and Mark Sanford).So w

On Wednesday, the final episode of Oprah Winfrey’s long-running TV talk show will air. In the 25 years since the show has been nationally syndicated, Winfrey ― or, really, Oprah, since that is how she is globally known ― has made herself a singular force in television and the popular culture. In that period, she has topped the daytime ratings as talk show host, earned an Oscar nomination for her a

Under the War Powers Act, President Barack Obama had until Friday to get congressional authorization to continue U.S. military operations in Libya. But the day passed without his even asking for it, which means he has to disengage within 30 days. Obama may not heed that requirement either.Some members of Congress, from both parties, are unhappy about the administration’s disregard of the law. Six

If I were a Palestinian (and, should there be any confusion on this point, I am not), and if I were the sort of Palestinian who believed that Israel should be wiped off the map, then I would be quite pleased with Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s performance before Congress this morning. I would applaud Netanyahu for including no bold initiatives that would have suggested to the world that Israe

The arrest of a leading French statesman and politician, Dominique Strauss-Kahn, on charges of sexually assaulting a New York hotel chambermaid became a transatlantic media spectacle when he was photographed ― manacled and miserable ― being led from a Manhattan lockup. Publishing such pictures is illegal in France, and some commentators there were incensed by the photos of what U.S. reporters call

An unprecedented scandal involving the former head of the International Monetary Fund has left the organization’s top post vacant.No time should be wasted in selecting a new IMF chief to ensure the organization will be able to regain its international credibility, which has been diminished by the scandal.Former IMF managing director Dominique Strauss-Kahn, who was arrested and indicted on charges