By Douglas Holtz-Eakin
The young drop coverage to avoid higher premiums
Independent voices from the TWT Communities
President John Atta Mills vowed to help spread the wealth from Ghana's newly discovered offshore oil fields, though his death Tuesday came before the 68-year-old could even finish his first term in this West African nation long held up as a model of democracy.
United Arab Emirates authorities temporarily detained members of a U.S.-funded democracy group as they tried to leave the country after their office was ordered closed, U.S. officials said Thursday.
Americans facing trial in Egypt because of the activities of their pro-democracy groups are caught in a dispute over aid between the U.S. government and Egypt, a lawyer representing the Americans said Tuesday.
A leader of the Muslim Brotherhood this week met with the American ambassador and a top State Department official at the U.S. Embassy in Cairo and scoffed at President Obama's commitment to democracy in Egypt.
Egypt is preventing at least 10 Americans and Europeans from leaving the country, including the son of U.S. Transportation Secretary Ray LaHood, raising tensions with Washington over a campaign by Egypt's military against groups promoting democracy and human rights.
Russian state television this week denounced U.S. Ambassador Michael A. McFaul after the American envoy met with political opposition leaders in Moscow.
U.S. Ambassador Robert Ford, who returned to Syria last month, is already resuming the types of verbal assaults against President Bashar Assad and his violent regime that brought death threats and forced a recall to Washington.
The richest man in Georgia announced his intention to run for parliament in a move that threatens the political establishment, but found that his $50 million hilltop retreat offered no protection from the full-contact sport of Georgian politics.
The Obama administration has hit two men with sanctions for suspected laundering money on behalf of Mexican and Colombian drug cartels.
Washington-based election monitors denounced Egypt's military government for storming their offices in Cairo on Thursday, five days before the final vote for a new parliament.
The victory of an Islamist Party in Morocco's parliamentary elections on Friday appears to be one more sign that religious-based parties are benefiting the most from the new freedoms brought by the Arab Spring.
In the past four years, Russia's intelligence services have stepped up a campaign of intimidation and dirty tricks against U.S. officials and diplomats in Russia and the countries that used to form the Soviet Union.
