By Douglas Holtz-Eakin
The young drop coverage to avoid higher premiums

Slighting an old friend when there's a death in his family, sending a bouquet of wilted petunias by the chauffeur, is trashy behavior no matter who orders it.

European leaders are among those gathered this week in Davos, Switzerland, to talk about what they can do to extricate their nations from the economic mess they created.
France's former first lady Carla Bruni says she disagrees with her conservative husband Nicolas Sarkozy and supports a plan to allow gay marriage and adoption.

France's former first lady Carla Bruni called feminism outdated in an interview with the French edition of Vogue for its December issue.
France's former first lady Carla Bruni says she disagrees with her conservative husband Nicolas Sarkozy and supports a plan to allow gay marriage and adoption.
Former President Nicolas Sarkozy's conservative party held emergency meetings Sunday to try to figure out who's in charge, after a disputed election for its new leader that could reshape French politics.
France on Tuesday ended its combat operations in Afghanistan, pulling hundreds of troops from a base in a volatile region northeast of Kabul and fulfilling promises to end its combat role on a faster track than other NATO allies.
Former French first lady Carla Bruni-Sarkozy says she thinks her unmarried successor, Valerie Trierweiler, should get hitched to be taken more seriously.

The British were offended, the Palestinians accused him of racism and even in friendlier Poland, Mitt Romney's union policies drew criticism from the current leaders of the movement that toppled Communism.

An amended budget for 2012 being pushed through the French parliament could provide an insight into President Francois Hollande's new Socialist administration: The rich and large companies will be taxed before spending cuts are considered, and many of the big measures of the previous administration aimed at shaking up the country's labor market look set to be swept away.

he CIA station chief opened the locked box containing the sensitive equipment he used from his home in Tel Aviv, Israel, to communicate with CIA headquarters in Virginia, only to find that someone had tampered with it. He sent word to his superiors about the break-in.

Nine months after he was freed from Hamas captivity in a lopsided prisoner swap, Gilad Schalit is emerging from the shadows — showing up at parties, sporting events and even writing a newspaper column.

The government of Cyprus will rely on a combination of austerity measures and growth programs to dig its way out of a financial crisis that has forced it to turn to its European Union partners for aid, the Cypriot ambassador in Washington said Tuesday.
A Chinese city announced Tuesday it has scrapped plans for a copper plant, apparently in response to thousands of people protesting the project's possible public health risks.

Allies of President Francois Hollande mobilized Monday in hopes of securing a crushing parliamentary majority for the Socialists that could bolster him in talks on how to save the embattled euro currency and revive Europe's economic fortunes.
"Because the French departure is part of the natural transition from coalition-led operations to [Afghans] assuming complete responsibility for the security of their country, we don't expect it to impact our operations," he said in Kabul.
France already pulled out its forces from the neighboring Surobi district of Kabul province — a less violent area than Kapisa — earlier this year after then-President Nicolas Sarkozy said his country would pull combat troops out ahead of NATO's 2014 timetable for the U.S.-led combat operation to end.