'Your papers, please' must never be heard in America
Independent voices from the TWT Communities
Voters who kept Hugo Chavez in office for 14 years were deciding Sunday whether to elect the devoted lieutenant he chose to carry on the revolution that endeared him to the poor but that many Venezuelans believe is ruining the nation.
Not long ago, Warren Buffett promised raising taxes on the rich would boost the morale of the middle class. Thanks to the New Year's "fiscal cliff" deal, the rich's taxes have gone up, but consumer sentiment isn't showing any signs of improvement.
President Hugo Chavez is due to be sworn in for a new term in less than a week, and his closest allies still aren't saying what they plan to do if the ailing leader is unable to return from a Cuban hospital to take the oath of office.
Greece's former finance minister is at the center of an escalating political scandal after three of his relatives were allegedly found missing from a list of Greeks with Swiss banks accounts that authorities are using to investigate possible tax evasion.
With slogans such as "Don't let your vote go up in smoke!" owners of the free-wheeling cafes where bags of hashish are sold alongside cups of coffee are mounting a get-out-the-stoner-vote campaign ahead of next week's Dutch election.
Earlier this week, Greece held its second set of legislative elections in two months. New Democracy, a center-right party that supports the bailout plan proposed by the eurozone and International Monetary Fund, will form a coalition government. Hence, the shattered Greek economy - and equally unstable European financial markets - will avoid a massive collapse.
A coalition government could be formed by mid-Wednesday in Greece, the head of the country's socialist party said Tuesday, easing the nation out of a political limbo as it struggles to deal with a financial crisis that is already affecting Europe's economy and markets around the world.
A Russian-operated ship said to be carrying military helicopters to Syria appears to have turned back after its British insurer removed coverage for the vessel, U.K. officials said Tuesday.
Greece's two pro-bailout parties appeared likely Monday to agree on forming a coalition government after a bruising election watched closely because of its potential impact on the world economy, but negotiations were pushed to a second day after the head of the socialist party insisted on a broad partnership.
As a young reporter wandering through the state legislatures of the American South in the early 1960s, I was soon aware of the lively sexual commerce that went on between men with political power and the women who provided such accommodations.
The newly elected French Socialist president, Francois Hollande, is warning Germany that Mediterranean ideas of "growth," not Germanic "austerity," should be the new European creed.
Critical last-ditch talks to form a coalition government in crisis-struck Greece foundered once more Sunday, leading the country one step closer to new elections, although the socialist party leader said he retained 'existing but limited' optimism for a deal.
So Nicolas Sarkozy and his center-right government are out, and Francois Hollande and his "moderate" Socialist Party are in ("Hollande wins French presidency over Sarkozy," Web, Sunday).
Spain's 74-year-old king came under scathing criticism Sunday for going on an expensive elephant-hunting trip in Botswana amid the nation's deep financial woes.
I grew up in a different Greece, where saving, not debt, was a virtue. Everyone I knew had a savings account, and we all felt it was wrong to borrow money.
