Dominique Strauss-Kahn, tipped to be the presidential candidate for the Socialist Party, has been undermined by a sexual assault case. The incumbent Nicholas Sarkozy’s popularity has taken a knock in the last year as well. Marine Le Pen, leader of the Nation Front Party, is hoping to use the failures of both men to her advantage. In the interview, Marine Le Pen said that “Nicolas Sarkozy... 

Yesterday’s announcement that the US is withdrawing some $800 million in military aid from Pakistan looks to do more serious harm to US-Pakistani relations, but if administration officials expected the “rebuke” to be met with an act of contrition from the Pakistani military, they were mistaken. Rather, Pakistan’s military today insists that they don’t need the US military aid at all, and... 

Here is the world in 2050, as imagined by the U.S. Census Bureau: India will be the most populous nation, surpassing China sometime around 2025. The U.S. will remain exactly where it is now: in third place, with a population of 423 million (up from 308 million in 2010). And declining birth rates in two of the world’s most economically and politically influential countries, Japan and Russia,... 

Newly hired workers, wearing yellow jerseys, were trained at Spellman High Voltage's second manufacturing plant, which makes X-ray components in Matamoros, Mexico. When the latest bloody headlines from the drug war in Mexico reach headquarters in New York, Ken Chandler, the manager of an American electronics manufacturing plant here, jumps on the phone. He is not begging to come home. He is begging... 

Over the past four days, a wave of ethnic violence has killed at least 95 people in Karachi, paralyzing Pakistan’s largest city. Some roads are deserted, shopping malls and markets are shuttered. Masked militants used Molotov cocktails and rockets, attacked public passenger buses and burned down houses, killing 25 people on Friday alone, mostly in hit-and-run terror attacks in ethnically mixed... 

The BBC’s director general has admitted that the corporation has avoided speaking about the problems of ‘taboo’ subjects such as immigration. Mark Thompson said ‘sensitive and difficult issues’ like immigration were ignored because the broadcaster was ‘anxious’ about appearing to have a right-wing agenda. In an article for the New Statesman magazine, he admitted: ‘There have been occasions,... 

Battles between the vicious Zetas gang and other drug cartels led to the discovery of more than 40 bodies in a 24-hour span, a government official said Saturday. At least 20 people were killed and five injured when gunmen opened fire in a bar late Friday in the northern city of Monterrey, where the gang is fighting its former ally, the Gulf Cartel, said federal security spokesman Alejandro Poire. Eleven... 

The BBC's Will Ross describes the celebrations in the capital Juba. South Sudan has become the world’s newest nation, the climax of a process made possible by the 2005 peace deal that ended a long and bloody civil war. Sudan’s President Omar al-Bashir and UN Secretary General Ban Ki-moon are among international dignitaries attending celebrations in the capital, Juba. Sudan earlier became... 

Dissatisfaction was the biggest common factor for the thousands who rallied in Cairo’s Tahrir square yesterday. Elsewhere in Egypt several smaller rallies took place to help defend the uprising that toppled Hosni Mubarak and to show anger at the new military rulers’ slow pace of reforms. There were men on stages calling for faster trials for ministers associated with the regime. A separate... 

Marine Le Pen the daughter of Jean-Marie Le Pen recently became leader of the National Front succeeding her father. She is turning out to be a slick operator. With the French presidential elections less than a year away she is polling ahead of President Sarkozy. She doesn’t deny that there used to anti-Semitism in the party. Now she says she has only one thing to say to anyone with those views “... 

Following yesterday’s votes, the House once again rejected an Amendment offered by Rep. Dennis Kucinich (D – OH) which would have defunded the war in Libya. The vote failed 169-251 and saw solid Republican support, but coupled with overwhelming opposition from Democrats. The new vote would have conditioned any funding of the war on the President obtaining a formal declaration of war from Congress.... 

China’s Foreign Ministry warned U.S. officials on Thursday not to meet with visiting exiled spiritual leader the Dalai Lama, saying it hoped Washington “appropriately dealt” with Tibet-related issues. China reviles the Nobel Peace Prize-winning Dalai Lama, saying he supports the use of violence to establish an independent Tibet. He strongly denies either accusation, insisting he... 

A boat has sunk off the Sudanese coast killing 197 illegal immigrants. A boat carrying illegal immigrants to Saudi Arabia has sunk off the Sudanese coast in the Red Sea, killing at least 197 people, Sudanese media say. “One hundred and ninety seven people from neighboring countries drowned in the Red Sea, inside Sudanese territorial waters, following the burning of a boat that was illegally transporting... 

A student wearing a burka. Muslim women who refuse to remove their veils for police will face jail under new laws in Australia’s largest state. The New South Wales government has rushed through legislation allowing police to force the removal of head coverings to identify suspected criminals. The laws, among the toughest in the world involving Islamic female dress, follow the recent furore over a... 

Hugo Chavez (R) in Cuba with Fidel Castro (L) Venezuela’s President Hugo Chavez, making his first public appearance since having a tumor removed in Cuba, promised supporters that he will win his battle against cancer though it will likely take some time. Speaking from a balcony at the presidential palace in Caracas yesterday evening, Chavez described how he underwent surgery on June 20 after...