May 24, 2014 GENEVA – Russia’s leader Vladimir Putin usually wears a perfect poker face. But last week in Shanghai, the icy-cold Russian president came awfully close to bursting into a big grin. And why not? Putin had just stolen a march on his western rivals. The US-British attempt to […]
May, 17, 2014 PARIS – Of the many bridges that span the Seine River, none is more beautiful nor majestic than the Pont Alexandre III. Just south of the splendid Grand Palais, this bridge was named in honor of Russia’s Czar, Alexander III. Completed in 1892, the bridge is a […]
May 10, 2014 The kidnapping of some 200 girls in northern Nigeria has sparked world outrage. It’s a perfect media sensation: exotic locale and remarkably nasty kidnappers from a northern rebel movement, Boko Haram. I’ve long been a connoisseur of Third World nasties, starting way back in the 60’s with […]
