Federal Reserve Chairman Ben Bernanke testifies on Capitol Hill in Washington, Wednesday, Feb. 9, 2011, before the House Budget Committee. Members of Congress sharply questioned Federal Reserve Chairman Ben Bernanke Wednesday over whether the Fed’s policies are raising the risk of higher inflation in the months ahead. House Budget Committee Chairman Paul Ryan, R-Wis., said he is concerned that... 

Emotions are running high in the dispute over the Kuril Islands. Russia and Japan have been divided over ownership of the islands since the 1950s, but this had long since ceased to be a hot-button issue. How can we explain the unexpected surge in interest in this largely dormant territorial dispute? The collapse of the Soviet Union in 1991 renewed hope that the dispute with Japan would be settled.... 

Hands up: Those who raised their hands agree that President Obama is in fact a Muslim, as it has been alleged. Nearly half of the members in a focus group of Republicans put together by Fox News say they don’t trust President Barack Obama’s response to the Egypt crisis because they believe he’s a Muslim. The Iowa-based group were asked by influential Republican ‘message guru’... 

A Rasmussen poll released Monday indicates that Congressman Ron Paul has a better shot of beating Obama in the 2012 presidential election than Sarah Palin would, should both decide to run on the GOP ticket. As Paul is seemingly on the verge of announcing another presidential bid, The poll shows that more American voters would side with Ron Paul is he were to be pitted against Obama than would vote... 

It has been pretty clear from comments over the past few days that the Obama Administration is keen on Omar Suleiman, Egypt’s newly appointed Vice President and long-standing spymaster, as a successor for dictator Hosni Mubarak. WikiLeaks cables have suggested he has long been Israel’s favorite successor candidate as well. But while his decades near the head of Egypt’s torture-happy regime doesn’t... 

Egypt’s Vice President Omar Suleiman was long seen by Israel as the preferred candidate to succeed President Hosni Mubarak, secret U.S. diplomatic cables published Monday suggested. According to an August 2008 cable released by WikiLeaks and published by the Daily Telegraph newspaper on its website, a senior adviser from the Israeli Ministry of Defense told U.S. diplomats in Tel Aviv that the... 

French President Nicolas Sarkozy speaks during a media conference at an EU summit in Brussels. Nicolas Sarkozy’s plans to strip certain foreign-born criminals of their French nationality has been thrown out by politicians – with one likening it to the Vichy regime in France that collaborated with the Nazis. The proposal intended to deny nationality to people naturalised as French citizens... 

In a shocking coup d’état said to rival Nazi Germany’s 1938 Anschluss (German for “link-up”) of the Austrian Republic, the United States this past week effectively took control of Canada creating what is being called by Russian diplomatic officials as the world’s first 21st Century “Superstate”. The United States announcement of this “merger” between these two North American... 

The former President had been due to address a dinner next weekend. Former US President George W Bush has cancelled a visit to Switzerland amid concerns he could be arrested. The former leader had been due to speak at a charity gala, making the keynote speech at Keren Hayesod’s annual dinner on February 12. But human rights groups in the country have been calling for the Swiss government to arrest... 

David Cameron said Britain had encouraged different cultures to live separate lives. David Cameron has criticised “state multiculturalism” in his first speech as prime minister on radicalisation and the causes of terrorism. At a security conference in Munich, he argued the UK needed a stronger national identity to prevent people turning to all kinds of extremism. He also signalled a tougher... 

Venezuela’s firebrand leader Hugo Chavez accused the United States on Sunday of a “shameful” role in the Egyptian crisis and of hypocrisy for supporting, then abandoning strongmen round the world. Chavez, Washington’s leading critic in the Americas, said he had spoken to Libyan leader Muammar Gaddafi and Syria’s President Bashar al-Assad for a briefing on the protests... 

In a move that calls back to the attempt by Texas cattlemen to sue Oprah Winfrey for “defamation of beef.” an Israeli lawyer has filed a class-action lawsuit against former President Jimmy Carter, seeking $5 million in damages because his book “Palestine: Peace Not Apartheid” allegedly defamed Israel. Attorney Nitsana Darshan-Leitner insisted that Carter’s book violated New York State’s... 

Forcing the issue? Egypt's President Hosni Mubarak welcomes U.S. President Barack Obama during their meeting at the presidential palace in Cairo in this June 4, 2009 file photo. The Obama administration is in talks with top Egyptian officials about the possible immediate resignation of President Hosni Mubarak. U.S. officials said they are also discussing the formation of an interim government that... 

Nick Clegg today announced removal of legislation barring those with mental health problems from being MPs, telling Radio 5 Live it was an “old fashioned approach”. “Today we’re announcing we’re going to remove the law that means if you’re a politician or an MP and you suffer from a mental health problem for more than six months you are disqualified from standing... 

In this image from Egyptian state television, President Hosni Mubarak announces he will not run for a new term. President Hosni Mubarak defied a quarter-million protesters demanding he step down immediately, announcing Tuesday he would serve out the last months of his term and “die on Egyptian soil.” He promised not to seek re-election, but that did not calm public fury as clashes erupted...