U.S. plots strategy with ex-monarch
Though 86 years old and frail, the man ousted as Afghanistan's king in 1973 is beginning to play a pivotal role in efforts to cobble together a viable Afghan opposition...
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Leader says Islam is inferior to West
When Italian Prime Minister Silvio Berlusconi contended that Western civilization was superior to Islamic culture, he jolted an already fragile global anti-terrorist alliance. His ill-timed comments embarrassed Europe and the...
Long-deposed Afghan ruler ready to take power again
Mohammad Zahir Shah, the former king of Afghanistan, had lived quietly in exile in Italy for the past 28 years. That changed this weekend when his return to the throne...
Stabbing at elementary school stuns Japanese
Mamoru Takuma was considered a disturbed but harmless man who could be controlled with pills, until Friday, when, police say, he climbed into an elementary school and ran amok with...
JAPAN SHUNS EX-DIPLOMAT’S EXPOSE ON PERU RAID
On Sunday the Japanese held in the Lima hostage drama are to meet as usual in a downtown hotel to commemorate their liberation four years ago by Peruvian security forces....
PEACE TALKS FIND ALTERED LANDSCAPE
Against a backdrop of resurging violence in the occupied territories and presidential uncertainty in the U.S., Palestinian leader Yasser Arafat was flying to Washington on Wednesday for a summit with...
MEMORIES OF SYDNEY
PUTTING CYNICISM ON HOLD SYDNEY--Being a journalist at the Olympics is about four parts exhilaration and one part exhaustion. Or is it the other way around? Working hard is never...
GEISHA WITH A GRUDGE
Mineko Iwasaki was a queen among the geisha of Kyoto, Japan, in the 1960s and 1970s, the kind of girl, connoisseurs said, who comes along once every 100 years. When...
ANCIENT CUSTOM MEETS MODERN PR STRATEGY
When Mitsubishi Motor Corp. President Katsuhiko Kawasoe bowed low this week to apologize for a 20-year company coverup that put thousands of motorists at risk, he was purging the motorcar...
PROPOSAL TO USE E-MAIL EXPOSES VIRTUAL RED FACES
When Russian President Vladimir Putin, a man of many talents, suggested to his fellow leaders at the Group of Eight summit here they should all communicate by e-mail, he ran...