United States

Brad Pitt: Religious upbringing was ‘stifling’

Filmmaker Terrence Malick’s latest, “The Tree of Life,” has been alternately described as a “tone poem” delving into issues about faith, family and forgiveness and a “coming of age story about the universe,” so it’s understandable that Monday’s Cannes press event got a little heavy. The movie tells the story […]

US, UK and European envoys trapped in Yemen embassy

(CNN) — The American, British and European Union ambassadors to Yemen are trapped in an embassy surrounded by gunmen angry about efforts by Arab mediators to ease President Ali Abdullah Saleh out of power, the American envoy told CNN. U.S. Ambassador Gerald Feierstein said the ambassadors of Saudi Arabia, Kuwait, […]

Germany helps mediate US talks with Taleban

BERLIN – GERMANY is helping mediate secret, direct talks between the United States and the Afghan Taleban, with meetings taking place on German soil, Spiegel magazine reported on Sunday. Germany’s special representative for Afghanistan and Pakistan Michael Steiner is moderating the talks, the latest round of which took place on […]

Netanyahu’s rejection of Obama’s Mideast speech underestimated the president’s strength—and could hasten the Israeli leader’s political demise.

by Michael Tomasky Bibi Netanyahu could have reacted any number of ways to Barack Obama’s mention of the “1967 lines with mutually agreed swaps.” Let’s say, actually, four ways—embrace, circumspection, suspicion, tantrum. That he chose the last—saying immediately after the Obama speech that he “expects” to hear Obama in essence […]

Netanyahu to Obama: No return to 1967 lines

Washington (CNN) — Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu on Friday firmly rejected President Barack Obama’s call for an approximate return to the borders that existed before the 1967 Middle East war, telling the U.S. leader that such a move is impossible in light of current security concerns and demographic realities. […]

Poll: Most Americans Support Gay Marriage

A Gallup poll released Friday showed that 53 percent of Americans believe that same-sex marriage should be recognized by law with the same rights as traditional marriages. The results were based on Gallup’s three-day Values and Beliefs poll in May, which it has tracked every year since 2004 (the first […]