World: Saudi Arabia stunned the UN and the diplomatic world by rejecting a long-desired seat on the Security Council as an act of protest against the UN’s failure to deal with major problems in the Middle East. High on Saudi …

Default Coming: Day 14. With the government shutdown in its second week, Washington and the world are counting the days to a US government debt default and potential economic collateral damage.   Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid said yesterday on …

Hope Springs: Day 11. Talks between White House and Congressional aides continued through last night and President Obama is scheduled to meet today with the entire Republican caucus. House Republicans have offered a deal to raise the debt ceiling through …

ShutUp: Day 4. Some Republicans fearing damage to their own party may now be looking for a way out of the shutdown deadlock with a bargain that gives them something, anything, to say they won. House Republicans would have to …

Shutdown, Day 2: President Obama this morning cancelled his planned trip to the Philippines and Malaysia because of the government shutdown. He’s still going to the Asian summit in Bali.   The Senate yesterday rejected a piecemeal House bid to …

Time’s Up. Unless there is a miracle of political agreement today, the federal government turns into a pumpkin at midnight.   The consequences:   More than half of all 1.2 million federal employees will be furloughed, including 400,000 who work …

Econ 101: Stocks flirted with a record close yesterday after the Federal Reserve announced it will continue to prop up the economy with $85 billion a month in new treasury bonds. Analysts were expecting the beginning of “the taper”, with …

Syria: After three days of talks in Geneva, the US and Russia have reached an agreement to destroy Syria’s chemical weapons by the middle of 2014. Doing it in the midst of Syria’s civil war will require the cooperation of …

Syria: Russia and Syria appear to have seized on an offhand remark by Secy. of State John Kerry to reach a political solution for the Syrian chemical weapons crisis in which Russia would take and dispose of Syria’s chemical weapons. …

Syria: The European Union said today that a military strike against Syria should wait until the preliminary results of the UN weapons inspectors’ report. But an EU senior official said the Aug. 21 attack in Syria was clearly carried out …