Katie Baker

Thanks to the antics of Prime Minister Silvio Berlusconi--his excursions with escorts, his insistence that beauty queens be included in his Parliament, his description of his country as a land of "beautiful secretaries"--Italy's getting slammed often these days for its culture of chauvinism.

Bombings in Baghdad last week--the latest in a spate of deadly attacks around the country--spell trouble for Iraq's tenuous peace. For now, the resurgent violence has been aimed mainly at government ministries.

Ever since the global recession began, China and the U.S. have been swapping accusations of "unfair trade practices," culminating in a tussle last month over tariffs on tires and chickens.

There are many charming things about Glee, Fox TV's quirky new fall comedy about a troupe of high-school misfits with gorgeous voices and hearts of gold. There are the one-liners that cheerleading coach Sue Sylvester lobs like poisoned pom-poms at her colleagues.

The age of peace is growing more and more fragile. That's the new warning from the University of Maryland's Center for International Development and Conflict Management, which had previously documented the sharp drop in the number of post-Cold War conflicts to a low of just 20 in 2004.

Many of the young actors landing leading roles on the New York stage nowadays are of the silver-screen breed, stars with blockbusters to their names and guaranteed audience pull.

The other day, I saw Don Draper in a restaurant on Manhattan's Upper West Side. Or rather, I saw Jon Hamm, the award-winning actor who plays the ad exec anti-hero on AMC's Mad Men which kicked off its third season Sunday night.

With a new president, it's easy to indulge in superlatives: Barack Obama has been said to have the highest approval ratings, but the worst fiscal situation on his hands.

For years, American educators have been touting the rise of the "knowledge economy" and shifting focus away from the manual trades, encouraging teens onto the four-year college track in preparation for our supposedly postindustrial society.

Marketers understand that humans, like other animals, have evolved finely tuned mechanisms for competing for status—and that our choice of a consumer brand is less about the material item itself and more about advertising our wealth, beauty and power to (hopefully jealous) onlookers.

Obama's America is facing some worrisome questions: whether to encourage the globe's best and brightest to flock to our shores, or to save American jobs for American workers.

In "How To Win a Cosmic War," Reza Aslan explains why George W. Bush's war-on-terror rhetoric played right into Al Qaeda's hands—and how Barack Obama might be the best weapon yet against global jihadism.The idea: Groups like Al Qaeda believe they're fighting a take-no-prisoners war between the forces of good and evil.

Ever since 9/11, the general perception has been that America is over-building walls—both real and regulatory—to keep out immigrants. Horror stories about Indian engineers getting strip-searched as suspected terrorists provoked business leaders like Bill Gates to argue that the U.S. is scaring away talent, to its own disadvantage.

Say "Darfur" and ugly images leap to mind: the Janjaweed, rape, genocide. But most of us would be hard pressed to explain the violence there, beyond the popular notion that it's ethnic cleansing of Africans by Arabs.

When an ex-lover sells her story to a tabloid, it's usually called trash. But if the ex is a writer who pens a memoir, it's art. Why the difference?

U.S. President Barack Obama may want to consider signing up for some hush-hush lessons on head-of-state protocol. He set the Anglo press aflutter last month with his gifting snafus—bum DVDs to British Prime Minister Gordon Brown, mistranslated RESET buttons to Russia.

Remember when green evoked granola-munching, Birkenstock-clad activists hanging in Santa Cruz? Now even the Pentagon is getting its green on. The military is eagerly adopting energy-saving initiatives, installing wind turbines and solar-cell systems and investing in alternative fuels like geothermal power, according to the Center for American Progress.

Good old atomic number 79 has always been the safe haven of choice for skittish investors, but gold is about to get a run for its money. Despite the fact that the gold-to-silver ratio is at its highest point since 2004, New York-based hedge-fund adviser the Hennessee Group says silver is poised to outperform its glitzier counterpart.Even though silver initially suffered as the global financial crisis deepened and investors fled to gold and Treasuries— in 2008, gold gained about 6 percent;...

Are you an SWF at the WFP, looking for an LDR with an FWB who might be WTR to Angola or Brazil? If so, Humanitarian Dating could be the social network for you.

Sixty-four-ounce soft drinks. Monster Thickburgers. Unlimited refills. Americans are overstuffed, no doubt about it: two thirds of the nation is overweight and the number's ballooning as fast as our waistlines.

Since Pixar burst onto the animated-short scene in 1986, it's always been the flashiest and funniest competitor in the Oscar category—until now. Sure, "Presto" has all the glossy panache we've come to expect from the studio.

The clash between our genes and our contemporary lifestyle is making us sick. That's the premise of "It Takes a Genome," which examines how the slow pace of genetic evolution and modern environmental stresses have left us susceptible to diseases like cancer, asthma and depression.

Google Earth has already wowed amateur cartographers with its 3-D street grids. Now, aspiring art historians can join the fan club: Google is partnering with Madrid's Prado to give 14 masterpieces an extreme close-up.

Barack Obama's already picked a poet for his Inauguration—but considering the grim times, a reading of Robert Burns would be just as apt. The national bard of the Scots (they're celebrating his 250th birthday on Jan. 21), Burns is known as the "poet of the poor" for his chronicles of life among the country's farmers and wayfarers.

Most nations will bid a jubilant goodbye to George W. Bush, it's true. The Pew Global Poll last month found that majorities in 20 of the 24 nations surveyed have little or no confidence in him, with his negative ratings topping 80 percent in major powers like France and Germany.

The global response to team Obama's nomination of Hillary Clinton for secretary of state has been largely positive, thanks in part to fond memories of Bill and in part to an "anybody but Bush" mentality.

The style race between Michelle Obama, Sarah Palin and Cindy McCain this campaign cycle was as hotly contested as the presidency, with fashionistas and talking heads endlessly analyzing the subtext of their looks.

In Britain, Clive James is known as a jack of many trades: TV presenter, critic, radio host, novelist. He's also been churning out poems for the past 50 years, but by his own admission, the title of "proper professional poet" has been late in coming—his small gems overshadowed, no doubt, by his successful work in television and journalism.James's latest poetry collection, "Opal Sunset," will surely change that.

In Britain, Clive James is known as a Union Jack of all trades: TV presenter, critic, radio host, novelist. He's also been churning out poems for the past 50 years, but by his own admission, the designation of "proper professional poet" has been late in coming.This oversight will surely be corrected by James's latest poetry collection, "Opal Sunset." Part anthology of his best, part showcase for his new verse, the book displays the same formidable erudition and giddy love of pop culture that...

The ComparisonFormer lawyer Tzipi Livni is poised to become Israel's next prime minister, which would make her the first woman to hold the post since Golda Meir.