I'm sure the Russian people will be shocked-shocked!-to discover that U.S. diplomats think the Russian president, Dmitry Medvedev, "plays Robin to Putin's Batman." Italians will be equally horrified to learn that their prime minister, Silvio Berlusconi, is considered "feckless, vain, and ineffective as a modern European leader," just as the French will be stunned to hear President Nicolas Sarkozy...

Along with many other things, the spy novel did not survive the end of the Cold War. There are still thrillers, of course, but it isn't the same: James Bond has become just another action hero, and John le Carré had turned into yet another British writer who doesn't like George Bush. When communism collapsed, the dead-letter drops, the invisible ink, and the microfilm concealed in hollowed-out...

On Saturday, the Polish president, the Polish national bank chairman, the chief of the Polish general staff, and a host of other military and political leaders, some of whom were my friends and my husband's colleagues, die in a tragic planecrash in the forest near Smolensk, not far from where 20,000 Polish officers were secretly murdered by Stalin 70 years ago. But this time around, nobody suspects...

The stylist looked over my clothes. "Yes, this is exactly the sort of thing I thought you would have in your wardrobe," he said, eyeing my modest collection of suits with barely disguised disdain. He picked up a blue jacket gingerly, as if the dye might rub off in his hands. "This is a very ... difficult color," he said. He grimaced, and removed it to another chair.

I have seen America's future, and it is Greece.

Under en längre tid nu har jag försökt komma underfund med vad det är som irriterar mig när det har varit tal om Berlin och festligheterna kring 20 år sedan murens öppnande.

Varför fick han det? Förtjänade han det? Borde han ha tackat nej? Vem borde ha fått det i stället? Vad skulle han säga?

Kvinnor försedda med solglasögon och sjalar som talar i mikrofoner och som bär skyltar med klara budskap.

”We pretty much know what they're going to say.” Hillary Clinton om kinesernas reaktion på diskussioner kring mänskliga rättigheter, religiös frihet och Tibet.

Du har säkert hört historierna om avsvimmade utrikeskorrespondenter, om andlösa internationella skriverier, om fjäskande rubriker på många olika språk - och jag kan säga att allt det där stämmer.