Massive Russian Protest Poses Growing Challenge to Putin
When Russia’s protest movement started three weeks ago, many in the Kremlin calculated that winter would kill it off. Saturday's rally to protest alleged fraud in the December 4 parliamentary elections, however, was bigger than the first large protest on December 10. Russian police estimated this Saturday's turnout at only 30,000.

Turkey Blocks Web Pages Touting Darwin’s Evolution Theory
The blocking by Turkish state authorities of Web pages advocating the theory of evolution has put the focus on wider concerns by teachers and academics that the ideas of Darwin increasingly are being undermined by the Islamic-rooted government. Numerous web pages advocating the theory of evolution recently were deemed unsafe for children by Turkey's regulatory board controlling the Internet.

Ahead of Huge Moscow Protest, Medvedev Offers Reform
Russia’s biggest protest yet is expected this weekend in Moscow. With an ear to Russia’s discontent on the street, President Dmitry Medvedev has unveiled changes to widen democracy in Russia. In his last state-of-the-nation speech as president, Medvedev promised direct elections for governors, a politically independent state-run TV channel, and drastically eased rules for the registration of new political parties and presidential candidates.

Economic Turbulence Forecast for 2012
There are encouraging signs for the world's largest economy as 2011 comes to an end. American consumers are spending more, the housing market is improving, and employers are laying off fewer workers. But the unresolved debt crisis in Europe, the slowdown in China and U.S. spending cuts pose a serious challenge for policy makers as 2012 begins.

Internet TV Channel Challenges Kremlin’s Information Monopoly
It was a familiar scenario. A Kremlin-linked website posts embarrassing wiretaps of a prominent opposition figure's phone calls in an apparent effort to discredit him and to dispirit the regime's critics. But this time the story went way off script. Less than 24 hours after the website Lifenews.ru posted recordings of Boris Nemtsov's phone calls -- in which he referred to fellow oppositionist Yevgenia Chirikova as a "bitch or an idiot" -- the two appeared together in a television studio to make up before the public.

Beware the Coming Bailouts of Europe
Ron Paul
The economic establishment in this country has come to the conclusion that it is not a matter of "if" the United States must intervene in the bailout of the euro, but simply a question of "when" and "how". Newspaper articles and editorials are full of assertions that the breakup of the euro would result in a worldwide depression, and that economic assistance to Europe is the only way to stave off this calamity.

U.S. Officials Push Jackson-Vanik Repeal, Tiptoe Around Magnitsky Legislation
U.S. State Department officials have urged Congress to repeal the Cold War-era Jackson-Vanik Amendment, trade legislation that has long been used to pressure Russia on human rights issues, arguing that the law is hurting the U.S. economy and that Washington can make its views known in other ways.

Vaclav Havel, Playwright and Former Czech President, Dead at 75
Dissident playwright and freedom fighter, Vaclav Havel, a leader of Czechoslovakia's anti-communist revolution in 1989, has died at his weekend house in the northern Czech Republic at the age of 75. He was a modest writer whose powerful words catapulted him from political prisoner to president.