Politicians

WASHINGTON - They returned home to a politically traumatized nation that treated them with indifference and scorn. Now, veterans' advocates fear the country will again miss an opportunity to recognize the toil and torment of the 3 million service members sent to fight the Vietnam War. The Pentagon's plans to celebrate the veterans - five years in the making - are sputtering. This Memorial Day is supposed to be the curtain-raiser for a series of gatherings to mark the 50th anniversary of the beginning of US involvement in the decade-plus war and to honor those who served.

In the end, they probably just can't resist. Former Red Sox star Curt Schilling's digital-game firm is far from the first young company to gain government backing, only to run into financial problems that put taxpayers' money at risk. But political leaders keep making these bets, despite high-profile flops such as alternative energy firms Solyndra LLC in California and Evergreen Solar in Massachusetts, both of which received millions of dollars in government support and ended up bankrupt.

Last Monday, leaders from Partners HealthCare System Inc. gathered in the dark-paneled office of Massachusetts House Speaker Robert DeLeo to lay out their objections to his expansive 278-page plan to tame health care costs. The House proposal, unveiled 10 days earlier, called in part for closer oversight of the prices and operations of hospitals and their physicians groups, especially more costly ones like those owned by Partners, and influential board chairman Jack Connors requested a meeting.

The head of a major Greek business organization has lashed out at the country's politicians for failing to form a coalition government and triggering new elections, accusing them of acting like "undertakers" A national retail association leader Vassilis Korkidis said Wednesday that Greek party leaders had failed to act responsibly, threatening to place the country on a "course of catastrophe. " Renewed uncertainty in the bailed out euro country hit European markets, after Greek voters hammered traditionally dominant parties in the May 6 general elections and emerging parties...

Greece's deputy prime minister, who made headlines by saying that ordinary citizens are just as responsible as politicians for his nation's economic crisis, announced Saturday that he will not seek re-election. An early election is expected in May, and Theodoros Pangalos, 73, a veteran socialist lawmaker, told state TV channel NET he won't compete in it. He also predicted that his party and the conservative New Democracy, which leads in opinion polls, will both fail to win an outright majority.

In the end, they probably just can't resist. Former Red Sox star Curt Schilling's digital-game firm is far from the first young company to gain government backing, only to run into financial problems that put taxpayers' money at risk. But political leaders keep making these bets, despite high-profile flops such as alternative energy firms Solyndra LLC in California and Evergreen Solar in Massachusetts, both of which received millions of dollars in government support and ended up bankrupt.

As the presidential primary race has unfolded over the last few months, curious Americans have angled for a look at the candidates' wallets—and observed that they are bulging. There's Newt Gingrich, with his $7 million fortune and an up to $1 million revolving line of credit at Tiffany. The relentlessly anti-elitist Rick Santorum disclosed last week that he earns roughly $1 million a year. Mitt Romney built an immense $200 million fortune through his "corporate raider" work at Bain Capital; even Ron Paul, who claimed in one debate that he was embarrassed to show his tax forms because he...

AS SENATOR John Kerry rightly argues, politicians are entitled to views that change with time and experience (“Politicians have the right to evolve on gay marriage,’’ Op-ed, July 10). But politicians also have a responsibility to their constituents to identify in what direction those views are evolving. Otherwise, there is little to distinguish an evolving viewpoint from one that is static and inert. Joshua Levy, Needham

THE AUTHOR of "The case against sincerity" (Ideas, April 1) tries to separate sincerity from truth. But they are inseparable. If politicians are personally insincere, they cannot tell voters the truth. If the politicians wear political masks, as the author suggests, they are free to change whatever they promised during elections. And if the voters get broken promises, they become increasingly angry or apathetic. This, in fact, is the sad state of affairs in American politics, and it needs a decisive correction, not a justification.

NAIROBI - The price for burning down a home: 500 shillings, or about $8. Double that to have someone hacked to death. The price list comes from a leading Kenyan human rights group that says some of the worst violence in the country's deadly disputed presidential election is the work of militias paid and directed by politicians. The government of President Mwai Kibaki and the opposition have traded blame for the killing and arson that followed Kibaki's victory in the Dec. 27 election that international observers say was followed by a rigged count.

"Hooah!" "Did I do that right?" Michelle Obama asked after sounding a battle cry to soldiers at Fort Stewart in Georgia last month. "Phew," she sighed when the audience signaled its approval. The local shout-out seems so natural when done right. And so cringe-worthy when flubbed. Any good politician knows the importance of finding common ground with a local audience. It's Speechmaking 101, whether accomplished through strategic praise for sports teams, cultural treasures or local figures.

West Africa's regional bloc has named a politician in Guinea-Bissau to lead the transitional government after a coup. The group met earlier in the week in the West African nation and named Serifo Nhamadjo to the post for one year. He was among a group of presidential candidates who called for a March poll to be annulled, claiming fraud. Guinea-Bissau was just weeks away from holding a presidential runoff election when soldiers in April attacked the front-runner's home and arrested him along with the country's interim president.

LONDON - They kept in touch, she said Friday, by telephone, text message, and e-mail. They met at lunches and dinners. They socialized at cocktail parties, birthday parties, summer outings, Christmas celebrations, and, in one heady instance, on a yacht in Greece. So chummy were the relations between Britain's political leaders and Rebekah Brooks, a former chief executive of Rupert Murdoch's British newspaper subsidiary, that at one point Brooks found herself cheekily lecturing a future prime minister, David Cameron, about how to avoid humiliating himself by text message, she...

The night watchman was dozing in a wooden chair just after midnight on a deserted Bangladeshi street when he was startled by a scream. A group of men were pulling two people from a car and forcing them into a black microbus; "The two guys were shouting, ‘Save us,"' before the car pulled away, Lutfar Rahman said. The abductions of an opposition politician and his driver last month have sparked Bangladesh's biggest crisis in years, raised hostilities between the most prominent leaders of its fragile democracy and highlighted a series of seemingly political disappearances.

Iraq's vice president on Friday described a terror trial pending against him in Baghdad as part of a political vendetta that has wider repercussions for Iraqi unity and sectarian tensions across the Middle East. The trial in absentia of Tariq al-Hashemi, a Sunni Muslim, was postponed Thursday as his lawyers appealed to have parliament create a special court to hear the case that could deepen Iraq's sectarian divide. Al-Hashemi has denied charges that he ran death squads that targeted government officials, security forces and Shiite pilgrims.

A Kosovo court has cleared a senior Kosovo politician and three of his associates of allegations that they tortured and killed Serb detainees during the 1998-99 Kosovo war. A panel of three judges — two from the European Union and one from Kosovo — dropped the case against Fatmir Limaj, a former commander in the Kosovo Liberation Army that fought a separatist war against Serbia. Limaj said the verdict proved that the KLA fought "a just and clean fight. " The case — run by an Italian prosecutor in the 3,000-strong EU rule of law mission in...

WASHINGTON - President Obama three weeks ago compared the hard task of creating a bipartisan, comprehensive plan tackling the nation's deficit to digesting green vegetables. "We might as well do it now; pull off the Band-Aid," he said. "Eat our peas. " In the end, the peas remained on the plate: His "grand bargain" with the House speaker, John Boehner, failed and Congress instead cobbled together a pared-down - and some would say unpalatable - version. "This deal is a sugar-coated Satan sandwich," proclaimed Representative Emanuel Cleaver, a Missouri Democrat.

BEIJING - The son of fallen Chinese politician Bo Xilai defended his academic record and social life while at university in England and the United States in a letter that was the latest example of the extraordinary public evolution of China's messiest political scandal. Bo Guagua, a Harvard graduate student, denied that he received preferential treatment in admissions, was a poor student, and drove a pricey sports car. In a letter to the Harvard Crimson student newspaper published Tuesday, he said he attended social events as an Oxford University undergraduate to broaden his...

LONDON - With a political firestorm cascading over the British government's ties to his media empire, Rupert Murdoch presented himself to a judicial inquiry Wednesday as a blunt-talking businessman with a wide variety of interests and acquaintances who nevertheless did not seek to use his considerable power to manipulate British governments over the last few decades. While acknowledging meetings, dinners, and shared quips with a series of prime ministers and other members of the British political elite over the years, Murdoch asserted, "I don't know many politicians.