Kevin Clarke

Determined to locate something positive to say before the editorial close of 2009 this reporter did not have to poke around the net too long before finding news to be happy-new-yearish about despite the bad economy and high unemployment national crime stats continued to trend downward in 2009 A

I had myself a tranquil little Christmas this weekend with two civilized family gatherings i e no one Tarzan-swung a chandelier through a bay window no traditional child tantrums around the tree and everyone generally satisfied with the weekend s offerings and observations with no ER visits or

As ousted President Manuel Zelaya entered his third month holed up in the Brazilian embassy in Honduras rsquo capital city Tegulcigalpa it appears unlikely that the popularly elected Honduran president deposed on June 28 will spend Christmas anywhere else but with the Brazilians Attempts to neg

McClatchy syndicate s Joe Galloway offers a sobering call to disarm on the latest incarnation of health care reform in the United States Following the appalling display by Connecticut s Joe Liebermann and the jaw-dropping turnabout by the DNC s Howard Dean it is hard to argue with his sobering th

The Vatican released excerpts from Pope Benedict s World Day of Peace address for New Year s 2010 Reworking a line from Pope Paul Benedict says If you want to cultivate peace protect creation The quest for peace by people of good will surely become easier if all acknowledge the indivisible

Lest anyone suspect that Afghanistan is the only theater of war that U S strategists need to concern themselves with the recent car bombings in Iraq is a seriously unwelcome reminder that things may not be proceeding altogether well in that front of the late unlamented war on terror An Iraqi Cr

Observers at the Copenhagen climate conference from Caritas Internationalis were pretty underwhelmed by commitments from European states to help poor nations in the developing world mitigate unnatural disasters due to global warming calling the purported new commitments a wind-powered bluff In a

Apparently a thoroughly devastating report on clerical sexual and physical abuse of Irish children and attempts to cover it up by the Irish hierarchy has been gruesome enough to draw an unprecedented response from Pope Benedict XVI Benedict met with senior Irish bishops and high-ranking members of

A Gaza-born resident of the West Bank and Bethlehem University student will not be allowed to complete her college education with just two-months to go before her graduation after the Israeli High Court of Justice accepted the Israeli Defense Forces decision to expel the young woman in October B

Mulling over the Senate s health care reform vote this morning and wondering if I would truly be forced to reject a social reform I have spent my entire adult life supporting I found some consolation and common good sense this morning e-thumbing via iPhone through the New York Times opinion secti