A Team Player Who Stands Apart      "But after eight months in office, Clinton, 61, sometimes seems torn between her inclination to lead and her need to function effectively within the administration, creating a certain tension between her aspirations and her status."      

 Ageing brains retain knowledge   The human brain improves as it gets older in some functions, according to scientific research that suggests age really does confer wisdom.  Read Article     

  Obama is cool, calm -- and lucky
May 2, 2009
BY ROGER SIMON- Chicago Sun-Times

 Imposed solution can end Palestinian conflictThe old ways of negotiating between Israel and Palestine have failed. We need a multilateral approach using international law Omar Rahman guardian.co.uk, Friday 14 May 2010 Article history Israel has an extremely close relationship with the central mediator involved in brokering a peace deal, the US, making a solution unlikely. Photograph: Gpo/Getty It is a sign of how far the peace process has retrogressed that the Israelis and Palestinians have now entered into proximity talks, more than 16 years after having started direct negotiations.To make matters worse, nobody – including the actual participants – gives the latest round of talks the slightest chance of success. In fact, many fear that failure will only bolster critics of the peace process by further displaying the ineffectiveness of its methods.So why are they entering negotiations to begin with?The answer is that the international community, led by the Americans, has been unable to extricate itself from the failed paradigm of bilateral negotiations.Over the years, this strategy has been adopted as a given without alternative, disregarding the basic imbalance of power between the two parties.Politically, economically and militarily, Israel is by far the stronger party, not to mention its extremely close relationship with the central mediator involved in brokering a peace deal, the United States. Furthermore, unlike Israel's past negotiations with Egypt and Jordan, the conflict between Israel and the Palestinians is one of an occupier and the occupied, with the latter commanding very little actual leverage.Negotiations under these conditions are bound to fail. Israel will never want to give up enough because it does not need to, and for political and historical reasons the Palestinians…