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... If the European Union were a patient, its survival would be seen as threatened by multiple organ failure. That's the view of many experts as EU chiefs prepare for a Brussels summit that starts Thursday. Analysts believe the combined strain of these challenges may be unbearable for a political union and trading bloc that just 20 years ago seemed to be growing in stature as it proudly offered freedom and democracy - along with lucrative subsidies, military alliances and billions in foreign investment - to newly freed former Soviet satellites. Ian Kearns, director of the European Leadership Network research...

President Obama, speaking days after returning from his first overseas trip since taking office, said the most critical problems confronting the nation and the world can be solved only through international cooperation. "These are challenges that no single nation, no matter how powerful, can confront alone," Obama said yesterday in his weekly radio and Internet address. "The United States must lead the way. But our best chance to solve these unprecedented problems comes from acting in concert with other nations." Major obstacles such as climate change, the global financial crisis, terrorism and nuclear proliferation demand coordinated action to overcome, Obama...

 1.  Do They all Do This? A good argument could be made that Jacques Chirac was deeply unpopular (along with his foreign minister Dominque de Villepin) in the US and the UK. Even more so was Gerhard Schröder, and to a lesser extent his postmodern foreign minister Joschka Fischer, veteran of the 1960s Days of Rage. No need to comment on the controversial career of Vladimir Putin. But one rarely sees Mr. Sarkozy trash Chirac, or Merkel dump on Schröder, or Medvedev reject Putin. Is the trashing of your predecessor an Obama phenomenon? Why do transnationalist, internationalist European leaders not attack...

As Barack Obama returns from Europe on Tuesday, he has in bright, bold strokes revealed his signature on the world stage: He is Obama the rationalist. A diverse set of Obama decisions in recent days have a common theme: a leader who sees himself building a more orderly, humane world by vanquishing outdated thinking and corrupting ideology. With a rapid series of major announcements and rhetorical gestures, the new president has done more than turn from Bush-era policies. He has shined a vivid light on his philosophical outlook on the world — and how starkly he differs from his predecessor on...

Last Friday, a Fox New panel kicked around the matter of President Obama's remarks at the G-20 meeting where he had characterized the U.S. attitude toward Europe as "arrogant," dismissive," and "derisive." The United States, its President had said, was guilty of a "failure to appreciate Europe's leading role," in world affairs. This was too much for Charles Krauthammer. In what he described as "a turn of phrase I'm sure I will regret," Krauthammer said impatiently that Europe had been "sucking on the [American] teat for 60 years."

France and Germany in Prague on Sunday (5 April) poured cold water on US calls to press ahead with Turkish enlargement. In a seperate development, Czech politicians named statistician Jan Fischer as the country's new caretaker prime minister. "The United States and Europe must approach Muslims as our friends, neighbours and partners in fighting injustice, intolerance and violence," US President Barack Obama said at an EU-US summit in the Czech capital. Moving forward toward Turkish membership in the EU would be an important signal of your commitment to this agenda and ensure that we continue to anchor Turkey firmly in...

We have a rock star president who for the first time in American history fired the President of a private corporation, General Motors, then immediately flew to Europe with an entourage of 500 courtiers and a worshipful media, bowed waist-deep to the King of Saudi Arabia, and proceeded to accuse his own country of arrogance. In Paris, of all places. Does anybody else think this guy is shockingly ignorant? I wonder if he has every really talked to a concentration camp survivor, or a Cuban refugee, or a boat person from Vietnam? Or a Soviet dissident. Or a survivor or...

With rousing speeches and a diplomatic manner, Barack Obama quelled fears that differences of opinion would end Europe's love affair with him. German commentators applaud how he handled himself during his European visit but worry that rougher times lie ahead. Before US President Barack Obama came to Europe last week for a series of meetings with global leaders, many worried that Europe's Obama-mania had waned in the wake of growing disagreements on both sides of the Atlantic about how to handle a number of issues, ranging from how to combat the economic crisis to how to combat the growing Taliban...

Barack Obama's praise for the Czech government's "courage" in hosting a planned United States missile defence fell flat with many of his supporters during a speech to an audience of 20,000 on Sunday. President Obama linked America's missile defence project to his wider vision of a world free of atomic weapons while setting out his new US policy on nuclear non-proliferation. "Iran's nuclear and ballistic missile activity poses a real threat, not just to the US, but to Iran's neighbours and our allies. The Czech Republic and Poland have been courageous in agreeing to host a defence against these missiles,"...

PRAGUE (Reuters) - U.S. President Barack Obama urged the European Union on Sunday to accept Turkey as a full member of the 27-nation bloc, in remarks rejected outright by France and met coolly by Germany. The disagreement was a rare outward sign of divergence at an EU-U.S. summit stage-managed to relaunch trans-atlantic ties that were strained under the Bush administration and which both sides are now eager to mend. "The United States and Europe must approach Muslims as our friends, neighbours and partners in fighting injustice, intolerance and violence, forging a relationship based on mutual respect and mutual interests," Obama...

President Obama prepared to end his first overseas trip at the nexus of Europe and Asia having received a crash course in the strengths -- and limits -- of his popularity when it came to forging foreign policy... ...Obama mugged for the cameras with Russia's Dmitry Medvedev, chatted with Chinese President Hu Jintao, and kept tea time at Buckingham Palace. His few stumbles included giving the queen an iPod on the heels of widespread mockery over his earlier gift of a DVD set to Brown, and appearing to bow upon shaking hands with Saudi King Abdullah, an image that has...

The love-in between Nicolas Sarkozy and Barack Obama proved short-lived after the French President warned his US counterpart yesterday to keep his nose out of the issue of Turkey’s membership of the European Union. President Obama used his first EU-US summit, on the eve of his visit to Turkey, to encourage European leaders to embrace the Muslim country and “anchor it in Europe”. However, Mr Sarkozy, a long-standing opponent of full membership for Turkey, rebuffed the US leader in language that seemed to sour the revival of Franco-US relations. Support for Turkey in joining the EU, a process that it...

PRAGUE – Just hours after North Korea launched a long-range rocket, President Barack Obama called for "a world without nuclear weapons" and said the United States has a “moral responsibility ” to lead the way, as the only nation ever to use them. ----------------------------------------------------------- Speaking to Iran, the other nation widely thought to be pursuing nuclear weapons, Obama reiterated his campaign pledge to engage the Tehran regime, winning applause for saying, “We believe in dialogue.”

The love-in between Nicolas Sarkozy and Barack Obama proved short-lived after the French President warned his US counterpart yesterday to keep his nose out of the issue of Turkey’s membership of the European Union. President Obama used his first EU-US summit, on the eve of his visit to Turkey, to encourage European leaders to embrace the Muslim country and “anchor it in Europe”. However, Mr Sarkozy, a long-standing opponent of full membership for Turkey, rebuffed the US leader in language that seemed to sour the revival of Franco-US relations. Support for Turkey in joining the EU, a process that it...

PRAGUE (AFP) – President Barack Obama said Sunday the United States was ready to take the lead in tackling climate change, as EU leaders pushed him to follow their ambitious targets to combat global warming. "To protect our planet, now is the time to change the way that we use energy," Obama told a crowd gathered at Prague Castle for his only public speech during his maiden tour of Europe. "Together we must confront climate change by ending the world's dependency on fossil fuels by tapping the power from the sources of energy like the wind and the sun and...

<p>PRAGUE (AP) — President Barack Obama is calling for the United States to make a new effort to ratify the comprehensive nuclear test ban treaty.</p> <p>Speaking in Prague, Obama said ratification of the treaty that the Senate rejected a decade ago is one of the "concrete steps" the U.S. can take to reach his goal of ridding the world of nuclear weapons.</p>

Palaiz [sic! - Palace is spelled Palais in French] de la Musique et Des Congres Strasbourg, France 4:32 P.M. (Local) ---[SNIP]--- [Full press release at link above]  Q Sonja Sagmeister from a little country, Austria, from Austrian Television. Mr. President, you said you came here to learn and to listen. So a quite personal question -- what did you learn from your personal talk with the European leaders? And did this change in a certain way your views on Europe and its politics? PRESIDENT OBAMA: It's an interesting question. I had already formed relationships with many of them. Some of...

Obama backs Turkey EU accession Mr Obama said Western nations should engage with the Muslim world US President Barack Obama has arrived in Turkey on a two-day visit, after giving his support to Ankara's efforts to join the European Union. He said Turkey's accession to the EU would send an important signal to the Muslim world and firmly anchor the country in Europe. But French President Nicolas Sarkozy said it was up to the EU itself to decide who joined the bloc. Correspondents say security is extremely tight for Mr Obama's visit. Snipers and riot police have been deployed and...

Prague - U.S. President Barack Obama, who attended the EU-U.S. summit in Prague today, gave a bust of a former U.S. president to his Czech counterpart Vaclav Klaus, and he received a book on Prague Castle, the presidential seat, from Klaus. The Presidential Office did not specify which president the bust depicted. The Czech and U.S. first ladies also brought presents to one another. Livia Klausova gave traditional Czech glass to Michelle Obama, and she got "a beautiful little American vase" that she will display in the Lany chateau, the presidential summer residence, Klausova said. Moreover, the Obamas received presents...

Q Sonja Sagmeister from a little country, Austria, from Austrian Television. Mr. President, you said you came here to learn and to listen. So a quite personal question -- what did you learn from your personal talk with the European leaders? And did this change in a certain way your views on Europe and its politics? PRESIDENT OBAMA: It's an interesting question. I had already formed relationships with many of them. ... There's a lot of -- I don't know what the term is in Austrian -- wheeling and dealing -- and, you know, people are pursuing their interests, and...