Siemens may be close to reaching a settlement with the SEC and the US Justice Department in a €1.3 billion bribery scandal, according to a Wednesday newspaper report. A deal could save the company from being banned from bidding on public contracts in the US.

The Games sparked a hotel building boom, but the hordes of tourists failed to arrive. What can innkeepers do to recoup?

The planners of the crisis in Georgia clearly wanted to make sure that Russia would be blamed for worsening the situation.

NATO had some sharp words for Moscow on Tuesday, demanding a complete withdrawal of Russian forces from Georgia. But as cowardly as it might sound, the next moves with Moscow should be made at the negotiating table.

There was once a hope that sports would trump politics during the Olympics. But the Chinese police continue to arrest citizens who register to stage demonstrations. IOC President Jacques Rogge is in charge of a show over which he has long since lost control.

Every year at the end of Carnival, the Greek village of Galaxidi erupts in a day-long flour war. Goggles and overalls are recommended.

The agreement may be technical in nature, but Serbia views Monday's accord between the UN and the EU in Kosovo as being illegal. The EU mission has little legal backing, but it is insinuating itself into the newly independent country.

Archaelogists have made a grisly, fascinating discovery in central Berlin -- a giant medieval graveyard containing 2,000 corpses, many of them children.

For 30 years, the British economy has been on a steady climb skyward. Now it's being hit with a credit crisis that resembles the American subprime disaster. And just like across the pond, the victims are those who can least afford it.

Pakistan is without Musharraf for the first time in nine years. German commentators on Tuesday asks whether the fractious coalition government will be any better at dealing with the country's daunting problems, including a floundering economy and militant Islamists. And will the West be able to help keep the nuclear state stable?

Taliban fighters have launched a bloody offensive against international forces in Afghanistan this week. A total of 10 French soldiers have been killed in heavy fighting east of the capital Kabul, and NATO troops foiled a suicide attack on a base in the southeast.

These days Russian Prime Minister Vladimir Putin is often compared -- unfairly -- with Stalin and Hitler. In truth, Putin is a Russian Kennedy. And Putin's Cuba is called Georgia.

What to do about Russia? NATO is gathering in Brussels today to come up with a unified response to Moscow's heavy-handed treatment of Georgia last week. Germany would like to see the European Union deepen its relations in both the Caucasus and Central Asia.

As NATO ministers gather in Brussels to discuss how tough to get with Russia after the Georgian crisis, an opinion poll shows one in two Poles fear an attack by Russia. Eastern European countries are unhappy with the response of the West.

Microloans were invented to help the poorest of the poor help themselves. Now major banks and pension funds are getting into the business, as they discover that the interest paid by the poor can produce high returns. Is it aid or exploitation?

John McCain and his advisers are running a much more conventional race, the kind he used to ridicule. The inescapable fact is: It is working.

Wind power is great. But what about all that energy you expend on the dance floor on Saturday night? A next-generation nightclub wants to use that energy to keep the strobes lit and the bass bumping.

German Education Minister Annette Schavan is being criticized for taking a military helicopter flight costing €26,500 to travel from Stuttgart to Zurich to give a newspaper interview and hold a speech. A scheduled flight would have cost €329.