Is President Barack Obama playing the role of Prince Hamlet in Afghanistan?

In a stirring and heartfelt tribute to the United States and its people, German Chancellor Angela Merkel addressed a joint session of the U.S. Congress in Washington DC and outlined the post-war relationship between the United States and a politically free, and now united, Germany.

Describing the human rights situation in North Korea as “dismal,” a U.N. report outlined abuses in the communist country where people were deprived of essential freedoms “from the right to feed themselves to the right to be rid of fear, to the right of free expression.”

In an annual ritual which is often more form than substance, the U.N. General Assembly has elected five new members to serve a two-year term on the powerful Security Council.

Is there peace in Afghanistan? Did we win in Iraq? Is the Darfur conflict over?

The United States has slipped to number thirteen in a global scorecard of states ranked by social and educational criteria.

The ongoing humanitarian drama in Sudan's Darfur region and the continuing political and human rights abuses in Burma appear to have been politely forgotten by most leaders addressing the U.N. General Assembly.

For a U.N. General Assembly session sadly sidetracked and marginalized by the rants of dictators ranging from Libya's Colonel Muammar Gaddafi to Venezuela's Hugo Chavez, there's a positive and almost totally overlooked message from a few low- key buy savvy world leaders.

Presidents, Prime Ministers, Dictators and Demagogues are assembling in New York for the 64th annual session of the U.N. General Assembly.

One of the world's longer running diplomatic dramas is back for the Fall Season with a new cast and revamped story line.