In Apache Junction, the city is trying to amend its yard maintenance code so that people can no longer turn their front lawns into garbage dumps.

Can it be that elections tend to bring out whatever latent stupidity candidates and their supporters may harbor, or that they induce people to say stupid and simplistic things in the belief that voters respond only to the stupid and simplistic?

PYONGYANG, North Korea - The New York Philharmonic's unprecedented concert could herald warmer ties between North Korea and the West. After three encores, some musicians left the stage in tears as the audience waved fondly.

Who knew North Korea's secretive and tight-lipped leadership had such expansive tastes in Western music? No sooner does the New York Philharmonic make a groundbreaking visit to Pyongyang than the North Koreans invite British rocker Eric Clapton to come on over and put on a concert.

The prospect of war with Iran is frightening. So is the prospect of a nuclear-armed Iran. That’s why I was so encouraged that the United States was among the world powers taking part in diplomatic talks with Iran on April 13 and 14. Diplomacy is the single most effective way to avert those two bad outcomes.

President Obama's effort to bring together a Harvard professor and Cambridge police officer over beers has stirred some unexpected controversy: Which beers should be served? Regardless of which are chosen, this event may have some lessons for us about the benefits of "beer diplomacy.''

ISLAMABAD, Pakistan - Pakistan's government eased its rhetoric Saturday against unilateral U.S. attacks on militant havens near the Afghan border, saying it hopes quiet diplomacy will persuade Washington that the raids only inflame sentiment against leaders of both countries.

For choice diplomatic postings, the Wari tribe in the remote Anxdes in the four centuries leading up to 1000 A.D. doesn't immediately spring to mind. But researchers in Peru have found cause to rethink that assumption.

President Bush, moving toward a decision on war with Iraq, said Thursday he will give diplomacy “weeks not months’’ and said the United States would welcome Saddam Hussein going into exile.

WASHINGTON - President Bush, moving toward a decision on war with Iraq, said today he will give diplomacy "weeks not months" and said the United States would welcome Saddam Hussein going into exile.

TEHRAN, Iran - President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad said Thursday that Iran was prepared for any possibility in the standoff with the West over its controversial nuclear activities.

OSLO -- President Barack Obama won the 2009 Nobel Peace Prize on Friday in a stunning decision designed to encourage his initiatives to reduce nuclear arms, ease tensions with the Muslim world and stress diplomacy and cooperation rather than unilateralism. U.S. envoy holds Mideast talks as Obama wins Nobel

WASHINGTON -- President Barack Obama portrayed his much-anticipated chat Thursday evening with a black professor and the white police officer who arrested him as nothing more than "an opportunity to listen to each other."

North Korea has agreed to provide a full accounting of its nuclear facilities and disable its nuclear facilities by the end of the year, and it did so in remarkably unequivocal language:

WASHINGTON - President Bush said Friday the United States does not intend to attack Iran to crush its suspected nuclear weapons project, and he expressed hopes that a European diplomatic initiative would persuade Tehran to abandon any such program.

Most of the reputed authorities reached by reporters gave longtime George W. Bush ally Karen Hughes mixed reviews when she announced that she would be leaving her post as undersecretary of State for public diplomacy.

It’s hard to figure out Mitt Romney.

One of my concerns about the tea party candidates is their lack of experience on such issues as foreign policy. We are the world’s remaining superpower; whether the United States should hold such a position is moot. 

I was surprised to learn from the Friends Committee on National Legislation that 37 cents of every dollar we pay in federal income taxes go to pay for current and past wars. At the same time, education, diplomacy, and help to the nearly 100 million people living in poverty in this country get only pennies on every dollar.

The continued belief among conservative radicals that President Obama conducted an “apology” tour early in his administration proves that these people are not really interested in the truth.

President Bush will attend the opening ceremonies of the Olympics in Beijing next month. It's the right decision, and good diplomacy.