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Billionaire George Soros said he will commit $1 billion to start a global university to fight authoritarian governments and climate change, calling them twin challenges that threaten the survival of our civilization. The Open Society University Network will offer an international platform for teaching and research, the 89-year-old said Thursday at the World Economic Forum in Davos, Switzerland. The university will be launched through a partnership of the Soros-backed Central European University and Bard College. “As a long-term strategy our best hope lies in access to quality education, specifically an education that reinforces the autonomy of the individual by cultivating...

PORTO ALEGRE, Brazil – Leftists who converged in Brazil to protest what they view as uncontrolled capitalism ended the World Social Forum on Friday with vows to take advantage of the financial crisis to promote a global socialist agenda. Activists at the annual countercultural gathering against the World Economic Forum under way at the Swiss ski resort of Davos said the meltdown proves the business titans attending the economic forum shouldn't be permitted to help reshape the global economy. About 30,000 people attended the 10th annual social forum .. They railed against unfettered capitalism they claimed is responsible for corporate...

Former President Bill Clinton (L) and Klaus Schwab, Founder and Executive Chairman of the World Economic Forum attend a session at the World Economic Forum (WEF) in Davos January 29, 2009 Russian Prime Minsiter Vladimir Putin, center, and former U.S. President Bill Clinton, left, seen during a reception hosted by Putin for participants of the World Economic Forum in Davos, Switzerland, Wednesday, Jan. 28, 2009. Second right is artistic and general director of the Mariinsky Theater Valery Gergiyev.

· “The U.S. government committed “terrible abuses” against Arabs after the Sept. 11, 2001, attacks.” · “Arabs had been ‘indiscriminately rounded up’ and held in ‘unforgivable’ conditions.” · “The Bush administration was playing into al-Qaeda’s hands by routinely blocking Saudi visa applications.” · “The thoughtless way in which visas are now handled, that is a mistake.” · “The worst thing we can possibly do is to cut off the channels of friendship and mutual understanding between Saudi Arabia and the United States.” These are some of the statements of former Vice President Al Gore, before an effectively all-Arab Saudi audience...

...At the Madrid Peace Conference of 1992, the world discovered a new Palestinian leadership... voices of wisdom and moderation. ...[T]he Israeli delegation, notably... Shamir and... Netanyahu, felt in the face of a Palestinian leadership that could not be branded "terrorist" or "extremist." The Palestinians who had come... lived in Palestine and, because of their work as teachers, lawyers and doctors, were in daily contact with their people. They were not professional "liberators".... They did not want the Palestinian people to kill and die so that Arab despots could silence their own people in the name of the Palestinian "cause."... Talking...

President Bush listened first and talked later Tuesday as he moved from one friendly audience to the next at the Baylor law school. Bush made 20-minute cameos in four of the eight discussions that kicked off his economic forum. Vice President Dick Cheney visited the other four. Each of the sessions, which ran concurrently, lasted 90 minutes. Bush was the focus of every room he entered, but others did most of the talking. After opening remarks from two administration officials and investment executive Charles Schwab, Bush told investing and retirement panelists he was looking out for his McLennan County neighbors....

The talk was all economics on the Baylor campus Tuesday, but outside protesters sought attention on issues ranging from corporate influence in politics to abortion to human rights in China. More than 70 protesters braved 90-plus degree weather to demonstrate near Baylor University, site of President Bush's economic forum. Authorities closed off the core of the campus during the forum and earlier made it clear that protesters would be escorted off school grounds. Although police reported no arrests during the event, at least one person was asked to leave after repeatedly slipping past police barricades, said Jim Doak, chief of...

Local law enforcement officers will work overtime to provide security for tomorrow's economic conference at Baylor University, keeping an eye on protest marchers, directing traffic and helping protect the nation's top two leaders. President Bush's economic forum, which starts at 9 a.m. at the Sheila and Walter Umphrey Law Center, will bring together Bush, Vice President Dick Cheney, cabinet members, economists and business leaders. With so many VIPs zipping through the streets of Waco, local, state and federal officers will be out in force Tuesday morning. That includes officers from the Secret Service, Waco and Baylor police, the Texas Department...

<p>LAS VEGAS (AP) --  Democrats chastised the White House for inviting GOP political donors to an economic summit next week, calling the forum a "glorified photo opportunity and fund-raiser."</p> <p>Terry McAuliffe, chairman of the Democratic National Committee, criticized the Bush administration Friday as his party sought to make corporate scandals and the sagging economy political liabilities for Republicans.</p>

<p>Crawford, Texas -- The guest speakers at a White House economic forum to be held near President's Bush ranch next week include executives of major corporate donors to the Republican Party and a labor leader whom the administration is courting for his support in the 2004 presidential campaign.</p>

The Western White House may be out near Crawford. But the inflatable White House will soon hit Indian Spring Park. Demonstrators plan to use the park Tuesday during President Bush's economic forum at Baylor University. Their concern is corporate money in politics. Their props will include a 20-foot inflatable White House and a 10-foot puppet of former Enron chairman Kenneth Lay. "We think corporate crooks are the ones who are buying influence from our politicians and selling out our democracy," said organizer David Martin, 34, who lives in San Antonio. Martin's late father was a petroleum geologist with Enron, but...