VINCENZO PINTO/AFP/Getty Images

It turns out that blatant racists aren't the only interesting appointments to Silvio Berlusconi's new cabinet. Last month, Berlusconi publicly mocked spanish Prime Minister José Luis Rodríguez Zapatero for hiring too many women, saying, “Zapatero has formed a government that is too pink, something that we cannot do in Italy because there is a prevalence of men in politics and it isn’t easy to find women who are qualified.”

Well it turns out that Berlusconi did manage to find a few, including his new equal opportunities minister Mara Carfagna, a former Miss Italy runner-up and topless model turned parliamentarian.  The story is actually even more ridiculous since the two have a history. Berlusconi once told Carfagna at a banquet that he would marry her if he was single and reminded her of the medieval law letting estate lords deflower virgins on their wedding night. This, in turn, provoked a public letter-writing war between Berlusconi and his wife that played out in the pages of Italy's newspapers. Berlusconi has previously remarked that right-wing female politicians are more beautiful and the fact that his new environment minister was once named "Miss Parliament" is also probably not a coincidence.

The Berlusconi show is back in town, folks.

RAMZI HAIDAR/AFP/Getty Images

RAMZI HAIDAR/AFP/Getty Images

A disabled Shiite gunman roams in the streets of Beirut. Hezbollah took control over much of the city this morning.

Michael Wilkerson, writing on World Politics Review's blog, shares a rare bit of good global food news out of Chile. Scientists there have genetically engineered a new strain of rice that can be cooked with one fourth the amount of water. The discovery won't reduce the skyrocketing cost of rice but will dramatically reduce the water and fuel needed to cook it. With destabilizing food riots occurring more and more frequently, anything to give developing world consumers a break is welcome news.

RAMZI HAIDAR/AFP/Getty Images

Top Story

Hezbollah fighters have taken over the Muslim section of Beirut in Lebanon's ongoing sectarian strife. Eleven people have been killed in the fighting so far.

Middle East

Israeli PM Ehud Olmert admitted to taking cash from an American businessman during the 1990s but says he will not step down unless indicted.

Contradicting earlier reports, the man arrested in Mosul yesterday is not al Qaeda in Iraq commander Abu Ayyub al-Masri, according to the U.S. military.

Asia

Burma's government said they would be happy to accept aid for cyclone victims, but don't want foreigners working in the country to distribute it.

The cyclone continues to drive up global rice prices.

The U.S. dropped former Guantanamo commander, General Jay Hood as its proposed military envoy to Pakistan after protests from the local media.

Japan has just joined the military space race.

South America

Bolivia will hold a vote of confidence in President Evo Morales.

Chile's volcano may continue to erupt for weeks or months, experts say.

Africa

South African president Thabo Mbeki is in Zimbabwe to hold talks on resolving the election crisis, though it's not clear whether he even plans to talk to the opposition.

A Harvard study said money for AIDS prevention in Africa is being wasted.

Europe

EU foreign ministers will visit the breakaway Georgian province of Abkhazia this weekend to try to diffuse the crisis there.

The UK's ruling Labour Party has the lowest approval rating in British history.

U.S. Campaign

The Barack Obama campaign is shifting gears and preparing to attack John McCain.

Hillary Clinton has vowed to fight on, and controversially touted her appeal to working-class white voters.

Today's Agenda

• London's newly elected mayor Boris Johnson will meet with New York mayor Michael Bloomberg.
• Dmitry Medvedev will preside over Russia' victory day celebrations.

Yesterday on Passport

• Burma is still waiting
• City on Steroids
• Lebanese unrest turning back the clock

AFP/AFP/Getty Images

Nearly a week after Cyclone Nargis devastated Burma, the first UN World Food Program and Red Cross planes were finally allowed to land in Yangon today. U.S. military planes carrying supplies are still waiting in Bangkok for permission to fly from the Burmese government.

Meanwhile, the humanitarian crisis continues to worsen. The total number of casualties is anywhere between 23,000 and 100,000 depending on estimates and over 1 million people may have lost their homes. As the arresting images in FP's photo essay "Burma Picks up the Pieces" show, rebuilding after this catastrophe would be a monumental task for any state. For one as repressive and paranoid as Burma, it may be impossible.

While it might seem unimaginable to find a reason for optimism in suffering of this scale, the Burmese people can only hope that the cyclone, and the government's inept handling of it, might be the final blow that brings this odious regime to an end.

Here's another great documentary from our friends at Current. In "City on Steroids,"  American filmmaker Adam Yamaguchi tours the little-known megacity of Chongqing, China. Growing at a rate of nearly 200,000 people per year, Chongqing is the one of the fastest growing cities on the planet and an emblem of China's rapid urbanization. The clearly overwhelmed Yamaguchi takes viewers on a quick tour of this modern boomtown from brand new yuppie apartments to factory floors. Along the way he takes time to discuss "Desperate Housewives" with college students, lift heavy sacks with migrant workers, and get taken in a card game called "fighting against the landowner."

Check it out:

It looks like one of the last bits of business of the Vladimir Putin presidency may have been the expulsion of two military attachés from the U.S. embassy in Moscow. The move could be retaliation for the expulsion of two Russian diplomats from Washington in recent months. For those hoping that U.S.-Russia relations might improve under the Medvedev presidency, this is not a promising sign.

DAVID SILVERMAN/AFP/Getty Images

After last night's party, Israeli political leaders are back to the grim reality of the ongoing corruption investigation that threatens to bring down Prime Minister Ehud Olmert.  A police gag order on  the investigation will be lifted this evening, allowing the the Israeli media to finally report on the full details of the case.

The New York Post revealed last week that Olmert is being investigated for money he may have received as mayor of Jerusalem during the 1990s from a Long Island businessman named Morris Talansky. Israeli media outlets are still barred from publishing Talansky's name or any other details of the case, though the easy availability of foreign news sources in Israel has made the blackout somewhat ridiculous. The ongoing confusion over Olmert's legal status has also made further peace negotiations next to impossible.

Watch this space as more details are revealed.

AFP/AFP/Getty Images

Top Story

The Burmese junta is finally allowing the UN to deliver food aid to those devastated by Saturday's cyclone. U.S. groups are still blocked from entering the country. The Burmese government is reporting nearly 23,000 dead but a top U.S. diplomat said the number may be far higher.

Middle East

Hezbollah members continued to clash with government supporters amid a called general strike that the New York Times is calling Lebanon's "worst political crisis since the 1975-1990 civil war."

Unsurprisingly, Jews and Palestinians have very different feelings on Israel's independence day.

According to Mahmoud Ahmadinejad, present-day Iran is ruled by a Shiite imam who died over 1000 years ago.

U.S. Election

After disappointing results in North Carolina and Indiana, Hillary Clinton was forced to loan her campagin $6.4 million.

More superdelegates appear to be breaking Obama's way.

Would Obama have won Indiana without Rush Limbaugh?

Europe

Returning Prime Minister Silvio Berlusconi formed a new cabinet in Italy. The anti-immigrant North League party took several key posts.

Vladimir Putin was sworn in as Russia's new prime minister, one day after stepping down as president.

The U.S. urged Russia to "back down" in its confrontation with Georgia.

Asia

The Olympic flame reached the summit of Mount Everest.

India and Pakistan both tested nuclear-capable missiles.

Global Economy

The World Bank blasted the U.S. for funneling its corn production into biofuels while global food prices continue to rise.

Africa

Lord's Resistance Army leader Joseph Kony will meet with mediators this weekend. He's still holding out on signing a peace deal to end Africa's longest-running civil war.

A South African observer mission said that Zimbabwe is currently "too violent" to hold a planned runoff election.

South America

The region surrounding the Chilean volcano that erupted last week has been completely evacuated.

 Today's Agenda

• Celebrations continue for Israel's 60th anniversary.
• The world remembers V-E day.

Yesterday on Passport

• This Week in China
• Israel celebrates 60 years of independence
• Saddam: Ruthless dictator or delicate blossom?

MARCO LONGARI/AFP/Getty Images

At sundown tonight, Israel began celebrating its 60th anniversary. Though continuing violence in the Palestinian territories and political corruption scandals in the Knesset have left many Israelis feeling a bit cynical about the event, Israel's 60th brithday is nonetheless a remarkable milestone for a country whose very existence has been in peril more times than its citizens would like to recall.

Today, Israel doesn't face the same existential threats it once did, but that doesn't diminish the challenges and dangers it must still confront. As Israeli journalist Gershom Gorenberg writes:

At 60, Israel is neither a perfect democracy, nor a Jewish ghetto imperiled by Iranian Nazis, nor a puppet master indirectly controlling Washington. It is more democratic than its neighbors, more reliably pro-Western, and more successful economically and militarily. Nonetheless, it faces the classic dilemmas of a nation-state dealing with minorities, borders, and neighbors. In other words, it is best understood as a real place, not a country of myth.

For more on Israel's history and uncertain future, check out Gorenberg's cover story "Think Again: Israel" from the most recent issue of FP. You can also explore more of the country's turbulent history in the photo essay, "Israel at 60."

VANO SHLAMOV/AFP/Getty Images

Georgia's State Minister today described the prospect of war with Russia as "very close" as more Russian troops poured into the breakaway region of Abkhazia. Meanwhile, Abkhazia's "foreign minister" welcomed the troops and said his government favored Russia taking military control.

Despite the inflammatory rhetoric, it still seems unlikely to me that Georgia would actually go to war with its much larger and militarily superior neighbor. Since Georgia is looking for NATO protection and Russia wants keep Georgia out of NATO at any cost, the war of words seems tailored for an audience in Washington and Brussels. Both sides have a vested interest in the rest of the world perceiving the threat of war as genuine.

Still, as Russian web journalist Alexander Golts argued in today's Moscow Times, a war of words can quickly become something more serious if both sides feel the need to save face:

And so we have a paradoxical situation. Nobody wants war, but both sides are doing everything to spark a military conflict. This is not the first time this situation has arisen. Recall how World War I began. States wanted only to protect their national pride and frighten their opponents. But at some point, the tensions escalated sharply and, coupled with mass mobilizations of their armies, the conflict in the Balkans spun out of control with tragic consequences for the entire world. This scenario could be repeated in the Caucasus.

ABDURASHID ABIKAR/AFP/Getty Images

Police opened fire on rioting crowds, killing at least two people in Mogadishu, Somalia today. Thousands of angry Somalis had taken to the street to protest rising food prices. Somali staples such as corn meal and rice have nearly doubled in price since January.

Arif Ali/AFP/Getty Images

Pakistani President Pervez Musharraf's decision to fire 60 judges last November helped set in motion the political crisis that led to his party's electoral defeat. But since its February victory, Pakistan's ruling coalition has failed to live up to its campaign promise to reinstate the judges -- to the relief of Musharraf, whose reelection might be declared illegal if the old Supreme Court were to return.

Today, a breakthrough was finally made as coalition leaders Nawaz Sharif, of the Pakistani Muslim League-N, and Pakistan People's Party leader (and Benazir Bhutto's widower) Asif Zardari, agreed in Dubai that legislation to reinstate the judges will be brought to Parliament on May 12. The announcement came two days after the coalition's self-imposed deadline for restoring the judges.

Officially, the deadlock was caused by disagreement over whether the reinstatement should be accompanied by constitutional changes, with Zardari was pushing for new rules to prevent the judges from being sacked again in the future. (Unofficially, Zardari didn't want to bring back Musharraf's arch-enemy, former Chief Justice Iftikhar Muhammed Chaudhry, for fear that the latter would revive corruption charges that the Musharraf-appointed court had dismissed.)

The agreement appears to be a victory for Sharif, who hopes the speedy reinstatement of the judges will lay the groundwork for Musharraf's ouster. Zardari has a different view -- he says he wants to gradually erode Musharraf's power through legislation, and worries that an injunction against the president will be meaningless if the military doesn't play along. Pakistan may have to wait until after May 12 to see who's right.

STEPHEN JAFFE/AFP/Getty Images

Today is the fifth anniversary of the day George W. Bush declared "mission accomplished" from the deck of the USS Abraham Lincoln, just 42 days after the invasion of Iraq. 

This morning, the Center for American Progress hosted a speech by Pennsylvania Congressman John Murtha. Murtha, a Vietnam veteran, voted to authorize the war in 2003, but has since become one of its most strident critics. As he put it today:

I was skeptical about giving the president authorization to go to war in 2003, but I gave this president the benefit of the doubt. That decision was a mistake. In Vietnam, we never had a strategy to win. In Iraq, we never had a strategy.

Murtha, who chairs the House Appropriations Subcommittee on Defense, agrees with a majority of retired and active military officers that Iraq has left the U.S. military unprepared for future threats. He's also very concerned about China's military buildup, and thinks leaders in Beijing are watching the situation closely:

We must refocus our attention to the threats down the road. If you remember in World War II, we cut off the oil supply of the Japanese when they attacked. us. Now, I don't say that's going to happen with China. But one thing's for sure, if they misperceive our readiness to act, we're going to have a real problem.

While it's pretty unlikely that the Chinese are planning another Pearl Harbor (the line was absent from Murtha's prepared remarks so he may have ad-libbed it), it's fair to say that Iraq has decreased both U.S. military readiness and diplomatic standing.  

After five years, the administration seems unwilling to come to terms with what an embarassment "Mission Accomplished" was. As of yesterday, White House spokesperson Dana Perino was still insisting that Bush was misinterpreted. "Mission Accomplished," she claimed, only referred to "sailors who are on this ship on their mission" (though it's hard to believe that even she buys that line). However they try to spin it, "Mission Accomplished" will haunt the Bush administration as a symbol of the myopia and reckless optimism that characterized the early days of the Iraq war.

Georgia's Mikhail Saakashvili; POOL/AFP/Getty Images

Georgia, whose bid to join NATO was put on hold earlier this month thanks to Russian pressure, is now getting back at its unfriendly neighbor to the north by blocking Russia's membership in the World Trade Organization. While it's not clear how much Russia's leaders really care about the WTO, this is sure to at least annoy them.

The two countries are locked in an increasingly tense dispute over the status of Georgia's separatist regions and Russia's alleged shootdown of a Georgian spy drone. Today, Russia announced it is increasing its peacekeeping force in the Abkhazia reigion and accused Georgia of preparing an attack. Watch this space.

OLIVIER MATTHYS/AFP/Getty Images

Today is April 28, which might not seem like that big a deal unless you live in Turkmenistan. Along with some other eccentric initiatives, the country's late dictator Saparmurat Niyazov decided in 1999 to rename all the months after himself and members of his family. January was called Turkmenbashi, or "Father of the Turkmen," which was Niyazov's preferred title. April became Gurbansoltan, his mother's name.

Needless to say, this caused some confusion. The new names were mostly used for official documents. An initiative has now been introduced in the parliament to restore the original names and Turkmenistan's new president, the notably less insane Gurbanguly Berdymukhammedov, appears receptive to the idea.

Berdymukhammedov seems anxious to change his country's reputation as the North Korea of Central Asia by establishing economic ties with Europe and slowly dismantling his predecessor's personality cult. Changing back the calendar is a good step, but Turkmenistan can't really turn the corner until the government is willing to acknowledge the more serious crimes of Niyazov's brutal regime.

VALERY MELNIKOV/AFP/Getty Images

Do you find Vanity Fair and Vogue just a bit too bourgeois? Are you tired of lumpen-proletarians who don't know their place trying to friend you on Facebook? Can you never find anything on TV classy enough to show on that sweet plasma screen you had installed in your breakfast nook? Well then Snob may be for you!

"Bad-boy oligarch" Mikhail Prokhorov, who at 42 is Russia's fifth-richest man and the country's "most eligible bachelor," is investing $150 million in a new lifestyle media brand called Snob. The brand will include an exclusive social networking site, magazine, and TV station, all aimed at upwardly mobile young Russians.

Prokohorov, who made his fortune by investing in nickel and gold during the 1990s, is a kind of poster boy for the champagne-drinking, Mercedes-driving set that Russians derisively refer to as "new Russians." His motivtion for this project, he says, is to reclaim the word "snob" from its connotations of unearned privilege and make it a kind of rallying cry for Russia's nouveau riche:

Snob to us means a person who is a 'self-made man', a person who has gained a right to snobbishness," he said emphasizing the main difference with the British meaning which he said referred to inherited wealth.

The Snob media empire aims to focus on "lifestyle features, business news and travel." If Prokohorov's personal hobbies are any indication, the snob lifestyle also includes skiing, art collecting and upscale prostitution rings.

Anthony Cordesman; Photo: Alex Wong/Getty Images

Yesterday, I attended the Jane's U.S. Defense Conference, an annual gathering bringing together American and European defense industry representatives with national-security officials. The theme of this year's conference was "the outlook for policy and defense business under the next presidency," an appropriate enough subject for the day of the Pennsylvania primary.

There was an overwhelming sense at the conference that despite billions more dollars in defense spending, the United States is not adequately preparing for the threats of the 21st century, nor is it giving the "warfighters" the resources they need to achieve victory. Major General Charles J. Dunlap of the U.S. Air Force, for instance, worried that an overemphasis on counterinsurgency was leading the U.S. to ignore the possibility of warfare with a "peer country" (read: China). Former Under-Secretary for Defense Acquisition Jacques Gansler argued that protectionism and the prioritization of congressional pork projects were causing the misuse of defense resources, necessitating a law stipulating that "Congress should not be making defense-acqisition decisions." The State Department's Deputy Director of Policy Planning Kori Schake lamented the miniscule size of her own agency's budget relative to defense, saying that every one of State's problems could be "traced back to chronic underfunding."

Oddly enough in a discussion of current national-defense priorities, Iraq and Afghanistan hardly came up until near the end of the day, when the Center for Strategic and International Studies' Anthony Cordesman gave a briefing on both conflicts. Given the weakness of both countries' political institutions, Cordesman feels that the term "counterinsurgency" ought to be abandoned altogether in favor of "armed nation-building." Since Cordesman sees far more progress toward this goal in Iraq, I asked him if troop withdrawal there would increase the likelihood of success in Afghanistan:

If we can move forward in Iraq in ways that seem possible, we may be down to 10 brigrades by 2009. You can't suddenly move those brigades to Afghanistan. They require retraining. They will have to be re-equipped and restructed to fight a different kind of war on different terrain, dealing with a different culture with different values.

I also have to say that while troops are important... far more important are the aid teams and advisory teams... rapid turnover of deployments in a country where personal relationships are even more important than they are in Iraq, the inability to take aid workers out into the field where they are really needed... The problem isn't troop levels and it won't be solved by moving out of Iraq."

It seems ironic that the takeaway message of a national-defense conference was that what we traditionally think of as defense can only do so much. The next president's foreign-policy team will need to learn to walk and chew gum at the same time if it wants to begin to address the problems left over from the current one.

Foreign Policy's May/June issue might not hit newsstands until April 29, but it's already available to our subscribers at ForeignPolicy.com. As you might expect, this issue is packed full of the razor-sharp analysis and counterintuitive arguments that are FP's speciality.

In the cover story, "Think Again: Israel," Gershom Gorenberg exposes the biggest myths surrouding his country's founding and its present predicament. He takes the radical position that Israel should be treated as a real country with real problems. His argument is sure to challenge the deeply held assumptions of Israel's supporters and opponents alike.

In "When China Met Africa," French author Serge Michel looks at China's much-publicized forays onto the continent and finds that "it is beginning to run into the same obstacles the West has faced for years." Richard Lacayo examines why leading architects like Rem Koolhass and Norman Foster are doing some of the most innovative work for the world's least democratic regimes in "The Architecture of Autocracy." And Joseph Cirincione wonders why the United States is spending more each year to combat a threat that is disappearing in "The Incredible Shrinking Missile Threat."

You can also learn about how temporary workers are changing the way the world does business, why the Czech president is on a crusade is disprove global warming, and what Richard Dawkins does believe in.

If you haven't yet subscribed, you can take advantage of our Internet special and get a full year of the print edition plus full Web access for only $19.95. It's the perfect opportunity for loyal Passport readers to check out our flagship product. Sign up today! And of course, don't forget to vote for your favorite public intellectuals.

After its surprisingly strong showing in Italian parliamentary elections last week, the quasi-separatist, anti-immigrant Northern League Party is likely to take over several key posts in Silvio Berlusconi's cabinet including the interior, reforms, and agriculture ministries. The League's control of the Interior Ministry puts Italy's immigration policy is in the hands of a party whose leaders have suggested that the navy fire on rafts carrying illegal immigrants.

Italy's new deputy prime minister is likely to be Roberto Calderoli, a guy who proudly wears T-shirts emblazoned with the Danish Mohammed cartoons, promoted a "pig day" protest in a Muslim neighborhood, and, after the Italian team's World Cup victory, dismissed their French opponents as "negroes, communists and Muslims."

Berlusconi, who mocked his Spanish counterpart for appointing too many women to top posts, may want to watch his words considering the classy fellows in his own cabinet.