Desmond Tutu’s plea: Stand up for Liu Xiaobo

When Obama meets Chinese President Xi, he must urge the release of his fellow Nobel Peace Prize laureate. If he won’t do that, who will?

The 2013 TIME 100

Eric Greitens, one of the most remarkable young men I have ever encountered, founded and runs The Mission Continues, which supports veterans and their families.

Veterans Respected, but Misunderstood

Walking hand-in-hand with his mother at the age of 5, Roxley Pratt looked up and saw what he wanted to be. He spotted the crisp uniform, impeccable posture and stoic gaze of the sentry standing guard at the U.S. Embassy in war-torn Sierra Leone, and he knew who he wanted to be: a U.S. Marine.

Will the US keep its commitment to help those who helped us in Iraq?

Farah Al-Khafaji got a good night’s sleep last Wednesday night – her first in nearly six years.

Ever since she decided to defy Iraqi custom and support the U.S. military in Iraq in 2006, she has only known sleepless nights. To punish her for founding an engineering company that sold spare parts to the US military, Iraqis shot and killed her husband. Her bodyguard was murdered; her father was kidnapped. Farah, too, was repeatedly threatened and assaulted.

Great Person #1: From Tel Aviv to the Academy Awards, Saving Children With Karen

My connection with Karen Tal:
Some of you may or may not know, but Israel is one of the hottest tech hubs in the world. My company has a large software development office in Israel, and last year I had the pleasure of being introduced to Yossi Vardi. You could say that Yossi is the godfather of Internet companies in Israel because he sold his first company, ICQ, to AOL back in 1998. I only point this out because the sale of ICQ created a lot of excitement for many of Israel’s technology entrepreneurs.

The Week Ahead | Dec. 4 – Dec. 10

”We all need to live in peace,” says Phillippe, a young Chilean immigrant. ”The kids know that, and they don’t want war. They’re not like those violent grown-ups who always want war.” In ”STRANGERS NO MORE,” on Monday at 6:45 p.m. on HBO, Phillippe and his schoolmates — some 800 Jewish, Christian and Muslim children from 48 countries — give hope for the future of Israel.

Principal Player

Karen Tal hopes to apply the methods and values she inculcated successfully in a multicultural south Tel Aviv school to other educational institutions. With help from some business people and philanthropic bodies, she just might pull it off.