Leaders of the 'real' and 'virtual' worlds will meet, en masse, for the first time in northern France today.

Could this year's G8 summit, in the French seaside resort of Deauville, break with tradition?

Through the cobbled alleys of Damascus' old city and beyond into the drab jungle of Soviet-style apartment blocks, nothing, it seems, misses the Syrian President's gaze.

Gwynne Dyer examines the western coalition's motives for taking action against Muammar Gaddafi's forces in Libya.