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Byline: Louise Branson, Former Moscow correspondent The 21st century is shaping up to be a new Age of Dictators. None is scarier, future history books may well judge, than Russian [...]

Byline: Louise Branson Flashback to China's Tiananmen Square 30 years ago, to the days and weeks before the Chinese government's brutal crackdown on June 4, 1989 -- and to the [...]

Byline: Louise Branson What if President Obama had a third term? He believes he could win one -- or so he told African Union diplomats last year. The U.S. Constitution, [...]

Byline: Louise Branson It's 2014, not 1984. But George Orwell would surely update his book if he saw the leaders of China and Russia taking center stage with President Obama [...]

Byline: Louise Branson It felt like dj vu. I spent time with Iraqi journalists and intellectuals recently. They talked, anguished about the disintegration of their country. One female journalist lamented [...]

Byline: Louise Branson At the Sochi Olympics, an amusement park was unveiled. Unofficially, Russians called it 'Putin World,' the fantastical creation of Russian President Vladimir Putin. It is an extravagant [...]

Byline: Louise Branson Russia's first Winter Olympics opens this week in Sochi, the spectacular southern Black Sea resort in the shadow of the Caucasus Mountains. The Games, the most expensive [...]

Byline: Louise Branson First, American fast food invaded France -- now American-style presidential sex scandals? Former president Bill Clinton must have dj vu as he watches the French and world [...]

Byline: Louise Branson Last month, after two weeks of trying, I signed up with my two sons for an Obamacare family health insurance plan. The achievement felt huge. I had [...]

Byline: Louise Branson Nelson Mandela, the saintly 'father of South Africa,' who died Thursday at age 95, had dozens of titles, awards and honors. Former president of South Africa. Nobel [...]

Byline: Louise Branson It's the post-9/11 nightmare that Americans have been half expecting: al-Qaeda gunmen attack a shopping mall, take hostages, leave behind carnage and a sickening repeat question: 'Why [...]

Byline: Louise Branson The Boston Tea Party. Paul Revere. U.S. independence from Britain. Did that all really happen? It might be tempting to think perhaps not, given the U.S. news [...]

Byline: Louise Branson Imagine time traveling to the future. When you open a history book, you read that 'early in the 21st century, Chinese hackers stole U.S. defense and business [...]

Byline: Louise Branson An uncle of the alleged Boston Marathon bombers expressed his gratitude Friday for the freedoms, democracy and lifestyle in America so often denied elsewhere. 'I love this [...]

Byline: Louise Branson 'Hitler,' Venezuelan President Hugo Chavez once said, 'would be like a suckling baby next to (U.S. President) George W. Bush.' At the United Nations in New York [...]

Byline: Louise Branson 'I'm in London In the Olympic Village Competing in the Olympic Games. Wait what?? #someonepinchme #dreamcometrue,' U.S. swimmer Missy Franklin tweeted to her nearly 60,000 followers. A [...]

Byline: Louise Branson Sarajevo, 1994. Mortar shells land near my car, destroy the street ahead. I race for shelter to a bookstore. More explosions, screams; there are dead and injured. [...]

Byline: Louise Branson Is Russian leader Vladimir Putin more superhero than mortal? Anyone living in Russia might think so. The Kremlin marketing machine has pumped that image relentlessly. Muscled Putin [...]

Byline: Louise Branson Former Soviet leader Mikhail Gorbachev, 75, defends Russian President Vladimir Putin and has a cynical view of U.S. motives in dealing with Russia. USA TODAY editorial writer [...]

Byline: Louise Branson Ten years ago, I knew something was wrong, but queries were met with fear, grim looks, silence. The worst massacre in Europe since World War II is [...]