Mitchell Landsberg

In a bluntly worded commentary published in Thursday's New York Times, the Russian president castigated the idea of American "exceptionalism," essentially calling the United States an international bully.

No country may be better prepared for a major earthquake than Japan. Seismic standards for construction are among the strictest in the world. From a young age, Japanese learn to dive under desks to protect themselves in a quake. The nation has a state-of-the-art tsunami warning system.