IRAQ: Donors Wary of Washington

The United States' bid to get international donors to bankroll the occupation and reconstruction of Iraq might be derailed by Washington's own alliance with corporations and its continuing unilateral foreign policy.

IRAQ: Donors Wary of Washington

The United States' bid to get international donors to bankroll the occupation and reconstruction of Iraq might be derailed by Washington's own alliance with corporations and its continuing unilateral foreign policy.

POLITICS-U.S.: Cheney’s the One

The image was not an edifying one: the president of the United States a horse, his vice president, the rider.

POLITICS-U.S.: New Cheney Adviser Sets Syria In His Sights

A neo-conservative strategist who has long called for the United States and Israel to work together to ''roll back'' the Ba'ath-led government in Syria has been quietly appointed as a Middle East adviser to Vice President Dick Cheney.

POLITICS-ASIA: Bush Trip Puts Region Back in U.S. Sights

U.S. President George W Bush's trip to Asia has helped ease concerns that Washington is shifting its gaze away from the region in the wake of its conquest of Iraq, but critics say that whether the attention is genuine or welcome under the circumstances is another matter.

IRAQ: U.S. Post-War Casualties Pass 100 Amid Disarray

Despite a two-week public-relations offensive designed to persuade the world and the U.S. public that it knows what it is doing in Iraq, the Bush administration appears increasingly at sea.

HEALTH: Developed World Cripples Hope of Global Fund on AIDS

A defining moment to help millions infected by the HIV/AIDS epidemic appears to be aglow in cynicism, courtesy of the world's richest countries, rather than hope that is desperately needed at this hour.

/PEOPLES’ UNITED NATIONS/ TRADE: Tough Questions After Cancun Collapse

To reform or reject the World Trade Organisation - that is the question raised in this medieval and hugely picturesque Italian town that is hosting the 5th U.N. Peoples' Assembly, sub-titled 'Europe and the World'.

POLITICS-ASIA: Megawati Snub Reflects Touchy Ties with Australia

Indonesian President Megawati Sukarnoputri's refusal to join Australian Prime Minister John Howard at a memorial service on Sunday for the victims of the Bali bombing a year ago reflects the complex relationship between the two neighbours who are culturally far apart.

IRAQ: Turkish Troops Face Uncertain Reception

Turkey will send about 10,000 peacekeeping troops to Iraq in the face of strong public opposition to the move.

POLITICS: Bush Stance on Syria Hit Shows Neo-Cons Still Hold Sway

The neo-conservatives in and around the administration of U.S. President George W. Bush may be on the defensive, but Washington's reaction to the Israeli attack on Syria Sunday show that they remain in the driver's seat at the White House.

ASIA: When Giants India and China Come Together, Things Happen

”Without cooperation between India and China, the dream of an Asian century is just empty talk,” declared the 'China Economic Times' recently, a respected economic publication of the State Council, or China's cabinet.
   The statement exudes unusual excitement about cooperation between two traditional Asian rivals in the state-controlled press here, which until recently had little to report either economically or politically about China's giant neighbour.

ASIA: When Giants India and China Come Together, Things Happen

"Without cooperation between India and China, the dream of an Asian century is just empty talk," declared the 'China Economic Times' recently, a respected economic publication of the State Council, or China's cabinet.

POLITICS-U.S.: Washington APlame, or The Lady’s Not for Burning

One has to feel sorry for Republicans. Although they control both houses of the U.S. Congress and the White House, they must think they're living through a bad dream. Consider Republicans on Capitol Hill in particular:

POLITICS-U.S.: It’s the Policy, Stupid

A blue-ribbon panel on U.S. public diplomacy is calling on President George W Bush not only to sharply increase funding to more effectively explain U.S. policy to an increasingly hostile Islamic world, but also to narrow the gap between U.S. values and what Washington actually does in the region.
     That is the distinct - albeit partially hidden - message of a new report on how better to communicate with Muslim populations from North Africa to South-east Asia, released Wednesday at the State Department.

POLITICS-U.S.: It’s the Policy, Stupid

A blue-ribbon panel on U.S. public diplomacy is calling on President George W Bush not only to sharply increase funding to more effectively explain U.S. policy to an increasingly hostile Islamic world, but also to narrow the gap between U.S. values and what Washington actually does in the region.

POLITICS-U.S.: The Blood Starts to Flow

To say that there's blood in the water and the sharks are circling around the Bush administration's Iraq policy would be understatement at this point.

TRADE: Bush’s Bilateral Agenda Swims Against the Current

The U.S. administration's newly-minted post-Cancun doctrine favouring bilateral and regional trade deals rather than multilateral pacts is already banging into opposition both at home and abroad.

POLITICS-U.S.: Cheney as Extremist

In the 2000 elections he was the thoughtful, grey-haired Washington veteran who reassured nervous voters that candidate George W. Bush would indeed have adult supervision if he became president of the United States.

GUINEA-BISSAU: Just Another Chapter in a History of Instability

When the last soldiers of the Portuguese colonial army headed home 30 years ago, there were few indications that the newly independent Republic of Guinea-Bissau would remain steeped in instability and violence over the next three decades.

DEVELOPMENT: World Bank, IMF Meet’s Success a Subjective Matter

After two days of official debates and many more days of informal gatherings and seminars during the joint session of the board of governors of the World Bank and the International Monetary Fund (IMF), the question remains: What did they achieve? The answer depends on whom you ask.