POLITICS-IRAQ: Blair Cornered but Confident

For a leader who has so recently been proved wrong by intelligence reports he made confident assertions about, British Prime Minister Tony Blair is once again confident that weapons of mass destruction will be found.

BURMA: Attack on Suu Kyi Could be a Turning Point

An assault on Burmese opposition leader Aung San Suu Kyi by a pro-military mob. A dozen or more of her supporters killed and scores missing. Where is this last outpost of vintage military dictatorship in South-east Asia headed?

POLITICS-BURMA: Attack on Suu Kyi Could be a Turning Point

An assault on Burmese opposition leader Aung San Suu Kyi by a pro-military mob. A dozen or more of her supporters killed and scores missing. Where is this last outpost of vintage military dictatorship in South-east Asia headed, one might ask.

POLITICS-U.S.: Loss of Key Aide Marks New Setback for Colin Powell

Thursday's announcement that the State Department's director for policy planning, Richard Haass, is leaving to become the next president of the New York-based Council on Foreign Relations (CFR), marks the latest sign of the eclipse of Secretary of State Colin Powell's influence in the Bush administration.

BURMA: Generals on the Offensive, But Also at Odds over Suu Kyi

Burma's military rulers have gone on the offensive again, virtually declaring war on opposition leader Aung San Suu Kyi and her party.

BURMA: Generals on the Offensive, But Also at Odds over Suu Kyi

Burma's military rulers have gone on the offensive again.

IRAQ-U.S.: Credibility Gap Anyone?

When all three major U.S. newsweeklies - 'Time', 'Newsweek' and 'U.S. News & World Report' - run major features on the same day on possible government lying, you can bet you have the makings of a major scandal.

POLITICS: Summer Brings No Thaw in Chill Between Canada, US Leaders

Prime Minister Jean Chretien and U.S. President George W Bush met for the first time last weekend since Canada opted out of the U.S.-led war against Iraq, and engaged in what the prime minister called ''chit-chat''.

POLITICS-US: A Threadbare Emperor Tours the World

With U.S. President George W. Bush embarked on his first tour of major world capitals since the war in Iraq, his handlers are predictably depicting his stature as something akin to Shakespeare's Julius Caesar ''bestrid(ing) the world like a Colossus''.

POLITICS-U.S.: A Threadbare Emperor Tours the World

With U.S. President George W. Bush embarked on his first tour of major world capitals since the war in Iraq, his handlers are predictably depicting his stature as something akin to Shakespeare's Julius Caesar ''bestrid(ing) the world like a Colossus''.

MEDIA-U.S.: Hollywood or Hearst – The Jessica Lynch Story

An attractive and spirited young woman, held captive by sadistic foreigners and saved by coolly efficient, red-blooded, all-American males - it is a story straight out of romance novels, not to mention the ''yellow journalism'' that propelled the United States into the Spanish-American War and global empire just over a century ago.

POLITICS-G8: ‘No Time for Pressing Issues Facing Global Economy’

The summit of the Group of Eight, to take place June 1-3 in the French Alpine city of Evian, will not fulfil its own agenda, independent observers say.

DEVELOPMENT: Iraq Rift May Harm Africa at G8 Summit

As G8 leaders prepare to meet next Sunday in Evian-les-Bains in the French Alps, the fall-out of the diplomatic rift over Iraq is threatening to push Africa to the fringes.

POLITICS-U.S.: Neo-Cons Move Quickly on Iran

Reports that top officials in the administration of President George W. Bush will meet Tuesday to discuss U.S. policy toward Iran, including possible efforts to overthrow its government, mark a major advance in what has been an 18-month campaign by neo-conservatives in and out of the administration.

POLITICS-GERMANY: Planning Armed Forces’ Missions Abroad

Convinced that Germany has nothing to fear from its neighbours, the government of Chancellor Gerhard Schroeder has decided to task the Bundewehr armed forces with conflict prevention and crisis management.

POLITICS-U.S.: Hawks Push Growing India-Israel Ties

Immediately after the Sep. 11 attacks on New York and the Pentagon, the neo-conservative editorial page of the 'Wall Street Journal' featured an article arguing that Israel, India and Turkey were Washington's only ''allies for the long haul'' in the coming war against terrorism.

IRAQ: Civil Society Lags as Economic Gurus March on Mideast

As international financial institutions (IFIs) race to carry economic initiatives to the Middle East, groups that monitor the spread of corporate globalisation are at risk of falling behind, raising concerns that the region could end up an unmonitored corporate playfield.

RIGHTS-CAMBODIA: Judgement Day Nears for War Crimes Tribunal

When human rights lobbies such as Amnesty International and Human Rights Watch speak out, victims of injustice are supposed to feel reassured. But whether that will be the case in Cambodia, where a long awaited tribunal to try Khmer Rouge leaders is coming under fire from these groups, remains to be seen.

POLITICS-MIDEAST: Hard Spotlight On New PM

The recent vote of support by the Palestinian Legislative Council for the government of Mahmoud Abbas is much more than a vote of confidence in one man. The decision ushers in the constitutional creation of the position of an empowered prime minister accountable to the Palestinian Legislative Council.

POLITICS-U.S.: Hapless Powell Soldiers On

What a thankless job Colin Powell has.

MIDEAST: More Politics than Peace in Powell Visit

U.S. Secretary of State Colin Powell had not quite left Israel Monday before Israel reversed some of the 'goodwill gestures' towards Palestinians that it took up on his arrival over the weekend.