POLITICS-SOUTH AFRICA: Mbeki Prepares To Get Down To Work

So far, 27 African presidents will attend the inauguration of South African president-elect, Thabo Mbeki, next Wednesday in an event billed as 'Faranani', or towards an African century.

RIGHTS-YUGOSLAVIA: Time for Political Process to Resume

The NATO bombing of Yugoslavia has not only mashed the country's infrastructure and economy. It has also damaged the democratic process which, opposition leaders say, must be resumed as soon as Serbia is allowed to live in peace.

/CORRECTED REPEAT//POLITICS-EUROPE: A Step Towards Political and Military Autonomy

"What is Europe's phone number?" former U.S. secretary of state Henry Kissinger is reported to have once asked, underlining the European Union's lack of cohesion and inability to act in crisis situations.

POLITICS: India Continues to Rebuff U.N. Over Kashmir

India, which consistently maintains that the disputed territory of Kashmir is essentially a domestic problem, once again has rebuffed the United Nations.

/CORRECTED REPEAT//POLITICS-EUROPE: A Step Towards Political and Military Autonomy

"What is Europe's phone number?" former U.S. secretary of state Henry Kissinger is reported to have once asked, underlining the European Union's lack of cohesion and inability to act in crisis situations.

/REPEAT//POLITICS-EUROPE: A Step Towards Political and Military Autonomy

"What is Europe's phone number?," former U.S. secretary of state, Henry Kissinger, is reported to have once asked, to underline the European Union's lack of cohesion and inability to act in crisis situations.

POLITICS-EUROPE: A Step Towards Political and Military Autonomy

"What is Europe's phone number?," former U.S. secretary of state, Henry Kissinger, is reported to have once asked, to underline the European Union's lack of cohesion and inability to act in crisis situations.

DEVELOPMENT: “Coca-Colonisation” of the Third World

A New York Times columnist once argued that globalisation and free market economies had triggered such a wave of economic prosperity that no two countries with McDonalds restaurants would ever go to war.

DEVELOPMENT-MALAYSIA: 30 Years On, Ethnic Ties on Firmer Footing

Three decades after communal riots rocked the country, Malaysians can take comfort in the fact that ethnic relations in this multi-racial nation are on much firmer footing.

CONFLICT-YUGOSLAVIA: Germans Nervous About Escalation of the War

Loud calls by British Prime Minister Tony Blair for NATO ground troops to go into Kosovo has triggered off frantic diplomatic activity by Germany, Italy, and Greece the NATO allies most vigorously opposed to an invasion of Yugoslavia.

POLITICS-PAKISTAN: Bhutto Fights For Political Life From Abroad

For the second time, Benazir Bhutto, former prime minister, is fighting for political survival from outside Pakistan, but the outcome is more unpredictable.

POLITICS-SOUTH AFRICA: Mbeki – The Man Who Will Be President

Thabo Mbeki, the man likely to be South Africa's next president is described as affable yet aloof, cordial yet enigmatic, he is a man whose moment has arrived. He has long been the crown prince.

POLITICS-RUSSIA: Yeltsin Won, Political System Lost

A seemingly strengthened president Boris Yeltsin will push this week for a stronger role in solving the conflict in the Balkans, but at home there is a growing perception that the Parliament's failure to impeach him this weekend only further weakened Russia's political system.

RIGHTS-YUGOSLAVIA: NATO Cluster Bombs Spray Death

Adem Muncaj, an ethnic Albanian boy from Kosovo recently found a bright orange container that looked like a soft drink can and brought it home to his family. They are now dead.

POLITICS-ISRAEL: Russian and Middle East Jews Will Decide Elections

The outcome of Israel's most fateful election Monday will be decided by a contest between two ethnic groups among Jewish Israelis - the Russian- speakers from Europe and the Arabic- speakers from the Middle East.

POLITICS-RUSSIA: Threatened, Yeltsin Hits First

By sacking Prime Minister Yevgeny Primakov Wednesday, Russian president Boris Yeltsin is attempting to launch a preemptive strike against his foes in Parliament who have set an impeachment vote for May 13-15, analysts here say.

CONFLICT-EUROPE: Schroeder on Tough Mission to China

German Chancellor Gerhard Schroeder is traveling to Beijing Tuesday with a tough diplomatic task in the wake of NATO's bombing of China's embassy in Belgrade.

GUINEA BISSAU: Calm Returns, As The Army Consolidates Power

Most of Guinea Bissau's infrastructure has been destroyed; hundred of thousands of civilians in the capital Bissau have been forced to flee their homes and hundreds died in the fighting, many in last Thursday's final assault.

/REPEATING//CONFLICT-EGYPT: Closer to Europe, Keeping Washington Calm

Manoeuvring its way amidst the harsh realities of a unipolar world order - symbolised by the US-led NATO air campaign against Yugoslavia - Egyptian diplomacy is banking on a multi-polar world in the making

CONFLICT-YUGOSLAVIA: Diplomacy Now Shifts to China

Quiet diplomacy aimed at securing peace in Kosovo could now shift to China after Western nations meeting at foreign minister level agreed a strategy with Russia Thursday to resolve the crisis during a meeting of the Group of Eight industrialised countries in Bonn.

/CORRECTED REPEAT//CONFLICT-YUGOSLAVIA: G-8 Agreement Turns Back the Clock

The peace agreement for Yugoslavia reached in Bonn Thusrday by the world's seven richest countries and Russia (G-8) may take the Kosovo crisis back to the diplomatic arena after six weeks of massive destruction. It also represents a major diplomatic victory for Moscow, analysts here agree.