Killings Could Boomerang on Israel

What exactly happened on the high seas off the Gaza-Israel coast remains in murky waters.

Fuel Swap Shakes Sanctions Draft, Prods U.S. on New Iran Talks

Although the Barack Obama administration continued to dismiss the May 17 Iranian fuel swap agreement Friday, there are indications that Iran's move has shaken the agreement among U.N. Security Council members on sanctions, and is bringing Russian diplomatic pressure on the United States to participate in new talks with Iran on the swap arrangement - something the administration clearly wished to avoid.

McChrystal Strategy Shifts to Raids – and Wali Karzai

Gen. Stanley McChrystal's team once talked openly about the need to remove Ahmed Wali Karzai, Afghan President Hamid Karzai's brother and the most powerful man in Kandahar, from power.

THAILAND: Political Wounds Go Far Beyond Burnt Buildings, Deaths

The charred skeletons of buildings in central Bangkok will be rebuilt after this week's violence, but repairing the gaping fissures in Thai society - deepened further by the army crackdown on anti-government protesters - remains a far harder task.

Pressure Mounts on N. Korea over Warship Attack

Thursday's formal accusation by South Korea that a North Korean torpedo sunk the warship Cheonan, killing 46 South Korean sailors, has set off a flurry of activity in Washington as politicians and foreign policy experts try to identify an appropriate U.S. response while balancing the need to maintain a stable relationship with China - the North's biggest sponsor.

Reclaiming the Streets

Cars promise mobility, and in a largely rural setting they provide it. But in an urbanising world, where more than half of us live in cities, there is an inherent conflict between the automobile and the city.

ECUADOR: Native Standoff Over Water Bill on Hold

The Ecuadorean legislature's decision to hold a non-binding vote among the country's indigenous communities on a controversial water bill that sparked weeks of protests by native groups has calmed things down -- for now.

U.S. Says Only Reason for Talks with Iran Is Enrichment Halt

The agreement on draft Security Council resolution sanctions against Iran has grabbed the headlines on the Barack Obama administration's response to Iran's nuclear swap proposal brokered by Turkey and Brazil. But the more consequential response is the acknowledgement by the U.S. State Department Monday that the administration is not willing to hold talks with Iran unless it agrees to a complete halt in uranium enrichment.

GREECE: Turks Bearing Gifts

The first visit in six years of a Turkish prime minister to Greece has been widely hailed as a historical rapprochement after a long period of mutual bitterness.

COLOMBIA: “Death Threats Have Become Routine,” Says Jesuit Priest

The death threats against Catholic priest Javier Giraldo painted on walls in the Colombian capital may have come from far-right paramilitaries, the military, drug trafficking gangs or groups with interests in African oil palm plantations.

MIDEAST: Divided We Celebrate

"What kind of celebration is this," said Bat-El, 22, engulfed in a sea of blue- and-white Israeli flags in a huge procession marking Israel's self-celebrated Jerusalem Day, the anniversary by the Hebrew calendar of Israel's conquest of East Jerusalem 43 years ago during the 1967 Arab-Israel war.

Talk of a Nuclear Deal Gains Steam in Iran

President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad's return to Tehran after attending the Nuclear Non-Proliferation Treaty (NPT) review meeting at U.N. headquarters has been received with the usual bombast by the conservative and hard-line media in Iran, which declared him victorious and an indispensable global leader.

POLITICS: Sri Lanka’s Turnaround Could Signal New Beginning

For a country that has had quite a few run-ins with global giants in the diplomatic arena, the last fortnight has witnessed somewhat of a turnaround for Sri Lanka.

Pentagon Doubts Grow on McChrystal War Plan

Although Gen. Stanley A. McChrystal's plan for wresting the Afghan provinces of Helmand and Kandahar from the Taliban is still in its early stages of implementation, there are already signs that setbacks and obstacles it has encountered have raised serious doubts among top military officials in Washington about whether the plan is going to work.

JAPAN: Promised U.S. Base Relocation: Made to Be Broken?

Prime Minister Yukio Hatoyama’s disastrous visit this week to Okinawa island, host to the largest U.S. military bases in Japan, has highlighted a rocky road ahead for the country’s much awaited change pledged by the postwar democratic and socialist government that came to power in August 2009.

PHILIPPINES: After Nine Years, a President’s Lost Political Capital

The longest-serving Philippine president in decades, Gloria Macapagal Arrroyo has seen consistent economic growth during her tenure, and boasts of statistics showing nearly three million jobs created and the country getting 15 percent of the world’s business process outsourcing industry.

THAILAND: Digital Divide Surfaces in Polarised Politics

Nearly eight weeks after anti-government demonstrators occupied the streets of this modern metropolis, virtually crippling two iconic areas, the rage it has generated in the media has exposed another fault line cutting across this kingdom – a digital divide.

MIDEAST: Hope Amidst Grim Prospects for Peace

Proximity peace talks between Israelis and Palestinians, due to begin shortly after months of delay due to Israel’s continued settlement building on occupied Palestinian land, appear to have little chance of making a breakthrough.

Pentagon Map Shows Wide Taliban Zone in the South

The Pentagon was still trying to spin its report on the war in Afghanistan issued this week as holding out hope because the instability had leveled off, even as some news outlets were noting that it documents the continued expansion of Taliban capabilities and operations.

A ‘Green’ President for Colombia?

Colombian presidential candidate Antanas Mockus of the Green Party has been gaining as many as 10,000 new fans a day on Facebook. From just 200 friends at the start, he now has more than 450,000.

When Israel is 64

"Mine forever more, Will you still need me, Will you still feed me, When I'm sixty- four." Israelis weren't explicitly intoning the Beatles when they gathered around their Bar-B-Q get-togethers or followed the live broadcasts of official state ceremonies.