POLITICS: Thai Tensions Form Apt Backdrop for ASEAN Meet

The decision by Thai government to shift the venue of a regional summit from Bangkok to the northern city of Chiang Mai points to an administration unsure of its place in the country’s capital.

DEVELOPMENT: Democracy Comes to World Institutions, Slowly

Power and democracy don't go together well in global governance. The most powerful global institutions are the least democratic, but things are changing. Slowly.

POLITICS-US: Plumbing the Depths of Spin

In the waning days of an interminable United States presidential campaign, a plumber and would-be small businessman bestrides the narrow race like a colossus with a tool belt.

POLITICS-US: Candidates' Worldviews Are Worlds Apart

While the ongoing financial crisis has almost entirely displaced foreign policy and even the Iraq War as the main concern of voters here, the differences in approach to the world beyond U.S. borders between the Republican candidate, Sen. John McCain, and his Democratic rival, Sen. Barack Obama, remain both wide and substantial.

DEVELOPMENT: Now Sit Up and Listen

For every one in 50 people around the world to make a point of standing up somewhere on the planet to say the same kind of thing adds up to a lot of people. More than any mass mobilisation on any issue ever before.

ECONOMY-US: It’s Not the “Greedy Poor People”

A 31-year-old law designed to put an end to "redlining" and other restrictive practices that effectively shut poor and minority families out of home-ownership and neighbourhood development is being attacked by conservative commentators as a major cause of today's sub-prime mortgage mess.

EGYPT: Tall Claims Only Lower Confidence

Following the volatile reaction of international markets to the U.S. financial meltdown, Egyptian officialdom has hastened to reassure a skittish public that the local economy would be spared the worst effects of the global crisis. Many independent commentators, however, are not so sure.

INDIA: Tata Motors Move to Gujarat Less Than Secular

Tata Motors' decision to shift the production site of its ultra-cheap, iconic Nano car from communist-ruled West Bengal state to Gujarat - scene of the 2002 anti-Muslim pogrom - has caused consternation and dismay among liberals and secular-minded people all over India.

POLITICS: Final Text of Iraq Pact Reveals a U.S. Debacle

The final draft of the U.S.-Iraq Status of Forces agreement on the U.S. military presence represents an even more crushing defeat for the policy of the George W. Bush administration than previously thought, the final text reveals.

ECONOMY: Asia-EU Summit to Address ‘Financial Tsunami’

Cast in the role of global saviour in the unfolding financial turmoil, China is playing host to a meeting of Asian and European leaders in Beijing this week that is expected to castigate the Anglo-Saxon model of capitalism and press for a reshaped global economic order.

POLITICS-US: Powell Marks Latest Republican Defection

The announcement by former Secretary of State Colin Powell Sunday that he will vote for Democratic Sen. Barack Obama for president Nov. 4 marks the latest and most prominent, if not entirely unexpected, defection of a major Republican figure from his party's election campaign.

MIDEAST: Israel No Place To Be An Arab

The uneasy co-existence between Israel's Arabs and Jews has been further exacerbated by days of continuous rioting in the mixed city of Acre in northern Israel.

TRADE: Cotton Subsidies Remain Big Hurdle in WTO Doha Round

The Doha Round was launched in 2001 in Doha, Qatar, to provide a developmental dimension to global trade by enabling developing and least developed countries to secure enhanced access for their products in rich country markets. However, there is a pronounced shift in the negotiations in the last seven years - from developmental issues to the purely market-driven concerns of the dominant players.

US/AFGHANISTAN: Moving Towards a 'Grand Bargain'

Increasingly frustrated by the "downward spiral" that the U.S. intelligence community sees in Afghanistan, the Pentagon appears to be moving in support of engaging leaders of the resurgent Taliban who are prepared to disassociate themselves from al-Qaeda.

MIDEAST: Pressure Piling Up on Hamas Ahead of Unity Meet

Egypt recently re-opened its border with the Gaza Strip to limited traffic in advance of an upcoming Palestinian reconciliation conference to be held in Cairo next month. But some independent commentators say Egypt is merely using the border as a means of pressuring resistance faction Hamas into accepting its proposals for a Palestinian national unity government.

INDIA/PAKISTAN: Picking Up The Peace Threads

India and Pakistan are trying to revitalise their mutual dialogue and pick up the threads of the peace process they launched in early 2004. This may be the last such effort before the government of Prime Minister Manmohan Singh demits office by May next, if not sooner.

CANADA: Conservatives Win Minority Govt Amid Larger Battle

While Prime Minister Stephen Harper's Conservatives will continue ruling Canada as a minority government, they are several steps closer to a coveted parliamentary majority after Tuesday's general election.

ENVIRONMENT: Going Beyond Climate Change

While the financial mayhem continues to draw the headlines, the cost of persistent biodiversity loss has yet to be established. But it is believed to be bigger than that of the meltdown, and in many cases also irreparable.

POLITICS-FIJI: West Unmoved by Court Support For Coup

A landmark Fiji High Court decision upholding the powers assumed by the country’s president after a military coup in December 2006 has come as a boost for coup leader and interim prime minister, Commodore Frank Bainimarama.

POLITICS-US: Bush Set to Go With a Whimper, Not a Bang

With only three months left in office, U.S. President George W. Bush appears increasingly determined to calm the international waters he so vigorously churned up, especially during his first term.

BURMA: New Constitution – Radical Change or Fig Leaf?

After more than 15 years in the drafting, Burma unveiled its new constitution in February. The 194-page document has generated a widely disparate response.