SOUTH AFRICA: High Noon as Mbeki, 11 Cabinet Members Resign

South Africa has been in the grip of political drama for the past two years, with high-profile power mongering culminating this week in the resignation of President Thabo Mbeki on the instruction of the ruling party, the African National Congress (ANC), with a significant number of his cabinet following suit.

POLITICS-PAKISTAN: No Military Solutions to Suicide Bombings

Political analysts have long been warning the United States and Pakistan governments that there are no easy military solutions in prosecuting the global ‘war on terror’ which may now have become inextricable from ‘home-grown’ militancy.

MIDEAST: Palestinian Politics on the Road to Nowhere

Israeli-Palestinian peace talks appear to have hit a dead-end, while efforts to bridge the yawning chasm which divides Hamas and Fatah politically and ideologically appear to be going nowhere.

BALKANS: Serbia’s Radical Party Cracks

"The curtain is coming down on one party...what used to be the SRS (Serbian Radical Party) does not exist any more...the life of the party I have helped build in the past 18 years has ended."

ECONOMY-KENYA: Shady Deals and Intrigues Haunt Privatisation

The Kenya Railways Corporation was more than a national utility. It was a repository of Kenya’s history, beginning in the 19th century when indentured Indian labourers were brought to the East African region to build the Kenya-Uganda railway line.

EAST ASIA: History Wars

Northeast Asia is a relatively peaceful place. Although the Cold War still divides the Korean peninsula and the Taiwan Straits, there are no hot conflicts in the region. Negotiators in the Six Party Talks are attempting to solve the major security issues of the region through diplomatic means.

POLITICS-US: Vested Interests Drove New Pakistan Policy

The George W. Bush administration's decision to launch commando raids and step up missiles strikes against Taliban and al Qaeda figures in the tribal areas of Pakistan followed what appears to have been the most contentious policy process over the use of force in Bush's eight-year presidency.

BOLIVIA: Opposition Accepts Morales’s Call for Talks

Opposition governors in Bolivia accepted President Evo Morales’s call for talks aimed at pulling the country out of the current crisis, in which at least 15 supporters of the leftwing government have been killed.

POLITICS-JAPAN: ‘Ruling Party Turmoil Shows Democracy Working’

After Yasuo Fukuda abruptly resigned as prime minister on Sep.1, there has been talk of a political vacuum building up in Japan. But a leading analyst points to the hot race for the ruling party’s presidency as proving the contrary.

PAKISTAN-POLITICS: Testing Times for Democracy

Political opposition against President Asif Ali Zardari -fuelled by the recent U.S. military incursions into Pakistani territory and rising food prices - appears to be tempered by the realisation that the only alternative to the current democratically elected dispensation is military rule.

MIDEAST: More Than the Film Stands Between Iran and Egypt

Despite several goodwill gestures from Iran, Egypt appears adamant in its refusal to re-establish diplomatic relations - frozen for almost 30 years - with the Persian-speaking Islamic republic. According to opposition figures, Cairo's insistence on keeping Iran at arm's length comes largely as a result of U.S. prompting.

TRADE: Africa’s Export Performance Still Dismal, Says UNCTAD

Despite the liberalisation of trade over more than two decades, the level and composition of Africa’s exports have not substantially changed, according to the 2008 report by the United Nations Conference on Trade and Development (UNCTAD) on economic development in Africa.

GEORGIA: EU Takes the Diplomatic Lead

The Russia-Georgia peace deal indicates that the EU is acting as an independent power and plans to maintain dialogue with Moscow in spite of pressure by some of its own members and the U.S. to switch to sanctions.

AUSTRALIA: Winning ‘Hearts and Minds’ in Afghanistan?

Responses by defence officials in the wake of a recent inquiry into claims that Australian soldiers mistreated detainees in Afghanistan undermine efforts to win the battle for hearts and minds in that war-ravaged country.

POLITICS: Is Cold War Rhetoric Back at the U.N.?

When the United States and the former Soviet Union were on the verge of a military confrontation over Cuba during the height of the Cold War, the legendary U.S. Ambassador Adlai Stevenson went eyeball-to-eyeball with Soviet envoy Valerian Zorin in the Security Council chamber.

PAKISTAN: Zardari – Victim of Many Prejudices

After sweeping Pakistan's presidential elections, Asif Ali Zardari, husband of the late, twice-elected prime minister Benazir Bhutto, called his triumph the ‘’victory of democracy’’. But this triumph follows a flood of criticism against Zardari in the domestic and foreign media.

EUROPE: Divisions Rise Over Ex-Soviet Countries

Few, if any, regions present a greater challenge for the European Union's foreign policy than the former Soviet Union.

INDIA/US: Nuclear Waiver – Blow to Non-Proliferation

The special waiver granted to India by the Nuclear Suppliers' Group (NSG) from its nuclear trade rules is being seen as a massive setback to the cause of global nuclear non-proliferation and disarmament.

BOLIVIA: Divisions Emerge in Opposition Strategy

Major discrepancies emerged among the rightwing authorities and landowning and business interests opposed to Bolivia’s leftist President Evo Morales in a 10-hour meeting held to coordinate a strategy aimed at the economic suffocation of the government.

INDIA/US: Lawmaker’s Disclosure May Torpedo Nuke Deal

Chances of the United States-India nuclear deal being completed have greatly receded with the release by a key U.S. lawmaker of a so-far-secret Bush administration document which says Washington will not sell sensitive nuclear technologies to India and will terminate nuclear commerce with it if India conducts a test.

MEDIA-INDIA: Columnists Support Kashmir's Secession

"Anti-national" is the charge hurled in India at the usual radical suspects who argue for the right to self-determination of the Kashmiri people.