POLITICS-US: Petraeus Promotion Frees Cheney to Threaten Iran

The nomination of Gen. David Petraeus to be the new head of the Central Command not only ensures that he will be available to defend the George W. Bush administration's policies toward Iran and Iraq at least through the end of Bush's term and possibly even beyond.

MIDEAST: Israel Sees Iran Threat Recede

In the clearest indication yet that Israel now believes Iran's nuclear aspirations will be curbed, Prime Minister Ehud Olmert has said that efforts being undertaken by the international community will ensure that Tehran does not acquire nuclear capability.

TRADE: Rising Food Prices Could Affect WTO Talks

The rising food and fuel prices, with related social destabilisation, may necessitate a ‘‘course correction’’ in the liberalisation talks on industrial goods and agriculture, the African, Caribbean and Pacific group of nations told World Trade Organisation (WTO) Director General Pascal Lamy at the end of last week.

TRADE: Lamy Pushes Ahead With Services Liberalisation

World Trade Organisation (WTO) Director General Pascal Lamy announced at the end of last week that there will be a limited ministerial ‘‘signalling’’ conference on services trade chaired by himself.

EGYPT: Election Brings Victory Without Votes

The ruling National Democratic Party (NDP) of long-time president Hosni Mubarak swept Egypt's nationwide municipal council elections last week. But while NDP officials lauded the contest as "fair and transparent", opposition groups say their candidates never stood a chance.

POLITICS: Can the U.S. and Iran Share the Middle East?

By negotiating a Shiite truce, Tehran embarrassed Washington last week and arguably proved itself to be a more potent stabiliser of southern Iraq.

POLITICS: Petraeus Hid Maliki Resistance to US Troops in Basra

In testimony before Congressional committees last week, Gen. David Petraeus portrayed Iraqi Prime Minister Nouri al-Maliki's late March offensive in Basra as a poorly planned effort that departed from what U.S. officials had expected.

MIDEAST: Israel Doesn’t Want to Know Carter Any More

Three decades after he brokered the first-ever peace treaty between Israel and an Arab country, former U.S. president Jimmy Carter has become persona non grata in the Jewish state.

POLITICS-SOUTH ASIA: Dealing With Nepal’s Himalayan Shift

After greatly surprising the world through its spectacular victory in direct first-past-the-post elections to the country’s new constituent assembly, the Communist Party of Nepal-Maoist (CPN-M) now appears likely to perform far better than expected in the proportional representation (PR) component of the house too.

POLITICS-US: McCain’s Vietnam Lessons Unlearned?

Throughout a long career in politics, presumptive Republican presidential nominee Sen. John McCain has had his foreign policy shaped by his and the United States' experience in the Vietnam War.

RUSSIA: In a Polite Battle With NATO

The recent NATO summit in Bucharest has shown that both western and eastern European members states have irreconcilable views on how to approach Russia: what the west sees as cooperation, the east calls capitulation.

POLITICS-US: Religious Right – Growing Pains, or Death Throes?

During a recent appearance at the National Religious Broadcasters conference, Dr. James Dobson, the founder of Focus on the Family, expressed deep concern about the future of the conservative Christian movement he helped build and define.

POLITICS-ASIA: Talking Peace, Preparing for War

Northeast Asia heaved a sigh of relief at the latest news of a breakthrough in the nuclear negotiations with North Korea. The prospects of integrating North Korea into the international community and constructing a peace and security structure for the region have never been rosier.

GLOBALISATION: New Curbs on Investment From the South

Germany's decision to introduce controls on investments from the South in strategic domestic sectors is yet another indicator of growing protectionism in European and other industrialised countries against the neo-liberal globalisation they once masterminded.

IRAQ: From One Dictator to the Next

Many Iraqis have come to believe that Iraqi Prime Minister Nouri al-Maliki is just as much a dictator as Saddam Hussein was.

POLITICS-US/IRAQ: Stuck!

"Tell me how this ends," Gen. David Petraeus, then commander of the 101st Airborne Division, asked a Washington Post reporter during the "liberation" of Iraq almost exactly five years ago.

ITALY: Candidates Divided Over Migration

Nothing seems to divide the two leading prime ministerial candidates in the election due this week more than the immigration issue.

AUSTRALIA/US: Rudd’s Salute to Bush Exposes Sensibilities

While Australian Prime Minister Kevin Rudd has laughed off a playful salute to U.S. President George W. Bush during last week’s NATO summit as "just a joke", the imagery lends credence to accusations that Australia is the United States’ "deputy sheriff" in the region.

BALKANS: Now Divided by NATO Membership

Security issues in the Balkans came under the spotlight once again at the NATO summit in Bucharest, where some nations from the region were invited to join the alliance, some remained in the waiting room, and some like Bosnia-Herzegovina, Montenegro and Serbia, outside.

POLITICS-MALAYSIA: Two-Party System Taking Shape

Following its big gains in the Mar. 8 polls, Malaysia's once disparate opposition, led by the charismatic former deputy prime minister Anwar Ibrahim, has forged a formal coalition capable of taking on the ruling 14-party National Front (NF) coalition.

US/IRAQ: Petraeus Testimony to Defend False "Proxy War" Line

A key objective of the Congressional testimony by Gen. David Petraeus this week will be to defend the George W. Bush administration's strategic political line that it is fighting an Iranian "proxy war" in Iraq.