POLITICS-IRAN: Ahmadinejad Faces Stormy New Parliament

President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad can expect considerable opposition in the newly elected parliament - set to be installed on May 27 - that has a considerable number of representatives from rival hardliners, conservatives and a stronger reformist minority.

AUSTRALIA: Rudd&#39s Japan Snub Sign of China&#39s Rise

Prime Minister Kevin Rudd’s decision to leave Japan off the itinerary of his current 17-day world tour - that includes the United States, Europe and China - has raised the ire of many in the land of the rising sun.

MIDEAST: Israel and Syria Flirt Dangerously

With negotiations on the Palestinian track limping along unproductively, Israeli leaders have again begun talking about renewing peace negotiations with Syria. But at the same time they are keeping a wary eye on new deployments by the Syrian military.

MEDIA-COLOMBIA: Unraveling the “New” FARC Announcement

Colombian and international media outlets reported Thursday and Friday that the FARC guerrillas had "ruled out" the release of Colombian hostage Ingrid Betancourt in an article issued after a French emergency medical mission to save the gravely ill hostage got underway. The problem is that the FARC statement is actually more than two weeks old.

POLITICS: Not Easy to Come in From the Cold War

NATO and Russia made little progress in settling their disputes during the alliance's summit in Bucharest this week. But the two sides insisted the Cold War is over and that they are open to compromise.

AFGHANISTAN: More, But of What

At the Bucharest summit, NATO adopted an undisclosed "comprehensive" security strategy in Afghanistan, which combines military with civilian efforts. The publicised discussions on Afghanistan, however, were focused on the numbers of troops.

POLITICS: Shaky NATO Announces Minimal Enlargement

Europe appears to have had its way over the U.S. at the opening of the NATO summit in Romanian capital Bucharest.

EAST TIMOR: Horta’s Assailants Scot-Free Thanks to Politics

If the renegade soldiers who attempted to assassinate East Timor President Jose Ramos-Horta on Feb. 11 remain scot-free, it has more to do with the complex politics of this fledgling country than a failure of the armed forces, domestic or international, that protect it.

MIDEAST: Olmert Is Taking a Long Time Sinking

Ehud Olmert's most outstanding achievement during his first two years as prime minister is the fact he is still in office. The Israeli prime minister, who has just marked the second anniversary of his March 2006 electoral triumph, has turned political survival into an art form, defying incessant predictions of his demise by his political colleagues and many of the country's leading political pundits.

CLIMATE CHANGE: The Fault Lies Not in Our Cars but in Ourselves

Rising levels of carbon dioxide (CO2) in Earth's atmosphere can be compared to a flooding river, swamping low areas at first but inevitably bursting its banks.

MIDEAST: This ‘Bombshell’ Took a Year Falling

A recent article in Vanity Fair magazine "exposing" a U.S.-planned coup attempt against Palestinian resistance movement Hamas last year has ignited a storm of debate about Washington's Middle East policies. Yet for more than nine months, details of the plot were reported in the independent Arabic press - and elsewhere - leading some observers to ask: where was the mainstream media?

US/IRAQ: Surge Success Runs Into Sadr

As the fifth year of U.S. discontent came and went, presidential candidates jousted with each other about how best to assuage the fears of ordinary citizens over a war that - in nearly all estimates - has gone terribly wrong.

MIDEAST: Another Arab Tea Party Ends

The 20th Arab League summit, convened earlier this week in the Syrian capital Damascus, drew relatively few heads of state, with both Egyptian President Hosni Mubarak and Saudi King Abdullah bin Abd al-Aziz choosing to stay at home. According to local commentators, the low level of diplomatic representation served to show up Syria's isolation within the otherwise U.S.-dominated Arab fold.

POLITICS: Embarrassed U.S. Starts to Disown Basra Operation

As it became clear last week that the "Operation Knights Assault" in Basra was in serious trouble, the George W. Bush administration began to claim in off-the-record statements to journalists that Prime Minister Nouri al-Maliki had launched the operation without consulting Washington.

CHINA: Olympic Torch Rolls Despite Tibet Trouble

China has invoked the authority of a legendary emperor, revered as the ancestor of all Chinese people, to bless the Beijing Summer Olympics and emphasise national unity. But lingering tensions in Tibet and a choppy passage for the Olympic torch detract from the lavish rites planned for the Yellow Emperor.

BURMA: Junta Split May Hasten Civilian Rule

By promising to hand over power to a civilian government within two years, Burma’s top general has sparked speculation on the future of the junta that has ruled this country since a military coup in 1962.

PAKISTAN/US: Elected Gov’t Wants War On Terror Reviewed

With a democratically-elected government firmly in place, the United States is anxious to see that its ‘war-on-terror’, which depended heavily on cooperation from the erstwhile military regime run by President Pervez Musharraf, does not get derailed.

MIDEAST: Palestinians Not Helping Themselves Either

A deal currently being discussed by Israel and Egypt would see Israel sever a major tie with the Gaza Strip. Under the agreement, Egypt would become the sole external supplier of power to Gaza, replacing Israel which is today the major provider of electricity to the coastal strip.

POLITICS-INDIA: Floundering Over Tibet Policy

Caught between its position recognising Tibet as part of China and growing pressure from pro-Western lobbies within its policy-making elites to support protests by Tibetan separatists, the Indian government is hard put to define a coherent stand on developments across its border.

ARGENTINA: The Return of the “Cacerolazo”

Thousands of middle-class Argentines took to the streets late Tuesday in a "cacerolazo" or pot-banging protest, this time against the centre-left government of President Cristina Fernández, showing that the methods learned in the crisis that broke out in late 2001 are still alive.

EUROPE: Poland Shows its Tusk

What looked like a foregone conclusion - Warsaw nodding to Washington's request to build a U.S. missile base in Poland - is on thin ice after Poland's new government decided to switch to what it calls a realistic approach to negotiations.