POLITICS-KENYA: For Women, Elections May Be the Milestone That Wasn&#39t

General elections are underway in Kenya, marking the end of a titanic struggle between incumbent President Mwai Kibaki and Raila Odinga, heading the Party of National Unity and the Orange Democratic Movement, respectively.

CHALLENGES 2007-2008: Climate Change Gives Rise to New World Order

Once again, humanity is facing the risk of catastrophe. The terror of destruction by nuclear missiles ready to be launched at the touch of a button has given way to the disturbing possibility of global warming going past the point of no return, and this is turning traditional international coalitions and geopolitical concepts upside down.

POLITICS-THAILAND: Polls – Referendum on Military’s Role

Thais voting Sunday in the first parliamentary polls since last year’s coup will be doing more than casting ballots for a favoured political party. Their choices may indicate how supportive voters are of the military interfering in the nation’s politics.

INDIA/US: Nuclear Deal – Vienna Has Reservations

As the window of opportunity to complete the United States-India nuclear cooperation deal narrows, the agreement seems to be running into problems with the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA), the Vienna-based United Nations body dealing with nuclear matters.

EGYPT: Israel Recognised by Govt, Not By People

Thirty years after late Egyptian president Anwar Sadat's historic trip to Israel, Egyptian diplomatic relations with the Hebrew state remain cordial. On a popular level, however, the relationship - buttressed by the 1979 Camp David peace agreement - still represents a major source of contention.

UKRAINE: The Orange Look Gets Another Chance

With the appointment of Yuliya Timoshenko as Prime Minister of Ukraine, the pro-Western 'Orange' forces have been granted a second opportunity to prove that their political programme is stronger than narrow power ambitions.

POLITICS-SOUTH AFRICA: Mbeki – 1,505 Votes. Zuma – 2,329 Votes

It was, metaphorically speaking, dirty and very bloody. But the campaign leading up to the national conference of the ruling African National Congress (ANC) in Polekwane, north-east South Africa - where Jacob Zuma was elected president of the party, Tuesday - was democracy in its rawest form.

RIGHTS-MALAYSIA: &#39Neo-Liberal Policies Fuelling Protests, Not Race&#39

After a series of street demonstrations in recent weeks top analysts and activists say the government is not tackling the economic roots of grievances among marginalised Malaysians, but appears stuck in its old mould of race-based thinking.

POLITICS-US: Did Bush Get New Iran Intel Last Winter?

White House officials have now admitted that George W. Bush was told that the intelligence assessment on a covert Iranian nuclear programme might change last August, but they have avoided answering the question of when the president was first informed about the new intelligence that led to that revised assessment.

POLITICS-US: Assassination Jars Nascent Detente with Syria

When the George W. Bush administration asked Damascus to attend last month's Annapolis conference, Emad Moustapha, the Syrian ambassador to the United States, admits he was stunned.

POLITICS-IRAN: Tame US Intelligence Report Won’t Stop Sanctions

While a United States intelligence report stating that Iran has not pursued making a nuclear bomb since 2003 may blunt Washington’s warlike stance towards Tehran, it is far from being ‘Iran’s biggest victory of the century’, as President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad has described it.

CLIMATE CHANGE: Forward, Hopefully Past the Hurdles

Despite scepticism about the 'Bali roadmap', the international community has come a long way in hammering out a truly global response to the serious threat posed by climate change.

POLITICS-PAKISTAN: Emergency Lifted But Democracy Elusive

President Pervez Musharraf’s lifting of emergency rule over Pakistan and restoration of the Constitution is insufficient to put the country on the path to democracy say civil rights activists.

POLITICS: White House Fought NIE Over an Old Charge

The reported White House resistance to the National Intelligence Estimate's conclusion that Iran had abandoned a nuclear weapons programme in 2003 was an effort to save a political tactic the George W. Bush administration had been using since early 2004, despite the absence of an intelligence analysis to support it.

POLITICS-PAKISTAN: Taking Part in Musharraf’s Polls – Under Protest

With general elections barely a month away, Pakistan’s major political parties have decided not to boycott the polls and take their chances in a situation where the media and the judiciary have been hobbled.

CLIMATE CHANGE: No Deal in Sight at Bali

As a major United Nations 'framework convention' on climate change (UNFCCC) crossed into its second half on Monday, the official view is one of optimism that progress has been made in laying the ''building blocks'' for a future agreement.

POLITICS-US: “Laptop of Death”: Revising the NIE on Iran

Nearly one week after a U.S. intelligence report revealed that Iran halted its nuclear weapons programme in 2003, the sabre-rattling inside the Washington Beltway appears to have receded for the moment, and with it, the George W. Bush administration's strongest pretext for a military confrontation with Iran.

TURKEY: Political Graveyard May Get Extension

Turkey seems to have a far bigger 'cemetery' for political parties than many other democratic nations. Its next occupant could be a controversial pro-Kurdish party.

POLITICS: Lawmakers Call a Halt to Indo-US Nuclear Deal

The Manmohan Singh government’s hopes of garnering at least a semblance of support for the controversial United States-India nuclear cooperation deal from elected political representatives outside the ruling United Progressive Alliance (UPA) have crashed.

POLITICS: Is Iran NIE a Blessing in Disguise for Israel?

The U.S. National Intelligence Estimate's assertion that Iran currently does not have a nuclear weapons programme has caused much frustration in Israel. Deputy Defence Minister Ephraim Sneh referred to the report as a lie at a recent breakfast in New York, and Infrastructure Minister Binyamin Ben-Eliezer reportedly "doesn't buy" its findings.

POLITICS: Iran NIE Validates 2003 European Diplomacy

Despite the White House spin that the new National Intelligence Estimate (NIE) supports its policy of increasing pressure on Iran, the estimate not only directly contradicts the George W. Bush administration's line on Iranian intentions regarding nuclear weapons, but points to a link between Tehran's 2003 decision to halt research on weaponisation and its decision to negotiate with European foreign ministers on both nuclear and Iranian security concerns.