POLITICS-IRAQ: UN Offers ‘Road Map’ for Future Disarmament

U.N. inspectors responsible for verifying the scrapping of Iraq's weapons of mass destruction have given Iraq a detailed list of of items it must clear up if it hopes to end an eight-year U.N. embargo against Baghdad.

UNITED NATIONS: Critics Say Drug War Has Failed

When world leaders meet in New York next week to discuss ways of combatting drug use worldwide, at least some activists are ready to confront them with an alternate proposal: Call off the "drug war."

MUSIC-USA: Frank Sinatra Gone, but Cool Lives On

When Frank Sinatra died at the age of 82 last month his family said that his last words were, "I'm losing it." He may have felt life slipping away, but popular culture is a different case entirely: for modern listeners, Sinatra never lost "It."

LABOUR-US: Garment Union Under Attack From All Sides

A labour union that aggressively pushed for an end to sweatshop conditions in the U.S. garment industry is now under fire for abusing workers after complaints from many of its own union members.

POLITICS-EAST TIMOR: US Support for Self-Determination Grows

The end of Indonesian dictator Suharto's 32-year regime has revitalised U.S. efforts to put pressure on Jakarta for its occupation of East Timor, with the U.S. Congress now considering self-determination for the island state.

DEVELOPMENT: Microcredit Boosters Optimistic Before Review

Supporters of a campaign to provide small loans to 100 million of the world's poorest families by the year 2005 were confident Wednesday of reaching their goal after hundreds of groups submitted action plans to meet that target.

TELEVISION-USA: ‘Seinfeld’ Ends – Much Ado about Nothing

World events in the tumultuous last weeks of May - with India testing nuclear weapons, Indonesia tottering on the verge of collapse and the historic peace vote in Ireland - certainly hit the headlines in the United States. But for millions of Americans, the biggest story of the month was the fate of four popular television characters famous for conducting idle conversation.

RIGHTS-RWANDA: Killing in Kenya Puts Spotlight on Witness Safety

The assassination last weekend of a former Rwandan official set to testify at a U.N. war crimes tribunal has sparked questions over the safety of witnesses to the 1994 genocide in that country.

RIGHTS: Brackets Surround Proposed ICC Statute

Even by past standards of international treaties, the draft statute for the proposed International Criminal Court (ICC) is vague and runs to a hefty 166 pages in English, with hundreds of key passages undecided.

POLITICS-INDONESIA: Hopes for Change, Fears About Military

President Suharto's nearly 33-year hold on power is near its end, say activists and Indonesia-watchers here. But as relative calm takes hold in riot-torn Jakarta, they are at odds over what will come next - and how the pivotal military will act.

POLITICS-LEBANON: Israeli PM Confirms Withdrawal Offer at UN

Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu Friday reaffirmed to U.N. Secretary-General Kofi Annan that Israel is willing to withdraw its troops from Southern Lebanon. Diplomats here and some of Israel's neighbours have doubted the seriousness of that offer.

RIGHTS-UN: Can Criminal Court Survive Without United States?

Supporters of a proposed world court, before which war crimes would be tried, face a difficult question: Can such a body succeed if the United States does not participate?

POLITICS-INDONESIA: Killings of Students Adds to Pressure on Suharto

The killings this week of six students at Jakarta's Trisakti University has fueled the drive to end the rule of President Suharto, Indonesian activists and outside supporters argue.

ART-USA: The Man of a Thousand Bizarre Faces

Looking at one of artist Chuck Close's paintings is always a distinctly unsettling experience - especially because they usually comprise realistic depictions of some of the boldest, most alienated faces ever seen.

FINANCE-ASIA: Warnings on East Asian Crisis

Although East Asia's financial crisis is "more serious and sustained than anyone first thought," the ailing economies must push ahead with deregulations, cuts in government spending and banking reforms, a new study argues.

POLITICS-UN: Annan’s Qualified Apology for Inaction in Rwanda

A qualified apology to the people of Rwanda by U.N. Secretary-General Kofi Annan, for the failure of the world body to prevent the 1994 Rwandan genocide, comes at a time when the United Nations is under fire again because of the the limitations of its peacekeeping efforts.

POLITICS-IRAQ: US Group Sends Aid in Defiance of Sanctions

In the largest act of defiance against the U.N. sanctions on Iraq, more than 100 Americans - including a former U.S. Attorney General - left for Baghdad Wednesday carrying some four million dollars' worth of medicine.

DISARMAMENT: G-8 Urged to Curb Traffic in Small Arms

U.N. officials and several human- rights and disarmament groups are pressing the Group of Eight (G- 8) industrialised nations to introduce measures at their summit this month to restrict both the legal and illicit world arms traffic.

CINEMA-USA: The United States – ‘The Big One’

Why call it the United States of America when you could use a more evocative name - like "The Big One"? Why should patriotic Americans stand for the the "Star-Spangled Banner" when the national anthem could be that catchy little number by Queen - "We Will Rock You"? ' These are just some of the questions asked by writer-director- author Michael Moore in a scrappy, affably populist way in his new quasi-documentary movie - called "The Big One" (distributed by Miramax).

CINEMA-USA: The United States – ‘The Big One’

Why call it the United States of America when you could use a more evocative name - like "The Big One"? Why should patriotic Americans stand for the the "Star-Spangled Banner" when the national anthem could be that catchy little number by Queen - "We Will Rock You"? ' These are just some of the questions asked by writer-director- author Michael Moore in a scrappy, affably populist way in his new quasi-documentary movie - called "The Big One" (distributed by Miramax).

ENVIRONMENT-US: Pressure on Washington to Sign Kyoto Protocol

The U.S. government is beginning to feel the heat after dozens of governments in the past week signed on to the Kyoto Protocol to reduce carbon emissions linked to global warming.