ENERGY: Protests Greet Nuclear Power Resurgence in US South

Residents and environmental activists are in a bitter dispute with large U.S. energy corporations and the federal government over the safety of nuclear power, as more than a dozen corporations plan to, or have filed, paperwork to open new nuclear power plants, primarily in the U.S. South.

POLITICS: Will Naval Incident Undermine Bush&#39s Iran Message?

It is by now almost routine. With recurring frequency, U.S. leaders tour the Middle East depicting Iran as the region's greatest threat.

POLITICS-US: Rice and Gates Divided over Iran’s Role in Iraq

A State Department official's assertion in late December that Iran had exerted a restraining influence on Iraqi Shiite militia violence signaled a major divergence of views between Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice and Secretary of Defence Robert Gates over how to portray Iran's role in Iraq.

CHALLENGES 2007-2008: Bush’s Twilight Year Looks Grim

If the last days of 2007 are any indication, U.S. President George W. Bush’s last year in office is shaping up as grim and lonely.

POLITICS: Bhutto’s Killing May Threaten Pakistan’s Stability

The assassination of Pakistan's opposition leader and former Prime Minister Benazir Bhutto threatens to de-stabilise a country which the United States describes as a trusted ally and a frontline fighter in the global war on terrorism.

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.

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-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.

POLITICS: U.S. Jews Tilt Rightwards on Israel

U.S. Jews appear to have become more opposed both to Israel's making key concessions in renewed peace talks with Palestinians and to the U.S. carrying out a military attack against Iran's nuclear facilities, according to the latest in an annual series of surveys of Jewish opinion released here this week by the American Jewish Committee (AJC).

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-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.

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.

IRAN: Charges Against &#39Nuclear Spy&#39 Deepen Political Split

Charges of spying for Britain persisting against former nuclear negotiator Hossein Mousavian appear to have intensified rifts within the alliance of conservatives and hardliners that made Mahmoud Ahmadinejad Iran’s President more than two years ago.

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.

ENERGY-BRAZIL: Pray, Cheer, and Do the Rain Dance to Stave Off Crisis

An energy crisis will hit Brazil in 2009 or 2010, and not even the discovery of vast undersea oil and gas reserves with "enormous potential yields," as announced by the government, can stave it off, warn experts.

AUSTRALIA: Uranium Supply to India – Hot Election Issue

Analysts say that the stalling in the Indian parliament of the India-United States civilian nuclear agreement could prove convenient for the opposition Australian Labor Party (ALP) - if it wins the Nov. 24 elections - to avoid supplying uranium to India.

POLITICS-US: The Nuclear Cowboys

What do the current Pakistani political crisis, Israel's September air strike against Syria, and Iran's continued pursuit of nuclear enrichment all have in common? All three events reflect the aggressive policies adopted by the George W. Bush administration to deal with the growing threat of nuclear proliferation.

POLITICS: Israel’s Syrian Airstrike Was Aimed at Iran

Until late October, the accepted explanation about the Sep. 6 Israeli airstrike in Syria, constructed in a series of press leaks from U.S. officials, was that it was prompted by dramatic satellite intelligence that Syria was building a nuclear facility with help from North Korea.

IRAN: Nuke Watchdog Report No Brake on Sanctions

The United Nations atomic watchdog issued a report Thursday saying that Iran had been generally truthful about key aspects of its past nuclear activities, but warned that knowledge of Tehran's programme was "diminishing".

POLITICS-US: Cheney Tried to Stifle Dissent in Iran NIE

A National Intelligence Estimate (NIE) on Iran has been held up for more than a year in an effort to force the intelligence community to remove dissenting judgments on the Iranian nuclear programme, and thus make the document more supportive of U.S. Vice President Dick Cheney's militarily aggressive policy toward Iran, according to accounts of the process provided by participants to two former Central Intelligence Agency officers.