SOUTH ASIA: Indo-US Nuclear Deal Sows Resentment, Rivalry

Just as the nuclear cooperation agreement between the United States and India receives a major boost in Washington with the House of Representatives strongly voting for it, the deal continues to face flak in India's own Parliament.

POLITICS-US: Mideast Conflict Boosts Chances of Iran-US Showdown

The week-old Israeli-Hezbollah conflict is likely to boost the chances of U.S. military action against Iran, according to a number of regional experts who see a broad consensus among the U.S. political elite that the ongoing hostilities are part of a broader offensive being waged by Tehran against Washington across the region.

G8 SUMMIT: U.S., Russia, In New Nuclear Agreement

After the decades of a nuclear standoff during the Cold War, the United States and Russia, the biggest remnant of the old Soviet Union, are now moving towards nuclear cooperation.

POLITICS: Energised Neo-Cons Say Israel’s Fight Is Washington’s

Seeing a major opportunity to regain influence lost as a result of setbacks in Iraq, prominent neo-conservatives are calling for unconditional U.S. support for Israel's military offensives in Gaza and Lebanon and "regime change" in Syria and Iran, as well as possible U.S. attacks on Tehran's nuclear facilities in retaliation for its support of Hezbollah.

/REPEAT/POLITICS-US: Cowboy Diplomacy Is Not Dead Yet

"We don't negotiate with evil; we defeat it."

MIDEAST: Israel Readies for Iran Showdown by Attacking Lebanon

As the fighting between Israel and the Hezbollah persists, an Israeli strategy of enlarging the conflict seems to be crystallising.

IRAN: Poll Suggests Strong Nationalism, Anti-U.S. Sentiment

While only one in four Iranians believe that developing nuclear weapons should be their government's most important long-term goal, more than half say that economic hardship should not deter the country from pursuing its nuclear programme, according to a new survey released here Thursday.

POLITICS-CHINA: Displeased but Unlikely to Pressure Pyongyang

China might be North Korea's largest trade and economic partner but expectations that Beijing would exert influence over the reclusive regime of North Korean leader Kim Jong-Il and succeed in persuading him to abandon its nuclear ambitions, are misplaced, observers here say, not the least because of China's own agenda with Pyongyang that doesn't always dovetail with the goals of international community.

POLITICS-MIDEAST: Bush Faces Major Choice Amid Escalation

The sudden opening Wednesday by Lebanon's Hezbollah militia of a second front in Israel's ongoing campaign against Hamas militants in Gaza presents the administration of U.S. President George W. Bush with an escalating crisis that, until now, it has preferred to ignore.

POLITICS: U.N. Action in Gaza, North Korea Stalled by Veto Threats

The 15-member Security Council, the only U.N. body wielding power to impose mandatory sanctions on the organisation's 192 member states, is unable to help contain two ongoing crises primarily because of threatened vetoes by China and the United States.

POLITICS: No Evidence of Secret Enrichment by Iran

U.S. and European officials have been saying for years that Iran is using its publicly declared nuclear programme as a cover for a clandestine nuclear weapons programme, but has never produced concrete evidence to support that argument.

TECHNOLOGY-INDIA: Exposed by Dud Missile, Space Vehicle Crash

The failure in rapid succession, this week, of a satellite launcher and a new ballistic missile have shown up the technological and budgetary difficulties faced by India's space establishment - civilian and military.

POLITICS-JAPAN: N. Korean Missiles Tense Up Neighbourhood

While North Korea's missile launches this week were not targeted at any particular country, analysts say the reactions in neighbouring countries have been such as to sow the seeds of tension that will linger on.

POLITICS-US: Requiem for Bush’s Unipolar Dream?

A week before the Group of Eight (G8) summit in St. Petersburg, Russia, U.S. President George W. Bush finds his power and authority - both at home and abroad - at their lowest ebb.

POLITICS: N. Korean Missiles May Ease Indo-US Nuclear Deal

After the successful passage, last week, of two resolutions favouring the Indo-United States nuclear deal through the foreign relations committees of both chambers of Congress, it appears highly likely that it will clear the full Senate and House of Representatives.

NORTH KOREA: Will Missile Tests Lead to New Talks?

Although it may raise regional tensions in the short run, Wednesday's test-firing by North Korea of at least seven missiles, including its multi-stage, inter-continental Taepodong-2 rocket, could speed resumption of long-stalled diplomatic efforts to curb Pyongyang's nuclear-arms programme, according to some experts here.

POLITICS: Israel Fears High Price for U.S. Strike on Iran

Israel has seldom been as quiet on Iran as in the last three months.

POLITICS: German Urges Compromise on Iran Enrichment

German Defence Minister Franz Josef Jung's suggestion that Iran should be allowed to carry out a limited enrichment programme under the supervision of the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) has exposed a fundamental crack in the façade of unity among the six countries that have given Iran a proposal aimed at halting all its enrichment activities.

IRAN: Civil Society Feels Conservatives’ Wrath

Nearly a year has gone by since Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad came to office, and his establishment is continuing to suppress civil society, intimidate the press and arrest activists.

POLITICS: Indo-US Nuclear Deal Clears First Hurdle

With the House International Relations Committee (HIRC) of the United States House of Representatives gaining overwhelming bipartisan support for a draft bill to allow resumption of civilian nuclear commerce between India and the U.S., the path is clearer for the controversial nuclear deal signed a year ago between President George W. Bush and Prime Minister Manmohan Singh.

POLITICS: Defying U.S. Deadline, Iran Recalls 2005 Stall

Iran's announcement that it will not respond to the formal negotiating offer from the six powers until late August was both an expression of confidence and a bit of payback for European stalling in responding to Iran in 2005.