MIDEAST: U.S. Policy in Gaza Remains Unchanged

One year ago Thursday, the last Israeli tanks were lumbering out of the Gaza Strip, ending the 22-day Gaza War and leaving in their wake a decimated landscape and population.

U.S.: Clinton Criticises China over Internet Censorship

U.S. Secretary of State Hillary Clinton delivered a speech Thursday laying out the Barack Obama administration's position on internet freedom, and publicly called on Chinese authorities to investigate the security breaches which preceded last week's decision by Google to end its cooperation with Chinese internet censorship.

U.S.: Court Overturns Limits on Corporate Election Money

In a decision with profound implications for the U.S. political system, a bare majority of the Supreme Court Thursday ruled that the government cannot limit spending by corporations on advertisements in support of individual political candidates in federal elections.

RIGHTS: U.S. Names Bagram Prisoners, Withholds Details

After years of stonewalling, the U.S. Defence Department has released the names of people imprisoned at the notorious Bagram Air Base in Afghanistan.

POLITICS-US: By-election Seen as Rebuke to Obama

Tuesday's loss by the Democrats of their 60th Senate seat has raised serious questions about the outlook for the White House's policy agenda and spurred a rash of finger-pointing among Democrats over who bears responsibility for the very public rebuke issued by Massachusetts voters.

RIGHTS: Defenders Under Sustained Attack Worldwide

Abusive governments around the world escalated their attacks against local human rights defenders and other independent monitors during 2009, according to the 2010 edition of Human Rights Watch's annual 'World Report' released here Wednesday.

ARTS: Cuban Musicians Resuming U.S. Performances

New York City recently hosted its first Cuban band in five years, after the group Septeto Nacional became the first to win a visa that allowed it to accept a booking there.

U.S.: Obama Urged to Grant Haitians “Protected Status”

As U.S. and international relief efforts chugged toward Haiti Thursday, U.S. President Barack Obama announced an immediate investment of 100 million dollars in the relief efforts underway following Tuesday's devastating earthquake.

POLITICS: Okinawa Air Base a Thorn in U.S.-Japan Ties

U.S. Secretary of State Hillary Clinton is traveling in the South Pacific this week on a trip to strengthen the longtime U.S. alliances with Australia, work to improve relations with New Zealand and to bring some forward momentum to U.S.-Japanese negotiations over the controversial relocation of the U.S. air station in Okinawa.

POLITICS: U.S. Citizens View Obama as Strong on Security

Opinion polls by two major U.S. television networks show that the majority of the country's citizens have faith in President Barack Obama's ability to protect them from "future acts of terrorism".

U.S.: World’s Most Controversial Prison Enters Ninth Year

As the world marked the beginning of the ninth year of detention at the U.S. Navy base at Guantánamo Bay, Cuba on Monday, a leading legal advocacy group filed suit against the Library of Congress for firing Guantanamo's former chief prosecutor for writing articles criticising the use of military commissions to try suspected terrorists.

SUDAN: U.S. Voices Growing Concern over North-South Accord

U.S. and other Western officials expressed growing concern Friday over the fate of the peace accord signed five years ago this week by Khartoum and the Sudan People's Liberation Movement (SPLM).

RIGHTS-US: Afghan Prisoners Challenge Indefinite Detention

While the unsuccessful attempt to bring down a Detroit-bound airliner on Christmas day captured the headlines and put major political roadblocks in the path of prisoner release from Guantanamo Bay, the courts – far more quietly - continued to play a major role in influencing the detention issue.

RIGHTS: Groups Protest “Profiling” at U.S. Airports

Civil liberties advocates and organisations representing Muslims believe the Barack Obama administration's decision to require extra scrutiny for travelers to the U.S. from 14 predominantly Islamic countries will lead to practices that are discriminatory and ineffective.

MEDIA-US: Afghanistan Dominated TV Foreign News in 2009

Afghanistan and the U.S. military escalation in the civil war there dominated foreign-related news coverage by the three major U.S. television networks in 2009, according to the latest annual review by the authoritative Tyndall Report.

DEVELOPMENT: Clinton Lays Out U.S. Strategy

Secretary of State Hillary Clinton Wednesday pledged to make development, along with defence and diplomacy, "a central pillar" of U.S. foreign policy and results, rather than ideology, a guiding principle in devising development policy.

YEMEN: U.S. Poised to Increase Aid

In the wake of a botched Christmas Day airliner bombing claimed by al Qaeda in the Arabian Peninsula (AQAP), the direction of what used to be called the "global war on terror" settled on Yemen this week, with the United States slated to escalate economic and military assistance to the country's beleaguered government.

US-LATAM: More Continuity Than Change

Nearly one year after his inauguration, hopes that President Barack Obama would bring fundamental changes to U.S. relations with Latin American have faded badly.

RIGHTS-US: Yemeni Detainees Caught in Bomb Backlash

In the wake of the failed attempt to blow up a Detroit-bound airliner on Christmas day, legal experts and human rights advocates are pushing back against calls from politicians to halt the planned release of prisoners from Guantanamo Bay to their home country, Yemen.

POLITICS: U.S. Arms Feed Yemen’s Gun Culture

When Yemen refused to vote in support of a U.S.-sponsored Security Council resolution against Iraq during the 1990-1991 Gulf War, a visibly angry U.S. delegate turned to the Yemeni diplomat and said: "That will be the last time you will ever vote against a U.S. resolution."

U.S.: Digging Out or Digging Deeper?

As 2009 draws to a close, the big question here is whether President Barack Obama is succeeding in digging out of the hole – international as well as financial - that he inherited from George W. Bush or digging deeper into it.