POLITICS-US: Obama Weighs Options as Afghan War Enters Ninth Year

On the eighth anniversary of the launch of U.S. military operations in Afghanistan, President Barack Obama spent a good part of Wednesday deliberating with his top advisers on what is likely to be one of the most momentous decisions of his tenure: the future of U.S. involvement in that war.

POLITICS-US: Democrats Disgruntled as Obama Fails to Deliver

Since before taking office, U.S. President Barack Obama has been no stranger to being in the crosshairs of Republican pundits who have accused him of everything from bring a "secret communist" to a tax-and-spend liberal who would oversee huge expansions in the federal government.

CLIMATE CHANGE: Firms Divided Over Obama’s Emissions Cuts

Momentum is building in Washington for an overhaul of climate policy, with President Barack Obama signing an executive order Monday directing federal agencies to monitor their greenhouse gas emissions and set targets to reduce their emissions by 2020.

US-PAKISTAN: Congress Approves Big Increase in Aid

While the foreign policy debate here has focused primarily on Afghanistan and Iran over the past two weeks, official Washington has been moving to tighten ties with a key neighbour of both countries, Pakistan.

US-IRAN: Geneva Talks Seen as Potential Breakthrough

While experts here are being deliberately tentative in their assessments of Thursday's meeting in Geneva between Iran and the five permanent members of the U.N. Security Council and Germany (P5+1), there appears to be a growing sense that the results could lay the basis for a long-sought diplomatic breakthrough.

POLITICS: U.N. Session Marked by Highs and Lows

The two-week long high-level segment of the U.N. General Assembly, which concluded last week, was characterised by historic moments, political controversies, and at times, routine boredom.

IRAN: Non-Western Big Powers Enjoy Growing Influence

Thursday's seven-party talks in Geneva on Iran's nuclear programme resulted in a breakthrough agreement on Russian enrichment of materials Tehran needs for nuclear-medical work.

POLITICS: New Doubt Cast on U.S. Claim Qom Plant is Illicit

An Iranian assertion that construction on its second enrichment facility began only last year and further analysis of satellite photos of the site have cast fresh doubts on the Barack Obama administration's charge that the construction of the plant near Qom involved a covert decision to violate Iran's obligations to report immediately to the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) on any decision to build a new facility.

POLITICS-US: Nukes Agency Pushes New Bomb Production

Despite statements by U.S. President Barack Obama that he wants to see the world reduce, and eventually eliminate nuclear weapons, the U.S. Department of Energy's National Nuclear Security Administration continues to push forward on a programme called Complex Modernisation, which would expand two existing nuclear plants to allow them to produce new plutonium pits and new bomb parts out of enriched uranium for use in a possible new generation of nuclear bombs.

HONDURAS: Crackdown Prompts International Outcry

Honduras's de facto government under the leadership of Roberto Micheletti is coming under increasing international pressure to restore civil liberties, reopen closed television stations, and negotiate a solution to the coup crisis that was brought to a head by the clandestine return of Honduran President Manuel Zelaya, who has been taking refuge in the Brazilian embassy in Tegucigalpa for the past week.

U.S.: Fears of Blame for Defeat Shadow Afghan War Meetings

In a remarkable parallel with a similar turning point in the Vietnam War 44 years ago, President Barack Obama will preside over a series of meetings in the coming weeks that will determine whether the United States will proceed with an escalation of the Afghanistan War or adjust the strategy to reduce the U.S. military commitment there.

US-MIDEAST: A Week of Dimming Peace Prospects

Eight months after Barack Obama launched his presidency by promising a speedy push for Palestinian-Israeli peace, that effort has stalled badly. And there are now growing fears that the top levels of Obama's peace team are torn by internal disagreements that may undermine the whole peace effort.

POLITICS: Obama Seeks U.N. Backing for Nuke-Free World

When Barack Obama chaired a summit meeting of the Security Council Thursday - a historic first for a U.S. president - his primary motive was to push for his ambitious, long-term agenda for "a world without nuclear weapons".

POLITICS: Obama's Deal-Making Skills Tested at U.N., G20

U.S. President Barack Obama will make his way Thursday from the U.N. General Assembly in New York to "Steel City" – Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania - to host the G20 Summit in what has been billed as a week that will put his ability to lead in the international arena to its fullest test.

POLITICS: "World Must Move In a New Direction," Obama Tells U.N.

Is the United States willing to give up its role as the world's most powerful cop? The message delivered by U.S. President Barack Obama to the U.N. General Assembly suggests that it's quite likely.

US-MIDEAST: Has Netanyahu Out-Manoeuvred Obama or Vice Versa?

While Israeli officials claimed a major win in U.S. President Barack Obama's decision to shelve his long-held demand for a freeze on Israeli settlements on the West Bank and East Jerusalem, some analysts here believe it may yet prove a Pyrrhic victory for the hard-line government of Prime Minister Binyamin Netanyahu.

IRAN: Poll Finds Public Support for Nuke Power over Weapons

A poll released Tuesday shows that Iranians are still strongly in favour of continuing their government's nuclear programme, but are open to compromises which would permit uranium enrichment while allowing international inspectors access to ensure that no bomb-making activities are taking place if sanctions are dropped.

ENVIRONMENT: Japan, China Pledge to Act on Climate Change

When the one-day summit meeting on climate change ended late Tuesday, only Japan and China were singled out for their concrete commitments to battle one of the world's biggest environmental challenges.

US-CUBA: Five Decades of an Admittedly Failed Policy

U.S. citizens of Cuban descent are once again free to travel to Cuba and send an unlimited amount of money to their relatives on the island, but for the most part U.S. policy toward the communist nation hasn't changed under President Barack Obama.

POLITICS: Obama to Prioritise Africa During U.N. Visit

When Barack Obama visits the United Nations on three consecutive days this week - a rare gesture by a U.S. president - he will be addressing delegates on subjects ranging from climate change and peacekeeping to nuclear non-proliferation and the global financial crisis.

AFGHANISTAN: Media Outrage Over Coalition Killing of Reporter

For many Afghans, slain Afghan journalist Sultan Munadi has become a symbol for all that is wrong with the United States-led war in Afghanistan.