POLITICS-US: McCain's VP Pick Seen as High-Stakes Gamble

Republican presidential candidate Sen. John McCain stunned the political establishment Friday by choosing as his running-mate the little-known Alaska governor with virtually no national, let alone international, experience.

POLITICS-US: Election Stirs Hopes and Fears Among Iraqis in U.S.

As the November election nears, Iraqis in the United States appear divided over their preferences for the next U.S. president, according to a series of interviews carried out by IPS.

POLITICS-US: Democrats Vow to Unite and Conquer

With Sen. Barack Obama's formal anointing as the first African American presidential nominee of a major political party in U.S. history, delegates to the 2008 Democratic National Convention in Denver say Obama can win in November on universal issues like the economy and health care.

POLITICS-US: Women Take the Platform at Dem Convention

From the party platform ratified by delegates between speeches Monday, to primetime, headlining speeches by two heavy hitters in the election - Sen. Hillary Clinton and first-lady hopeful Michelle Obama - the initial two days of the Democratic National Convention were dominated by women.

ECONOMY-US: Activists Target Corporate Chiefs' Tax Subsidies

U.S. taxpayers shell out 20 billion dollars a year to pad business chiefs' earnings and to prop up the world's most lopsided corporate pay scales, say activists seeking to highlight inequality in this election year.

POLITICS-US: Biden Helps Obama Plug Key Gaps in Electorate

In picking six-term Senator Joseph Biden as his vice presidential running-mate, Sen. Barack Obama hopes to plug some key gaps in the electoral constituencies whose support he hopes will send him to the White House in the November elections just 10 weeks from now.

POLITICS-US: McCain’s Plan to Privatise Veterans’ Health Care

If John McCain is elected the next U.S. president, wounded veterans could be in for a world of hurt.

POLITICS-US: Anti-Obama Echo Chamber in Full Swing

Right-wing groups are stepping up their campaign against Democratic presidential candidate Barack Obama, with two new books on the best-seller lists, another on the verge of publication, and a full-length documentary that will premiere during the party conventions later this month.

POLITICS-US: One-Fifth of Iraq Funding Paid to Contractors

As a new report forecasts that the 190,000 private contractors in Iraq and neighbouring countries will cost U.S. taxpayers more than 100 billion dollars by the end of 2008, an under-the-radar Florida court case suggests that U.S. President George W. Bush - a staunch contractor supporter - is preparing to throw security contractors such as Blackwater under the political bus.

POLITICS: U.S. Debates Putin’s Ambitions

Just days after the outbreak of war between Russia and Georgia, the debate in Washington over how to view the crisis historically has become nearly as contentious as the debate over how to respond politically.

POLITICS-US: No Traction in the Middle East

More than five years after invading Iraq as a first step towards "transforming" the Middle East, the administration of U.S. President George W. Bush seems to have lost its footing - let alone its unquestioned domination - throughout the region.

POLITICS-US: Marketing Obama to Evangelicals

For the past three decades, the religious right has dominated the religio- political dialogue in the United States. The right’s growth, and its agenda - which revolved around so-called traditional family values issues including, but not limited to, opposition to abortion and full equality for gays and lesbians - was pursued on two tracks: they built multi-million dollar political and media enterprises, and they made themselves an indispensable force within the Republican Party.

POLITICS-US: Faith in a Time of War

From Republican contender John McCain's Jul. 25 meeting with the Dalai Lama in Aspen, Colorado to Democratic candidate Barack Obama's visit to Jerusalem's Western Wall the same day, the intersection of religion, politics and the "war on terror" has been a recurrent theme in the 2008 U.S. presidential election.

BOOKS-US: A Path Out of the Wilderness

Helena Cobban's new book, "Re-Engage! America and the World After Bush", is not aimed at a target audience of officials, policy wonks and Washington elite think-tank types. So much is clear from a tagline running across the bottom of the cover: "An informed citizen's guide."

POLITICS: Will U.S. Soften Stance on Nuclear Arsenal?

A rollercoaster ride of spurned treaties, efforts to fund new weapons and the expansion of potential targets for nuclear strikes under the George W. Bush administration to include Iran and North Korea may be drawing to a close after eight years.

POLITICS-US: Voter Laws Need Reform, Groups Say

One of her sons is serving in the U.S. Army in Iraq while another who has just turned 18 is about to join the Navy. Yet despite being a mother of two U.S. soldiers, Annette McWashington Pruitt cannot cast her ballot in the upcoming presidential polls because the laws in her home state of Alabama do not allow ex-felons to participate in elections.

POLITICS-US: My Big, Fat Geek Voter Drive

Few events elicit the passion evident at the International Comic Con convention, as fanboys and gals descended upon San Diego over the weekend, braving long lines to marvel at the latest creations of their long-standing heroes.

MIDEAST: In Israel, Obama Looks to Votes Back Home

Lighting a remembrance flame at the Yad Vashem Holocaust memorial. Speaking against the backdrop of a pile of empty rocket casings in the southern town of Sderot. Standing solemnly, face close to the stones of the Western Wall in Jerusalem.

EUROPE: Germans Love Obama – For Now

The extraordinary enthusiasm with which Germans greeted U.S. presidential candidate Barack Obama in Berlin Thursday may have concealed a fear: once the presidency of George W. Bush ends, Germans might be forced to close ranks with the U.S. and go back to playing the role of military junior partner of a superpower at war.

POLITICS-US: Latino Voters Heavily Favour Obama

Democratic Sen. Barack Obama is preferred by a nearly a three-to-one margin over his Republican rival, Sen. John McCain, among Latinos who are registered to vote, according to a major new poll released Thursday by the Pew Hispanic Centre.

US/IRAQ: McCain Knee-Capped by Al-Maliki

This weekend's surprise endorsement by Prime Minister Nouri al-Maliki of Sen. Barack Obama's call for U.S. combat forces to leave Iraq by mid-2010 marks a serious setback to Sen. John McCain, who has tried hard to depict his Democratic rival as "naïve" on foreign policy, especially with respect to Iraq.