POLITICS-US: Bush Shielding of Musharraf Policy at Risk

The growing crisis over Islamic extremism in Pakistan is drawing attention to the complicity of that country's military government in the rise of the biggest haven for Islamic terrorism in the world.

HEALTH-US: Troubled Soldier Gets Demoted, Not Treated

Cody Miranda joined the U.S. Marine Corps when he was 17 years old. He loved the military and hoped to spend his entire career in the service.

POLITICS-US: Bush’s al Qaeda Problem

As U.S. President George W. Bush's military adventure flounders in Iraq, his administration appears to be increasingly depicting the conflict as a struggle between the U.S.-led Coalition forces and the archetypal terrorist threat posed by the shadowy "radicals and extremists" of al Qaeda, often to the exclusion of other political actors in the mainly Sunni insurgency.

RIGHTS: Torture Routine in Kurdish Jails, Report Charges

Kurdistan's security forces, attached to the two largest political parties in the region yet out of the control of the government's Interior Ministry, routinely torture detainees and deny their due process rights, according to a report released by Human Rights Watch Tuesday.

POLITICS-US: Bush Presidency Enters Terminal Phase

There may be moments during their summit at his family's compound in Kennebunkport, Maine when U.S. President George W. Bush looks with envy on his Russian counterpart, Vladimir Putin, whose popularity at home guarantees him vast influence even as he prepares to leave office just nine months from now.

DEVELOPMENT: Uneven Results Forecast for Millennium Goals

The world's 22 rich nations, comprising the Paris-based Organisation for Economic Cooperation and Development (OECD), grudgingly doled out about 104 billion dollars in official development assistance (ODA) to the world's poorer nations in 2006.

US-IRAQ: Blackwater Blues for Dead Contractors’ Families

Ten years ago, Erik Prince, the son of a conservative multi-millionaire, founded the security consulting firm Blackwater USA.

POLITICS: U.N. Unveils Plan for Peacekeepers in Somalia

The United Nations is preparing a contingency plan for a possible 20,000-strong new peacekeeping force in one of the political hotspots in the Horn of Africa: Somalia.

RIGHTS-US: Good Enough to Serve, Not to Stay

The wife of a U.S. soldier missing in action in Iraq remains in legal limbo this week, even after the Department of Homeland security dropped deportation proceedings against her.

POLITICS: U.S. Image Abroad Still Sinking

Consistent with its performance since at least 2002, the global image of the United States sank further over the past year, particularly among predominantly Muslim countries in the Middle East and Asia, according to the latest Pew Global Attitudes Project (GAP) survey released here Wednesday.

POLITICS-US: Congress to Curb Bush Enthusiasm for Abbas

U.S. President George W. Bush threw his full support behind President Mahmoud Abbas of the Palestinian Authority (PA) last week, declaring the Fatah leader "the president of all the Palestinians."

POLITICS-US: Bush Suffers More Defections on Iraq

In a potentially significant setback to U.S. President George W. Bush's efforts to sustain Republican support for his "surge" in Iraq, three key senators this week have called on the White House to revise U.S. strategy there before September.

IRAQ: Women Resist Return to Sectarian Laws

As Iraq struggles to define its future, there is one important group that has been largely left out of the process: women.

POLITICS-US: Neo-cons Spinning Hearts and Minds

As the George W. Bush administration struggles through its last two years in office, it appears that the agenda of neoconservative ideologues has finally lost its appeal among strategic parts of the U.S. foreign policy apparatus.

FILM: U.S. Military’s ‘Don’t Ask’ Policy and One Gay Marine

Jeff Key grew up in a small, conservative community in rural Alabama in the south-east United States. A large man standing well over six feet tall, he had already come out as gay to his friends and family, graduated with a degree in theatre, and moved to Los Angeles when, at age 34, he decided to join the Marine Corps.

MIDEAST: Will Bush/Blair Intensify Peace Efforts?

Reports that U.S. President George W. Bush has asked outgoing British Prime Minister Tony Blair to act as the Quartet's special envoy for Middle East peace are adding to speculation that Washington plans to intensify peace efforts between Israel and the Palestinians, despite last week's takeover of Gaza by Hamas.

U.S.-IRAN: New Arms Claim Reveals Cheney-Military Rift

In a development that underlines the tensions between the anti-Iran agenda of the George W. Bush administration and the preoccupation of its military command in Afghanistan with militant Sunni activism, a State Department official publicly accused Iran for the first time of arming the Taliban forces last week, but the U.S. commander of NATO forces in Afghanistan rejected that charge for the second time in less than two weeks.

IRAQ: Sceptical After Second Shrine Attack

The second bombing of the Shiite shrine of al-Askari in Samarra, Iraq, last week brought reprisal attacks, but it also brought solidarity against the occupiers.

POLITICS-US: Appeal for a “Just Security” Foreign Policy

Insisting that U.S. foreign policy of the past six years has clearly failed, a left-leaning Washington think tank is calling for the adoption of a comprehensive new approach to international relations called "Just Security" in which the U.S. would act "as a global partner, not a global boss."

IRAQ: What Next After Samarra Bombing?

Iraq is again haunted by the ghosts of Samarra, with last week's attack on the Shia-revered al-Askari mosque raising fears that it could touch off a new wave of sectarian violence in a country already crippled by large-scale violence and political crisis.

POLITICS-US: Bush Faces Crises from Palestine to Pakistan

Four years after the emergence of the first signs of a serious insurgency in Iraq, U.S. President George W. Bush finds himself beset with major crises stretching from Palestine to Pakistan.