POLITICS-US: Losing Arab Allies’ Hearts and Minds

Attitudes towards the United States reached new lows through most of the Arab world over the past year, according to the findings of a major new survey of five Arab countries released here Thursday by Zogby International and the Arab American Institute (AAI).

POLITICS-US: Public Ever More Pessimistic on Iraq War

The findings of a spate of polls taken since last week's release of the Iraq Study Group's (ISG) recommendations for U.S. policy show a sharp drop in public confidence both in President George W. Bush's handling of the war and in the chances that the U.S. will prevail there.

POLITICS: U.S. Weighed Sunni Offer to “Clean Up” Militias

U.S. Ambassador Zalmay Khalilzad negotiated with Sunni armed groups for several weeks earlier this year on an agreement that would have supported Sunni forces in attacking pro-Iranian Shiite militias, according to accounts given by commanders of armed Sunni resistance organisations.

POLITICS-US: Public Found Likely to Support Baker Report

With the administration of President George W. Bush under mounting pressure to alter U.S. strategy in Iraq and the Middle East, a new public opinion survey quietly released this week found strong popular support for pursuing new diplomatic avenues as proposed by the bipartisan Iraq Study Group (ISG).

IRAQ: Kurds Reject U.S. Study Group’s Report

In a strongly worded statement, the president of Iraq's northern Kurdistan region rejected in its entirety the report by the Iraq Study Group, and threatened that Kurds would opt for secession from Iraq should Washington try to implement some of the key recommendations of the report regarding Kirkuk, federalism and the constitution.

POLITICS-US: ISG Report Faces Uncertain Future

One day after its official release, the package of 79 recommendations on U.S. Iraq and Middle East policy released Wednesday by the bipartisan Iraq Study Group (ISG) faced a very uncertain future.

POLITICS-US: Baker Group Urges Major Policy Overhaul

Calling the situation in Iraq "grave and deteriorating," the bipartisan Iraq Study Group (ISG) Wednesday urged a major overhaul of U.S. policies both in Iraq and the larger Middle East.

POLITICS-US: Neo-Cons Move to Preempt Baker Report

To have read the neo-conservative press here over the past month, one would think that former Secretary of State James Baker poses the biggest threat to the United States and Israel since Saddam Hussein.

POLITICS: U.S. Envoy’s Abrasiveness Failed Him at U.N.

As one critic mockingly remarked, the outgoing U.S. Ambassador to the United Nations John Bolton would have done better as an architect or an urban planner than an international diplomat.

RIGHTS-US: Near-Total Isolation Sought for Guantanamo

As the new Democratic Party majority in the U.S. Congress considers whether to revisit the Military Commissions Act of 2006 (MCA), the administration of President George W. Bush is proposing still more restrictions on detainees in U.S. custody.

POLITICS-US: Bolton Resigns in New Defeat for Hawks

In a new blow to the dwindling number of hawks in top administration positions, U.S. President George W. Bush Monday accepted the resignation of his ambassador to the United Nations, John Bolton.

POLITICS-US: Conservative Evangelicals Stayed the Course

Top shelf conservative Christian evangelicals, Republican political leaders, and a host of right-wing pundits, columnists and radio and television talk show hosts have just about finished hashing out the whys and wherefores of election 2006's "thumpin'."

POLITICS-US: Rice&#39s Iran Strategy Fizzles, Cheney Waits in Wings

U.S. Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice's months-long diplomatic effort to get five other powers to agree to a tough United Nations Security Council resolution on sanctions against Iran now seems certain to fail, because of Russian and Chinese resistance.

POLITICS-US: Bush Seems Determined to Stay the Course

Despite a growing and virtually universal consensus both here and abroad that the United States must engage Syria and Iran if it hopes to stabilise Iraq, U.S. President George W. Bush appears determined to ignore Baghdad's two key neighbours as long as possible.

POLITICS-US: Spying Won’t Deter Us, Peace Groups Say

A coalition of U.S. peace groups are pressing ahead with plans for what they hope will be a massive march on Washington Jan. 27, even though newly released documents show the antiwar community is under Pentagon surveillance.

SOMALIA: U.S.-Backed U.N. Resolution Risks Wider War

Fearful that Islamist forces are transforming Somalia into a safe haven for al Qaeda, the administration of U.S. President George W. Bush is pushing a new U.N. Security Council resolution that experts here believe could well spark a wider war in the Horn of Africa.

BOOKS-US: Former Prosecutor Imagines Bush’s Judgment Day

The scene is a U.S. federal grand jury room. There, impaneled ordinary citizens listen intently as a veteran federal prosecutor asks them to return an indictment unique in U.S. history.

POLITICS: Argentine Report Casts Doubt on Iran Role in &#3994 Bomb

The report by Argentine prosecutors in support of the arrest warrants just issued for seven former Iranian officials for the 1994 terror bombing of a Jewish community centre in Buenos Aires reveals that Argentina was continuing to provide Iran with low-grade enriched uranium and the two countries were in serious negotiations on broader nuclear cooperation when the bombing occurred.

DEATH PENALTY: Russians Say Spare Saddam’s Life

Russian politicians and Muslim leaders here have thrown their weight against the death sentence handed down early this month to Saddam Hussein, and suggest that an independent, international tribunal be set up to retry the former Iraqi president.

FILM-IRAQ: A Glimpse of Life Under Occupation

The most honoured film about the Iraq war is opening at theaters across the United States this month.

POLITICS: Ideology Widening Muslim-West Divide

The key reasons for the growing divide between Muslim and Western societies are not religious but political, concludes a report presented to U.N. Secretary-General Kofi Annan Monday in Istanbul, Turkey.