POLITICS: Argentine Report Casts Doubt on Iran Role in ’94 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.

ELECTIONS-US: Antiwar Voters May Get Less Than They Bargained For

Democratic majorities in both the U.S. House of Representatives and Senate, and the resignation of Donald Rumsfeld as defence secretary, will not necessarily mean major changes for the war in Iraq, analysts say.

POLITICS-US: Iran Is Key to Course Change on Iraq

Two political earthquakes hit the United States this week. On Tuesday, the Democrats took control of Congress, and the following day, Defence Secretary Donald Rumsfeld was replaced by Robert Gates, a member of the senior Bush's foreign policy team.

POLITICS: US Foreign Policy Set to Change Dramatically

The abrupt replacement of Pentagon chief, Donald Rumsfeld, by former Central Intelligence Agency (CIA) director Robert Gates, combined with the Democratic sweep in Tuesday's mid-term elections, appears to signal major changes in United States foreign policy, particularly in the Middle East.

POLITICS-US: Democrats Drub Republicans, Face Own Tests

Come January, Democrats will control one and possibly both houses of the U.S. Congress for the first time in more than a decade after voters snubbed President George W. Bush's Republican Party and prompted Defence Secretary Donald Rumsfeld to quit his embattled post.

POLITICS: Gulf Security Hinges on Axis of Realpolitik

As the sectarian conflict in Iraq escalates, along with stepped up attacks on U.S. troops and civilians, Dr. Houchang E. Chehabi, an international relations professor at Boston University and expert on Persian Gulf issues, says Iran could step in to stabilise Iraq - if offered an incentive to do so.

U.S./IRAQ: A Convenient Verdict?

Saddam Hussein doesn't have many friends here, but the death sentence handed down Sunday against the former Iraqi president has invited accusations that the announcement was timed to influence the U.S. congressional elections set for Tuesday, only two days after the verdict.

POLITICS-US: Documentary Blasts Iraq War Profiteering

With just four days to go before the U.S. mid-term congressional elections, the director of a scathing new documentary about the outsourcing of personnel and supplies for the Iraq war says he hopes audiences will view it "as a tool for discussion".

POLITICS-US: Neo-Con Nadir?

Less than a week from mid-term elections that are expected to bring at least one house of Congress under Democratic control, neo-conservatives, whose foreign policy ideas dominated most of the first half of the administration of George W. Bush, are having a hard time.

POLITICS-US: Republicans Spring a New “Winning” Strategy

In the final days before the November elections, George W. Bush administration surrogates have taken to asking whoever they are conversing with about the Iraq war, "Do you want us to win in Iraq?"

POLITICS-US: Hillary Urges Talks with Syria, Iran, North Korea

In a major policy address, Sen. Hillary Clinton Tuesday called for a "sea change" in U.S. foreign policy that would include direct talks with Syria, Iran and North Korea and greater U.S. engagement in promoting peace between Israel and the Palestinians.

POLITICS-US: Jews Give Bush, Republicans Failing Grades

Despite Republican efforts, led by President George W. Bush, to align the party squarely behind the policies of successive right-wing governments in Israel, U.S. Jews are expected to vote overwhelmingly for Democratic candidates in next week's elections.

POLITICS-US: Belafonte on Thinking Outside the Ballot Box

Legendary musician and social justice activist Harry Belafonte grew up on the streets of Harlem, New York and Jamaica. After serving in World War II, he returned to New York and began a successful acting and singing career.

POLITICS-US: Bush Under Growing Pressure to Engage Syria

While U.S. President George W. Bush appeared this week to reject suggestions that Washington directly engage the government of Syrian President Bashar al-Assad, pressure both here and in the region for Washington to work out some accommodation with Damascus is rising.

MIDEAST: 50 Years After Suez, U.S. Hegemony Ebbing Fast

As the Middle East prepares to mark the 50th anniversary on Oct. 29 of the Suez Crisis that effectively ended European colonialism, a half century of U.S. hegemony in the region also appears to be coming to an end, according to a growing number of analysts here.

POLITICS-US/IRAQ: “It’s Time to Step Out”

For the first time since the U.S. invasion of Iraq in 2003, active-duty members of the military are asking members of Congress to end the occupation of Iraq and bring U.S. soldiers home.

RIGHTS: Complaints Mount at U.S. Fortress in Iraq

Several months before a U.S. construction foreman named John Owen would quit in disgust over what he said was blatant abuse of foreign labourers hired to build the sprawling new U.S. embassy in Baghdad, Rory Mayberry would witness similar events when he flew to Kuwait from his home in Myrtle Creek, Oregon.

IRAQ: Labour Laws Trampled at New US Embassy, Ex-Foreman Says

Things began looking sketchier than ever to John Owen as he boarded a nondescript white jet on his way back to Iraq in March 2005 following some downtime in Kuwait City.

POLITICS-US: Muslim and Arab Americans Ditch Republicans

Increasingly disillusioned with more than five years of the "global war on terror", Arab- and Muslim-American voters are poised to vote heavily Democratic in the Nov. 7 mid-term elections, according to two polls released this week.

IRAQ/U.S.: A Consensus Develops: Leave the Course

While Iraqi Prime Minister Nouri al-Maliki's continued tenure in office has been the subject of a surge of speculation over the past week, it may be George W. Bush's continued reign - at least over Iraq policy -¬ that appears most endangered at the moment.

POLITICS-US: Public Wants “New Approach” on Foreign Policy

More than 70 percent of the U.S. public, including nearly half of self-identified Republicans, say they prefer candidates for Congress in the Nov. 7 mid-term elections who will pursue a "new approach" to U.S. foreign policy, according to a new survey released here Friday by the Programme on International Policy Attitudes (PIPA).