POLITICS-IRAQ: Can the US Military Presence Avert Civil War?

The growing spectre of a full-scale civil war in Iraq - and the likelihood that such a conflict will draw in neighbouring states - has intensified a summer-long debate here over whether and how to withdraw U.S. troops.

RIGHTS-US: Calls Mount for Prisoner Abuse Commission

New allegations of prisoner torture in Iraq are likely to add urgency to pending legislation that would create a 9/11-type commission to investigate detainee treatment and ensure that the U.S. operates within the law on interrogations.

POLITICS-US: Thousands Rally Against “Economic Apartheid”

At least 100,000 people from different parts of the U.S. and the world converged on Washington Saturday to demand an immediate end of the U.S. occupation of Iraq and what they termed the International Monetary Fund (IMF) and the World Bank's "war on the poor".

RIGHTS-US/IRAQ: Whistleblowers Describe Routine, Severe Abuse

As a military jury in Texas considers the fate of Lynndie England, the low-ranking reservist pictured in the notorious photos of the abuse of Iraqi detainees at Abu Ghraib prison in late 2003, two sergeants and a captain in one of the U.S. Army's most decorated combat units have come forward with accounts of routine, systematic and often severe beatings committed against detainees at a base near Fallujah from 2003 through 2004.

POLITICS-US: FDR Revival?

Sixty years after his death, Franklin Delano Roosevelt and the policies he pursued - both at home and abroad - during his record 12-year presidency appear to be enjoying something of a comeback.

POLITICS: North Korea Deal Seen as Starting Point Only

This week's Six-Party agreement on the principles for denuclearising the Korean peninsula is being greeted somewhat warily here, with most experts stressing that the accord marks only the beginning of what is likely to be a protracted negotiating process that could take years, rather than months, to achieve.

POLITICS-US: Uncertain Anniversary for Iraq War Champions

It was four years ago today that a little-known group called the "Project for the New American Century" (PNAC) published an open letter to President George W. Bush advising him on how precisely he should carry out his brand-new "war on terrorism".

POLITICS: UN Human Rights Body to Scrutinise U.S. Abuses

The U.N. Human Rights Committee, scheduled to meet in Geneva next month, has written to non-governmental organisations (NGOs) calling for any available evidence of human rights abuses by the United States - particularly in the aftermath of its global war on terrorism.

RIGHTS-UZBEKISTAN: Andijan Killings Set Off Massive Crackdown

The government of Uzbekistan has been engaged in unprecedented efforts, including massive detentions, torture and forced confessions, to persuade its people and the outside world that Islamist extremists were responsible for a bloody massacre in Andijan last May, according to Amnesty International and Human Rights Watch (HRW).

POLITICS-US: 9/11 Lessons Ignored in Katrina Response

The U.S. government's sluggish and uncoordinated response to Hurricane Katrina again drew public attention to some of the key recommendations of the 9/11 Commission that have yet to be implemented or have made unsatisfactory or marginal progress.

RIGHTS-US: Hunger Strike Spreads at Guantanamo Camp

A hunger strike started in June by terror suspects imprisoned by the U.S. military at Guantanamo Bay, Cuba (Gitmo) - and reportedly settled - has been restarted and is growing, with 15 detainees hospitalised and 13 being fed through tubes.

AFGHANISTAN: Election Day Passes, Peacefully

Afghanistan's landmark national assembly and provincial elections passed off in relative peace on Sunday, though marred somewhat by charges of coercion by partisan officials and by stray violence.

AFGHANISTAN: Elections May Be Less Than Free

While Afghanistan's parliamentary elections Sunday are expected to go relatively smoothly, the freedom with which they are being carried out is being questioned by many observers.

POLITICS-US: Sailing Toward Lame Duck Land on Katrina’s Waters

More than two weeks after Hurricane Katrina swamped New Orleans, U.S. President George W. Bush is looking increasingly like a political "lame duck", struggling hard to stay afloat on a rising tide of pessimism and popular discontent.

POLITICS-US: Senate’s Kabuki Dance With Roberts Goes On

After three days of hearings on the confirmation of Judge John G. Roberts to be the seventeenth Chief Justice of the United States, what the public has learned is that the nominee appears to be as much Talmudic scholar as jurist.

POLITICS-U.S: Trans-Atlantic Group Calls for Nuclear Deal With Iran

Ahead of a crucial International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) meeting, next week, a group of some 50 prominent experts and former foreign-policy officials from the United States and Europe have mooted a deal with Iran on it's controversial nuclear programme.

RIGHTS-AUSTRALIA: Iraq War Critic Deported to US

The Australian government deported, Thursday, Scott Parkin, a soft-spoken peace and environmental activist, of the Texas-based Houston Global Awareness Collective, for participation in non-violence and civil disobedience workshops in this country.

POLITICS-US: Will Katrina Bring An Isolationist Revival?

It was Jim Hoagland, the Washington's Post's liberal hawk par excellence, who first pondered the possible foreign policy consequences of Hurricane Katrina and the destruction of New Orleans.

POLITICS-US: Hijacking Defence Programme Falters

Amid the cacophony of searing charges about the inadequate performance of the U.S. Department of Homeland Security (DHS) before, during and after Hurricane Katrina, new questions are being raised about other key DHS programmes.

RIGHTS-US: Gitmo Cases May Go to Civilian Courts

Media coverage of Hurricane Katrina has all but drowned out what may well be two of the most consequential human rights court decisions in recent U.S. history.

/CORRECTED REPEAT/POLITICS-US: A Hyperpower With Feet of Mud

The United States may not quite yet be perceived as the "pitiful, helpless giant" that haunted the dreams of Richard Nixon 35 years ago, but it's getting close.