POLITICS: U.N. Member States Struggle to Define Terrorism

The rash of terrorist bombings in Britain, and most recently in Egypt, have prompted Secretary-General Kofi Annan to prod the U.N.'s 191 member states to speed up a long-delayed decision on one of the most politically sensitive issues in the world body: a definition of "terrorism".

RIGHTS-US: Legal Battle Erupts Over New Abu Ghraib Photos

As the Pentagon appointed a former lawyer for the American Civil Liberties Union (ACLU) to head the defence team representing detainees at Guantanamo Bay, Cuba, it took steps to throw a roadblock into the release of a new batch of photos from Abu Ghraib prison in Iraq.

POLITICS: Pakistan Hit by Islamist Backlash

Spiralling conflict between the Pakistan army and Islamist militants along the Afghan border, straddled by pro- Taliban, Pashtoon tribes, has led security analysts to talk of a full- fledged insurgency that poses a graver threat to the country than admitted by authorities.

RIGHTS: Women May Lose Basic Rights Under New Constitution

The irony is not lost either amongst women's groups in Baghdad or activists in the United States: Iraqi women who enjoyed basic human rights under one of the world's most repressive regimes headed by former President Saddam Hussein are now on the verge of losing their hard-won freedoms under a U.S.-blessed administration in the insurgent-ravaged country.

POLITICS-US: Spreading Diplomacy 101

As the U.S. faces increasingly negative attitudes around the world, the previously arcane subject of public diplomacy has become a serious issue in the George W. Bush administration, Congress, universities, think-tanks and with ordinary people.

POLITICS-US: Iraq Seen as Weakening Terror War

A plurality of the U.S. public now believes that Iraq war has undermined U.S. prospects for victory in the larger war on terrorism, but a majority still believe that Washington should not yet begin withdrawing its troops, according to major new poll released here Thursday shortly after Britain reported four new bombing incidents in London.

POLITICS: Iran Sits Pretty in World’s Hottest Region

Despite the best efforts of the administration of U.S. President George W. Bush to make Iran an international pariah, the Islamic Republic keeps wracking up one diplomatic victory after another.

POLITICS-US: Fear and Loathing in the Heartland

Two highly influential sectors in U.S. politics - the neo-conservatives and the Jewish community - are showing signs of renouncing their traditionally liberal views about immigration.

POLITICS-US: War on Terror Leaves Foreign Aid Largely Intact

Funding for the U.S. war on terror has not diverted money from other bilateral foreign aid programmes or anti-poverty plans in Africa or Latin America, but the new funds most likely came from cuts in aid to politically important countries like Israel and Egypt, a U.S. think tank says in a new report.

TERRORISM: Washington Cuts Security Funds for Public Transport

Despite London's recent terrorist bombings, security for U.S. public transit systems remains woefully under-funded.

POLITICS-US: Spy Agency Targets Bush Critics

Those who remember recent history will not be surprised to learn that the Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI) has been amassing files on the American Civil Liberties Union, Greenpeace and other critics of the George W. Bush administration.

POLITICS: India, US Open Can of Nuclear Worms

More than 30 years after the United States walked out of a nuclear cooperation agreement with India, because it conducted an atomic test, the two countries have agreed to resume collaboration in civilian nuclear energy.

POLITICS-US: Watching the Watchdogs

For the past few years, U.S. citizens have lived with an increasingly secretive government.

JAPAN: Graves Speak of Peace to the Living

Isamu Endo, 65, has built a cemetery for Chinese foster parents who took care of hundreds of Japanese abandoned as children in northern China as their settler parents fled before advancing Soviet and Chinese troops at the end of the Second World War.

POLITICS: Joint-Defence against Terrorism Tops Indian PM’s Agenda in US

Coming as it does in the wake of the July bomb blasts in London, it is inevitable that containing terrorism will figure prominently in the agenda of Indian Prime Minister Manmohan Singh's state visit to the United States.

POLITICS-US: Welcome to RightWorld

It's always difficult to play defence and offence at the same time, but when the geo-political ground is shifting beneath one's feet and damaging leaks are spurting out of the White House and Downing Street plumbing like Fourth of July fireworks, it's more difficult than usual.

RIGHTS-US: Immigration Debate Misses the Point, Expert Says

As a nervous Congress was approving billions of dollars to make the United States safer in the wake of the London bombings, a nationally recognised authority on immigration detention charged that the rights of refugees, asylum-seekers and other immigrants are being ignored.

RIGHTS-AUSTRALIA: Smuggler Jailed But Iraqi Boat People Wrangle Rages On

The sentencing of a former Baghdad goldsmith for helping organise a people-smuggling operation that ended in tragedy has not quelled controversy over the Australian government's role in the October 2001 drowning of 353 Iraqi asylum-seekers on their way to this country from Indonesia.

POLITICS: "Islamic Extremism" Alienates Most in Muslim World

Concerns about "Islamic extremism" and disapproval over violence motivated by it are growing in both Muslim and non-Muslim countries, according to a major new survey that also found declining support for Osama bin Laden in most of the Islamic world, with the exception of Jordan and Pakistan.

RIGHTS-US: Abuse Probes End With Single Reprimand

The U.S. Army general widely considered the architect of abusive prisoner interrogation techniques at Guantanamo Bay, Abu Ghraib and detention centres in Afghanistan used "creative" and "aggressive" tactics, but did not practice torture or violate law or Pentagon policy, the head of the U.S. Southern Command has determined.

POLITICS: Pakistan Analysts Link London Blasts to Afghanistan

Prominent citizens in this country are calling for a deeper understanding of the complex situation that led to the Jul. 7 London bombings as British police confirmed that three of the bombers were of Pakistani descent and probably trained here or in neighbouring Afghanistan.