LATIN AMERICA: Iraq Question Causes New Divisions in Region

Mexico, a member of the U.N. Security Council, is calling for the end of the U.S.-led military occupation of Iraq, while fellow member Chile is keeping a low profile, and three Central American governments are sending soldiers to the zone of conflict.

IRAQ: Vulnerable Relief Agencies Ponder Presence

Last week's deadly suicide bombing in the U.N. compound in Baghdad has forced international humanitarian organisations to reassess their presence in politically unstable Iraq.

POLITICS: U.S. Opposes Global Court’s Protection for U.N. Workers

The United States is holding up a proposed U.N. Security Council resolution that calls all future attacks on U.N. humanitarian workers ''war crimes'', subject to jurisdiction by the recently created International Criminal Court (ICC).

U.S.: Muslim, Arab Families Await Papers, Deportation

"Look at him. I don't understand why they are punishing this innocent one," says Rukhsana Saeed, pointing to her infant son who cries in her lap, his small hands holding a plastic bottle filled with milk.

RIGHTS-U.S.: One Step Forward, Two Back?

Just when it appeared U.S. lawmakers themselves were starting to resist the administration's tendency post-9/11 to make laws that trample on civil rights, another bid to expand government's police powers has surfaced, while Amnesty International reported this week that Washington continues to ignore global norms.

AUSTRALIA: Unanswered Questions about Iraq Weapons Puzzle Critics

The former head of the U.N. weapons inspection team in Iraq, Richard Butler, says he is puzzled by the fact that the U.S. government has not revealed what it has learned about claims of weapons of mass destruction from its interrogation of captured Iraqi leaders.

IRAQ: U.S. Seeks U.N. Help, Offers ‘Arrogance’

When the United States launched its attack on Iraq last March, it did so in clear violation of the U.N. charter and in open defiance of a world body that refused to sanction an illegal war.

IRAQ: U.S. Military Families Lead Growing Opposition to War

With U.S. soldiers in Iraq for more than 150 days, further deployment more likely than withdrawal, and the death toll rising, the U.S. public is increasingly wary of supporting a war whose legitimacy is coming under attack from Washington itself.

IRAQ: U.N. Chief Blames Coalition Forces for Security Vacuum

Less than 48 hours after a deadly bomb attack on the U.N. compound in Baghdad, Secretary-General Kofi Annan implicitly criticised the United States for failing to provide the necessary security to the United Nations and its humanitarian workers in a highly volatile Iraq.

/CORRECTED/IRAQ: Anything Could Be a Target

”We are partners with the Iraqi people in this exercise,” United Nations special representative for Iraq Sergio de Vierira de Mello had said just last week in his spacious and comfortable office at the Canal Hotel, the UN headquarters in Iraq. He was talking about restoring the country to the Iraqi people and working on rebuilding it together with them.

IRAQ: Anything Could Be a Target

”We are partners with the Iraqi people in this exercise,” United Nations special representative for Iraq Sergio de Vierira de Mello had said just last week in his spacious and comfortable office at the Canal Hotel, the UN headquarters in Iraq. He was talking about restoring the country to the Iraqi people and working on rebuilding it together with them.

IRAQ: U.N. Bombed for Perceived U.S. Link, Experts Say

The massive bomb attack on the U.N. compound in Baghdad on Tuesday was an assault on an institution that is increasingly perceived as a political mouthpiece of the United States, suggest Middle East experts and U.S. academics..

IRAQ: Panel to Hear Submissions on Alleged Coalition War Crimes

Five legal experts will hear submissions in November on whether Britain, Australia and other nations in the coalition that attacked Iraq should be tried for war crimes by the International Criminal Court (ICC).

IRAQ: ‘Why I Attacked US Troops’

The shy young man in the cafeteria of a Baghdad hotel hardly seems the type to carry out attacks on U.S. soldiers. But Walid (not his real name), a student of English Literature at Baghdad University, has a story to tell that is compelling and detailed. A fellow student confirms that the account tallies with what his friend told him at the time.

IRAQ: Massive Military Contractor Makes Media Mess

It is no secret that U.S. defence and construction companies - particularly those with close ties to the administration of President George W. Bush - are making a lot of money in the post-war rush for contracts in Iraq.

POLITICS: U.S. Seeks U.N. Nod for Handpicked Iraqi Council

The United States is trying to bestow U.N. legitimacy on a hand-picked, 25-member political body whose mandate to govern war-devastated Iraq is strictly under American tutelage.

POLITICS-U.S.: The Andean Condor Who Deploys the Hawks

When historians look back on the U.S. war in Iraq, they will almost certainly be struck by how a small group of mainly neo-conservative analysts and activists outside the administration were able to shape the U.S. media debate in ways that made the drive to war so much easier than it might have been.

POLITICS: What Is a Neo-Conservative Anyway?

With all the attention paid to neo-conservatives in the global media today, one would think that a standard definition of the term would exist. Yet, despite their now being credited with a virtual takeover of U.S. foreign policy under President George W. Bush, a common understanding of 'neo-cons' remains elusive.

UAE: Local Businesses Benefiting from Iraq’s Reconstruction

Unfazed by the sweltering sun and the oppressive humidity, Sunny Matthew stands for hours watching cargo being loaded on to trucks from his shop in the used goods market in the Industrial Area here in Sharjah, one of the seven emirates in the United Arab Emirates.

POLITICS-U.S.: Iran-Contra, Amplified

As Karl Marx might have said, ''A spectre is haunting Washington - the spectre of Iran-Contra''.

IRAQ: Sunnis Find the Back Seat Uncomfortable

What was Habib Ali Farhan's front door lies some 10 metres away from his house, a twisted and burnt sheet of metal. Ever since a raid by U.S. soldiers on his house in mid-July, the family of nine sleeps without a door.