POLITICS-US: Key Officials Used 9/11 As Pretext for Iraq War

With demands for a full-scale investigation of the manipulation of intelligence by the administration of Pres. George W. Bush mounting steadily, it appears increasingly clear that key officials and their allies outside the administration intended to use the Sep. 11, 2001 terrorist attacks as a pretext for going to war against Iraq within hours of the attacks themselves.

POLITICS: Abuses Ignored in Aid For Anti-Terror Ally, Groups Say

Reports that the George W. Bush administration has decided to release funds that will permit it to train Indonesian military officers, despite a recent vote by a key Senate committee that calls for training to be suspended until the army's role in the killing of two U.S. teachers in West Papua is clarified, has drawn strong expressions of concern on the part of human rights groups here.

POLITICS-MIDEAST: EU-Israel Relations Remain Tense

Prime Minister Ariel Sharon failed to advance Israel's relations with the European Union as he met his British counterpart Tony Blair in London to discuss the fragile Middle East peace process.

POLITICS-INDIA: From the Start, Sending Troops to Iraq Unacceptable

Now that India has rejected a request from its newfound friend, the United States, to send a division of its troops to Iraq, it is beginning to dawn on many that the whole idea was unpalatable from the start.

POLITICS-US: Fortress Mentality Undermines Security, Experts Say

Post-Sep. 11 immigration rules that make it harder for young foreigners to study in the United States are doing more harm to national security than good, a panel of experts said Monday, because they have only deepened the divide between Western culture and the Muslim and Arab communities.

POLITICS-U.S.: Imperial Dreams Running Aground on Arabian Sands

Pentagon chief Donald Rumsfeld has become distinctly testy, while Deputy Defense Secretary Paul Wolfowitz seems almost to have disappeared from public view, and Vice Pres. Dick Cheney hasn't been heard from in weeks.

POLITICS: Bush’s Africa Trip Long on Rhetoric, Short on Specifics

On his first week back from a whirlwind trip across Africa, U.S. President George W. Bush will have a lot of explaining to do - and not just why a controversial allegation about Iraq's efforts to obtain uranium yellowcake from Niger made it into his State of the Union address, either.

POLITICS-AFRICA: What Next Ask Analysts As Bush Packs His Bags

As United States President George W Bush leaves Africa this weekend, analysts, citizens, even Hungarian tourists to Johannesburg, are asking the question: so, what next?

IRAQ: Saudi Hand Makes U.S. Uneasy

U.S. officials in Iraq are getting uneasy about increased activity by the Saudi government and by radical Wahhabi groups in Iraq. Some of this is welcomed, the rest is not.

AUSTRALIA: Solomon Islands’ Invitation of Foreign Forces Has Risks

The most recent examples of foreign intervention in places like Afghanistan and Iraq have been uninvited ones, so the Solomon Islands' decision to ask Australia to lead a peacekeeping force to restore law and order stands out for its sheer uniqueness.

POLITICS: U.S. Plays Key Role in Small Arms Proliferation

The National Rifle Association (NRA), one of the most influential pro-gun lobbies in the United States, argues that "guns don't kill people, only people kill people."

POLITICS-U.S.: Anatomy of a Quack-Mire

How could such smart people get so much wrong?

POLITICS: Africans Weary of Americans Bearing Gifts

-George Orwell, the British author of the books titled Nineteen Eighty Four and Animal Farm, must be turning in his grave.

POLITICS-INDIA: Public Pressure Rises on Sending Troops to Iraq

Faced with mounting public pressure, India's right-wing government may have to abandon plans to accede to a U.S. government demand for it to send troops to post-war Iraq.

POLITICS: African Union to Clip the Wings of Rebel Groups, Errant Gov’ts

African leaders are becoming increasingly determined to crack-down on the rebel groups and errant governments whose relentless conflicts are hampering the development of the continent.

MEDIA-EGYPT: Anti-American Press Pays the Price

The regime of Egyptian President Hosni Mubarak continued its crackdown on media earlier this week as the police banned an anti-American weekly.

POLITICS-U.S.: Bush Team on Defensive on Weapons Charges

The administration of President George W. Bush is finding itself increasingly beleaguered by growing charges by retired intelligence and foreign service officers that administration hawks exaggerated the threat posed by Iraq in order to press Washington into war.

IRAQ: Shiite Leaders Not a Threat, For Now

Long before the U.S.-led coalition forces entered Iraq, one of their first concerns was how Iraq's Shiite majority would react to their presence, how combative Shiite religious leaders would be, and how much of a destabilising role neighbouring Iran would choose to play.

IRAQ: Thousands of Children Could Die

Disease and unexploded ammunition could kill thousands of Iraqi children unless immediate priority is given to their protection, says the UNICEF chief representative in Baghdad.

MEDIA-IRAQ: The Real Danger Lies Within

If the reality in Iraq is one thing and the reporting of it remains another, it is because much of the media wants it that way, say two leading journalists who have been reporting the 'other' side of the Iraq story.

IRAQ: Egyptian Firms Unsure What to Rebuild

Egyptian firms are keen to bid for building subcontracts in Iraq, but do not know what they could rebuild and where.