POLITICS-US: Appeal for a “Just Security” Foreign Policy

Insisting that U.S. foreign policy of the past six years has clearly failed, a left-leaning Washington think tank is calling for the adoption of a comprehensive new approach to international relations called "Just Security" in which the U.S. would act "as a global partner, not a global boss."

TURKEY: Into the Iraq Quagmire?

Turkey is beefing up military preparedness against Iraq-based Kurdish rebels as a prelude to a possible cross-border incursion that is opposed by the United States, European Union and the Iraqi government.

IRAQ: What Next After Samarra Bombing?

Iraq is again haunted by the ghosts of Samarra, with last week's attack on the Shia-revered al-Askari mosque raising fears that it could touch off a new wave of sectarian violence in a country already crippled by large-scale violence and political crisis.

IRAQ: A Dream Called Electricity

Simmering in the summer heat, Iraqis now have a dream called electricity.

POLITICS-US: Bush Faces Crises from Palestine to Pakistan

Four years after the emergence of the first signs of a serious insurgency in Iraq, U.S. President George W. Bush finds himself beset with major crises stretching from Palestine to Pakistan.

LABOUR-IRAQ: A Dramatic Nighttime Escape

First Kuwaiti has been accused repeatedly by dozens of workers from the Philippines and Nepal of forcing them to work in Iraq over the past three years, including by Ramil Autencio who recounted his tale last November while sitting in front of his home - a two-room shack assembled with old wood and sheet metal in metropolitan Manila.

LABOUR-IRAQ: Caught in Trafficking

Trained as an air conditioning repairman and technician, Ramil Autencio says his recruiter in the Philippines agreed to place him in a two-year job at the Crown Plaza Hotel in Kuwait for 450 dollars a month - maybe more with overtime.

IRAQ: U.S. Losing Ground Through Tribal Allies

U.S. attempts to win over tribal collaborators in the al-Anbar province have won it more enemies instead.

IRAQ: Report Calls on U.N. to End “Complicity of Silence”

The U.S. Coalition is the principal cause of Iraq's current woes, charges a report released Wednesday by the Global Policy Forum (GPF), a New York-based watchdog group.

IRAQ: Violence Now Corners Christians

For Janet Petros's family it all started when the al-Mahdi militia of the radical Shia cleric Muqtada al-Sadr took control of their mixed neighbourhood Hay Muwasalat in Baghdad last year.

HEALTH-US: Surviving War, Slowly Dying at Home

The U.S. Vets Westside Residence Hall is a hulking eight-story structure a few blocks from Los Angeles International Airport. It's the largest transitional housing and employment centre for homeless veterans in the country, hosting 700 veterans annually.

US-IRAN: New War Rhetoric Undercuts Iraq Talks

U.S. Senator Joseph Lieberman's call for cross-border raids into Iran appears to be the culmination of a two-week long campaign by proponents of war to put the military option centre-stage in the U.S. debate over Iran once more.

BALKANS: Linking Arms With Iraq

Weapons from the Balkans wars of the 1990s are beginning to arm conflict in Iraq and Afghanistan, well-placed officials have revealed.

POLITICS-US: Gates Overhauls Rumsfeld’s Pentagon

Friday's announcement that Gen. Peter Pace will not be nominated for a second term as chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff of the U.S. Armed Forces marks the latest in a series of moves by Pentagon chief Robert Gates to transform the leadership of the Pentagon and consign his predecessor, Donald Rumsfeld, to distant memory.

IRAQ: Lawmaker Confirms Kurd-Shia Clashes in Baghdad

A May 29 IPS report on clashes between Kurdish Peshmerga troops and militiamen of Shiite cleric Muqtada al-Sadr in Baghdad has been confirmed by an Iraqi member of Parliament, representing the Sunni-led Iraqi Accordance Front (Al-Tawafuq).

IRAQ: Blood, Sweat and Tears at New U.S. Embassy

The U.S. Justice Department is actively investigating allegations of forced labour and other abuses by the Kuwaiti contractor now rushing to complete the sprawling 592-million-dollar U.S. embassy project in Baghdad, numerous sources have revealed.

POLITICS: Is U.S. Eyeing U.N. as Dumping Ground for Iraq?

Faced with an unwinnable five-year war in Iraq, the United States may be looking towards the United Nations to extricate it out of the growing military quagmire, according to diplomats and political analysts.

IRAQ: Broken Lives and Broken Hearts

With the U.S.-led occupation of Iraq in its fifth year, one leading study estimates that more than 655,000 Iraqis have been killed - with no end to the violence yet in sight. Left behind are loved ones who continue to mourn their loss, as well as what might have been.

POLITICS-US: Aide’s Sentence Caps Star-Crossed Year for Cheney

Tuesday's sentencing to 30 months in prison of I. Lewis "Scooter" Libby by a federal judge for lying to government investigators about his role in leaking the identity of a CIA operative marks the latest in a series of blows to Vice President Dick Cheney.

IRAQ: Anger Builds in Falluja Over Security Crackdown

The city that was mostly destroyed by the U.S. military operation Phantom Fury in November 2004 has been under curfew for over two weeks, with no signs of relief.

IRAN/US: Iraq Talks – Rare Chance for Regional Security

While limited to the issue of security in Iraq, the direct talks between Iran and the United States in Baghdad is being seen as a breakthrough and an opportunity for both countries to deal with pressing issues of national interest as well as security in a region extending from Afghanistan in the east to Iraq and to Palestine and Lebanon in the west.