CHALLENGES 2006-2007: Bloody Years for Journalists in Iraq

After an estimated 10 percent of active journalists in Iraq died in 2006, the rest are asking themselves what lies ahead for them in the New Year.

DEATH PENALTY: Britain Puts Together Two Faces

The British government has found a simple way of welcoming the death penalty for Saddam Hussein while saying it opposes the death penalty.

DEATH PENALTY: Hanged Almost Without Trial

Saddam Hussein was convicted and hanged without fair trial, leading human rights groups said after his execution Saturday.

IRAQ: Execution Begins to Deepen Divisions

New divisions appear to be opening up between Iraqi political and religious leaders following the execution of Saddam Hussein Saturday.

POLITICS-US/IRAQ: Hussein’s Death Leaves Unanswered Questions

Iraqi-Americans reacted with sadness to the execution of Saddam Hussein Saturday, calling the former Iraqi president's death by hanging early this morning Baghdad time a missed opportunity for justice.

CHALLENGES 2006-2007: The Year of Living Dangerously in the Middle East

Following the execution of former Iraqi dictator Saddam Hussein, almost four years after the U.S.-led invasion and occupation of Iraq, the Middle East stands at a crossroads.

POLITICS-US: If Bush Wants Bipartisan Policy, It’s Out There

If U.S. President George W. Bush is serious about pursuing a foreign policy that can command bipartisan support, the basic elements of one already exists, according to a new analysis of seven comprehensive polls on foreign policy attitudes taken over the past nine months.

CHALLENGES 2006-2007: Blair Will Leave, But How

Looking back, not just to 2006 but a few years more, it would seem that thousands of children marching by the house of the British Prime Minister were right, and the Prime Minister was wrong.

DEATH PENALTY: Saddam Execution Set to Destabilise Iraq Further

Former dictator Saddam Hussein is due to be executed next month in a move that could bring more instability in an increasingly violent and chaotic occupation.

CHALLENGES 2006-2007: Bush Iraq Policy Murky on the Real Enemy

This year saw the emergence of a sectarian civil war in Iraq and much more open Sunni-Shiite conflict in the Middle East. Sunni regimes in the region expressed acute anxiety both about the possibility of the Sunni-Shiite civil war in Iraq spreading to their own countries and about the growth of Iranian influence.

CHALLENGES 2006-2007: More Troops but Less Control in Iraq

More U.S. troops are expected to be deployed in Iraq in the New Year. Despite obvious rethinking, there is no decision on withdrawal of occupation forces.

CHALLENGES 2006-2007: When Iraqis Gave Up on Government

The Iraqi government headed by Prime Minister Noori al-Maliki, like earlier governments assigned by U.S. occupation authorities in Iraq, appears to have killed Iraqi dreams of a brighter future.

IRAQ: Children Pick Their Christmas Toys

Ahmed Ghazi has little reason to stock Christmas toys at his shop in Fallujah. He knows what children want these days.

IRAQ: Refugees Run From Violence to Deprivation

Khanzad, 26, originally Kurdish, returned to Arbil with her family in mid-2004 after 16 years of living in Baghdad. Like many coming from the violence-stricken city, she has a harrowing story to tell.

CHALLENGES 2006-2007: A Bad Year for Empire

For those who believed that the precise and overwhelming demonstration of U.S. military power in Afghanistan and Iran would "shock and awe" the rest of the world - and particularly Washington's foes and aspiring rivals - into accepting its benevolent hegemony, 2006 was not a good year.

CHALLENGES 2006-2007: Docu-mania Sweeps U.S.

From Al Gore's "An Inconvenient Truth" to Barbara Kopple's "Shut Up and Sing" about the travails of the Dixie Chicks, U.S. audiences flocked to theatres in 2006 to watch films that took on heavy topics like global warming, the meaning of "patriotism" and the war in Iraq.

POLITICS: Blair’s Mideast Message Echoes Past Failure

British Prime Minister Tony Blair has been touring the Middle East with one clear message - to make peace in the Middle East, Iran must be isolated.

CHALLENGES 2006-2007: Iraqi Hopes Dim Through Worst Year of Occupation

Despite promises from Iraqi and U.S. leaders that 2006 would bring improvement, Iraqis have suffered through the worst year in living memory, facing violence, fragmentation and a disintegrated economy.

POLITICS-US: The Urge to Surge

As official Washington breaks for the two-week Christmas-New Year's hiatus, it knows that the number one issue it will face on its return in early January is the White House's apparent "urge to surge" as many as 50,000 new troops into Iraq for up to two years in a last-ditch effort to claim what President George W. Bush insists on calling "victory".

RIGHTS-US/IRAQ: Who Will Pay For Haditha?

With charges expected to be filed Thursday against five to eight Marines accused of killing 24 Iraqi civilians in Haditha, Iraq on Nov. 19, 2005, it now appears that at least one senior officer will also be charged in the case.

IRAQ: Slim Chance for Reconciliation Recedes

Iraq's national reconciliation conference held on the weekend highlights the gap between the country's various political groups and their lack of consensus on a common basis for reconciliation.