IRAQ: Torture Hovers Over Poll

Issues around torture will top the long list of problems a new government in Iraq will face after the election Thursday.

CHALLENGES 2005-2006: The Condoners vs. the Condemners

As the battle between the White House and a leading Republican senator over U.S. policies on treating terrorist suspects appears headed toward a final showdown, polls suggest that the U.S. public is ambivalent on the issue of torture.

IRAQ: Election Comes Up Amid Tension and Hope

Tensions between ethnic and religious groups have been rising in Iraq ahead of the elections Thursday.

POLITICS: Israelis Grow Troubled by Bush Priorities

Despite their mutual enthusiasm for ousting Iraqi President Saddam Hussein, Israel and the United States appear increasingly at odds over what to do about the larger Middle East region.

CHALLENGES 2005-2006: The Torture Policy Blowback

As Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice stilettoed her way across Europe last week answering tough questions about Washington's treatment of prisoners in the "global war on terror", 2005 may be remembered as the year "torture" and "rendition" became part of the everyday vocabulary.

POLITICS-IRAQ: Sunnis Opt for Voting – and Armed Resistance

Leading Sunni clerics and insurgent organisations are unofficially encouraging voting by Sunnis in Thursday's parliamentary elections for a slate of candidates who are calling for a timetable for U.S. troop withdrawal.

IRAQ: U.S. Helps Some Iran-Backed Terror

After the U.S. forces and the bombings, Iraqis are coming to fear those bands of men in masks who seem to operate with the Iraqi police.

POLITICS: Arabs Unimpressed by Bush Democracy Drive

Despite a modest decline in hostility toward the United States, opinion in the Arab world appears to have hardened over the past year, according to the latest in an annual series of surveys of six Arab countries released here Wednesday by the Arab American Institute (AAI).

RIGHTS: U.S. Flights Land Heavy on German Politics

The U.S. military flights illegally transporting Muslim prisoners through Europe to secret detention camps are presenting a particular challenge for the German government.

MEDIA-IRAQ/US: The Bad News Is the Good News Is Fake

U.S. Congressional leaders who have been touting Iraq's new "free press" as a sign of progress in the troubled country are upset at the Pentagon's admission last week that it has been paying for "good news" stories written by the military and placed in Iraqi media by a Washington-based public relations firm.

BALKANS: An Unusual Friendship Club Flourishes

Overriding bitter memories held by some of the influence of the Ottoman empire, and the religious hatred that Serbian society is often known for, an unusual Serb-Arabic club in Belgrade has been doing rather well.

US/IRAQ: Bush Policy Rules Out a Deal on Zarqawi

U.S. President George W. Bush's adamant rejection of a timetable for withdrawal from Iraq effectively slams the door on a recent reported offer from Sunni resistance groups to eliminate the al Qaeda terrorist haven in Iraq as part of a negotiated peace agreement.

POLITICS: Arab World Remains Hostile, Fearful Toward US

While the past 15 months have brought a slight decline in anti-U.S. sentiment, public opinion in the Arab world about Washington's policies and intentions in the Middle East remains overwhelmingly negative and deeply sceptical, according to a major new survey released here Friday.

RIGHTS-US: Still at the Back of the Economic Bus?

Fifty years after Rosa Parks, an African American seamstress, refused to give up her bus seat to a white man, activists around the United States gathered to celebrate her legacy - and to call for economic justice and an end to the war in Iraq.

POLITICS: The Most Elusive Word

When a Sri Lankan lawyer, Rohan Perera, was elected to chair the U.N. Ad Hoc Committee on Terrorism about eight years ago, a Western diplomat jokingly told him he was going to be "chairman for life"- because "the United Nations will never agree on a legal definition of terrorism".

IRAQ: Where People Cannot Afford Their Country

Despite the allocation of billions of dollars of U.S. government money for "reconstruction", Iraqis are struggling to exist amidst soaring prices, unemployment, a devastated infrastructure, and cuts in services.

POLITICS-US: The Unpopular in Pursuit of the Unwinnable?

Hoping to reverse plunging confidence in his strategy for Iraq - and in his own leadership - U.S. President George W. Bush Wednesday launched a major campaign to persuade the public that Washington is indeed prevailing against the insurgency there.

IRAQ: So Much Oil, And So Little

Before the recent war in Iraq, the sanctions decreased access to many resources, but gas was still plentiful and affordable. Since the invasion in 2003 gas and kerosene have been in short supply.

IRAQ: Armed Forces Sinking into Sectarian Chaos

While the George W. Bush administration launches a campaign to persuade the public that an accelerated buildup of Iraqi security forces will permit substantial numbers of U.S. troops to begin returning home next year, recent reports from Iraq suggest that the security forces - and their sectarian make-up - are themselves contributing to the country's destabilisation.

IRAQ: Hospitals Come Under Siege

Hospital personnel are reporting regular raids and interference by the U.S. military as fighting continues in the volatile Al-Anbar province of Iraq.

POLITICS-US: Realists Tighten Grip as Talks Open with Iran

In a new indication that the balance of power within the administration of President George W. Bush has tilted strongly in favour of the realists, Washington's influential ambassador to Iraq, Zalmay Khalilzad, has disclosed that Bush has authorised him to open direct talks with Iran about stabilising Iraq.