POLITICS: UN to Stay On in Embattled Iraq

The United Nations Security Council unanimously endorsed a U.S.-sponsored resolution seeking continued stay of the U.N. staff in that war-torn country for another year, even though the security situation is marred by intense armed resistance and remains volatile.

POLITICS: Heads Roll in Iraqi Oil For Food Inquiry

After spending some 35 million dollars probing wrongdoing in Iraq's Oil for Food Programme, U.N. investigators have accused the former head of the humanitarian project of taking nearly 150,000 in cash bribes.

POLITICS: Groups Urge Iraq to Join ICC

When the Iraqi interim government declared its intention to endorse the treaty on the International Criminal Court (ICC), the news came as a happy surprise to many European nations and international civil society groups.

RIGHTS-US: Early Warnings on Prisoner Abuse Ignored

As early as March 2003, senior U.S. military lawyers complained to the Pentagon about the Justice Department's definition of torture and how it would be applied to interrogations of enemy prisoners captured by U.S. forces.

POLITICS-US: After 10-Year Hiatus, Pentagon Eyes New Landmine

The George W. Bush administration may soon resume production of antipersonnel land mines in a move that is at odds with both the international community and previous U.S. policy on the weapons, says a leading human rights organisation.

POLITICS-US: It’s That Pesky Prisoner Abuse Scandal Again…

As the U.S. Congress left town for its August vacation, the George W. Bush administration was congratulating itself on its legislative victories.

POLITICS-US/IRAQ: The Selling of Brand Kurdistan

As chaos continues across much of Iraq, the governing authority is coming to yet another crossroads.

POLITICS-US: Reviving the "Radical Centre"

As U.S. President George W. Bush announced the unprecedented "recess appointment" of ultra-nationalist John Bolton as his next ambassador to the United Nations, a group of diplomatic heavyweights was preparing to launch a bipartisan coalition to promote a return to a more moderate and multilateral foreign policy.

POLITICS-US: Grannies Rage Against the Machine

The five elderly women stood in front of a U.S. Army recruiting office in Tucson, Arizona, and began to sing. To the tune of "There's No Business Like Show Business", they belted out the lyrics they had written:

POLITICS-US: Experts Urge More Attention to "Nation-Building"

In light of its continuing travails in Iraq, the U.S. government, particularly the Department of Defence, must place "nation-building" on a par with war-fighting as a top priority in protecting national security, according to a major new report released here Wednesday by a bipartisan task force chaired by two former national security advisers.

RIGHTS-US: Navigating Gitmo’s Legal Labyrinth

As Washington prepares to resume military trials of "war on terror" detainees, a debate over their status is heating up in the U.S. Congress, with even some prominent Republicans demanding higher standards for interrogations and a ban on "cruel, degrading and inhumane treatment".

POLITICS-US: Airwaves Off-Limits to New Propaganda Tsar

One of the most experienced broadcast experts in the United States believes that Karen Hughes - the high-profile confidante of Pres. George W. Bush nominated to help the State Department do a major makeover of U.S. public diplomacy - may not be able to lay a glove on one of its key programmes: international broadcasting.

POLITICS-US: Civil War Spectre Spurs New Iraq Exit Plans

Growing pessimism about averting civil war in Iraq, as well as mounting concerns that the U.S. military presence there may itself be fuelling the insurgency and Islamist extremism worldwide, has spurred a spate of new calls for the United States to withdraw its 140,000 troops sooner rather than later.

RIGHTS-US: Legal Battle Erupts Over New Abu Ghraib Photos

As the Pentagon appointed a former lawyer for the American Civil Liberties Union (ACLU) to head the defence team representing detainees at Guantanamo Bay, Cuba, it took steps to throw a roadblock into the release of a new batch of photos from Abu Ghraib prison in Iraq.

RIGHTS: Women May Lose Basic Rights Under New Constitution

The irony is not lost either amongst women's groups in Baghdad or activists in the United States: Iraqi women who enjoyed basic human rights under one of the world's most repressive regimes headed by former President Saddam Hussein are now on the verge of losing their hard-won freedoms under a U.S.-blessed administration in the insurgent-ravaged country.

POLITICS-US: Spreading Diplomacy 101

As the U.S. faces increasingly negative attitudes around the world, the previously arcane subject of public diplomacy has become a serious issue in the George W. Bush administration, Congress, universities, think-tanks and with ordinary people.

POLITICS-US: Iraq Seen as Weakening Terror War

A plurality of the U.S. public now believes that Iraq war has undermined U.S. prospects for victory in the larger war on terrorism, but a majority still believe that Washington should not yet begin withdrawing its troops, according to major new poll released here Thursday shortly after Britain reported four new bombing incidents in London.

POLITICS: Iran Sits Pretty in World’s Hottest Region

Despite the best efforts of the administration of U.S. President George W. Bush to make Iran an international pariah, the Islamic Republic keeps wracking up one diplomatic victory after another.

POLITICS-US: War on Terror Leaves Foreign Aid Largely Intact

Funding for the U.S. war on terror has not diverted money from other bilateral foreign aid programmes or anti-poverty plans in Africa or Latin America, but the new funds most likely came from cuts in aid to politically important countries like Israel and Egypt, a U.S. think tank says in a new report.

POLITICS-US: Spy Agency Targets Bush Critics

Those who remember recent history will not be surprised to learn that the Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI) has been amassing files on the American Civil Liberties Union, Greenpeace and other critics of the George W. Bush administration.

POLITICS-US: "PlameGate" Is Hardly a Summer Squall

While to people living outside the Washington "Beltway," the current affair over the disclosure by top White House officials of the identity of a covert intelligence officer may seem somewhat esoteric, the stakes could not be higher.