ENVIRONMENT: Water Returns to Iraq’s Eden

Fifteen years after the former Iraqi government used old blueprints dating from the British Empire to drain a vast wetland, the area is slowly creeping back to life.

RIGHTS-U.S.: One Year Later, Abu Ghraib Scandal Seen as ‘Tip of Iceberg’

Rights watchdogs have seized on this week's anniversary of the Abu Ghraib prisoner abuse scandal to protest what they termed a lack of accountability for the torture of prisoners in U.S. custody, and to warn that problems which came to light at the prison in Iraq merely were ''the tip of the iceberg.''

RIGHTS: Watchdog Demands U.S. Torture Inquiry

A leading human rights group demands that the U.S. government launch a sweeping inquiry into the torture of Iraqi and other prisoners by U.S. troops, and that it name a special prosecutor to probe high-ranking officials' possible role in alleged abuses.

POLITICS: Balancing the Iraq Equation

A humanitarian aid worker's death in Iraq last week is spurring calls for a public accounting of civilian casualties by the United States government and more attention to the issue by the U.S. media.

POLITICS-U.S.: An Army of the Unwilling

At the end of last month, the U.S. Selective Service System issued a report assuring President George W. Bush that it would be ready to implement a draft within 75 days. While stirring up a storm of speculation, this report may actually be the least compelling harbinger of a draft.

CORRUPTION: Double Trouble for Halliburton

The Halliburton corporation, already the Iraq war's poster child for "waste, fraud and abuse", has been hit with a new double-whammy.

POLITICS-US: Houston, We Have An Image Problem…

In March 2003, Dr. John Brown resigned from the U.S. State Department after 20 years as a senior Foreign Service officer, telling then Secretary of State Colin Powell he could not "in good conscience" support President George W. Bush's war plans against Iraq.

RIGHTS-US: Detainees? What Detainees?

The U.S. Joint Chiefs of Staff, the military's most senior leaders, want Defence Secretary Donald Rumsfeld to approve new guidelines that will formalise the George W. Bush administration's policy of imprisoning so-called enemy combatants without the protections of the Geneva Conventions and enable the Pentagon to legally hold "ghost detainees", a human rights group is charging.

POLITICS: For Reluctant GI’s, Canada Remains the Great White Hope

So far, only a trickle of U.S. soldiers are heading north to Canada to avoid serving in the U.S. military campaign in Iraq.

POLITICS: New Iraqi Gov’t to Confront Future with U.S. Military

One of the first orders of business for the new Iraqi government under Kurdish leader Jalal Talabani and Shi'ite Islamist Ibrahim Jaafari will be to strike a deal with the United States military over the terms and conditions of the 150,000-troop-strong U.S. military presence.

IRAQ: Patchwork Presidency Finally Takes Shape

The Iraqi parliament that was elected some ten weeks ago has finally picked the three-men presidium of the Republic, making Jalal Talabani the first Kurdish president of Iraq. The appointments follow a breakthrough last week when the National Assembly at last agreed on a Sunni Arab speaker.

POLITICS: U.N. Chief Tries to Boost Staff Morale, Faults Media Attacks

When U.N. spokesman Fred Eckhard announced last week that his boss Kofi Annan would address the 8,000 staff members at U.N. headquarters - amid the relentless attack on the world body by the news media - he was asked whether any staffer asking pointed questions from the secretary-general would be penalised for doing so.

DEVELOPMENT: Iraq War Architect Confirmed as World Bank President

The World Bank's Board of Executive Directors unanimously confirmed the nomination Thursday of U.S. Deputy Defence Secretary Paul D. Wolfowitz to be president of the World Bank.

RIGHTS: U.S. Soldiers Told to "Beat the F**k Out of" Detainees

The American Civil Liberties Union (ACLU) is charging that U.S. Army documents obtained under the Freedom of Information Act show that the mistreatment of detainees in Iraq was much more widespread than the government has admitted..

POLITICS: U.N. Chief Says "Hell No," He Won’t Go

After a 12-month investigation, a three-member independent committee has cleared U.N. Secretary-General Kofi Annan of any wrongdoing in the multi-million-dollar, now defunct oil-for-food programme in Iraq.

EDUCATION-US: Gov’t Woos Tiny Pool of Arabic Students

An acute shortage of Arabic speakers is in danger of crippling U.S. efforts to counter terrorist threats, communicate with prisoners, and build bridges to the Muslim world.

IRAQ: Govt Begins to Take Shape

Close to two months after the announcement of election results, Shia and Kurd leaders say an agreement over the formation of a new government is imminent.

POLITICS: Anger and Grief Mark Second Anniversary of Iraq War

Joining others around the world, tens of thousands of people in cities across the United States took to the streets Saturday calling for an end to the occupation of Iraq and immediate withdrawal of U.S. forces from that country.

CORRUPTION: Is Iraq Becoming the World’s Biggest Cash Cow?

The United States has charged a former employee of the U.S. construction giant Halliburton and a Kuwaiti subcontractor with defrauding the U.S. government of millions of dollars in a contract scam in Iraq, one day after an international watchdog group warned that lax oversight was threatening the reconstruction effort there.

FINANCE: Wolfowitz Pick for World Bank Prompts Head-Scratching

If sending arch-unilateralist John Bolton to the United Nations sent a message of contempt for multilateralism, what does U.S. President George W. Bush mean by sending that ardent advocate of "hard power", Paul Wolfowitz, to the planet's single biggest purveyor of "soft power", the World Bank?

DEVELOPMENT: Bush Nominates Arch-Hawk to Lead World Bank

U.S. Deputy Defence Secretary Paul Wolfowitz, a chief architect of one of the most unpopular wars in U.S. history, is President George W. Bush's choice to head the World Bank, the world's largest development agency.