POLITICS: Artificial Intelligence?

Private military contractors like the Virginia-based Anteon, which has grown tenfold in the last decade, are becoming ever more integral to the nation's programmes for intelligence sharing, intelligence training and video game warfare simulators.

MEDIA: Iraq Toll Makes 2004 Worst Year for Press in a Decade

Violence in Iraq claimed the lives of 23 journalists and 16 media support workers in 2004, making it the most deadly year for press freedom in a decade, according to the annual report of the New York-based Committee to Protect Journalists (CPJ).

POLITICS: Uncle Sam Really, Really Wants You…

A couple of months ago, Kim Rosario found an improbable e-mail message in her Monster.com inbox.

IRAQ: Where Abducted People Are An Expensive Product

Whatever the circumstances, Italian journalist Giuliana Sgrena is free at last. But questions remain at what price.

RIGHTS-U.S.: Latest Abuse Investigation Report, a Whitewash – Groups

Human rights groups and some senators are expressing growing frustration over the Pentagon's failure to hold senior officers or civilian leaders accountable for widespread abuses by U.S. forces against detainees in Washington's ''war on terror''.

RIGHTS: The Fight of Their Lives

For women in conflict zones like Sudan, Afghanistan and Iraq, the struggle for political representation and legally sanctioned gender equality is eclipsed by an urgent need for immediate protection from physical and sexual abuse.

RIGHTS-US: Rumsfeld Sued Over Torture in Iraq and Afghanistan

Two major U.S. human rights groups Tuesday filed a lawsuit in federal court in Chicago against Defence Secretary Donald Rumsfeld on behalf of eight named Afghan and Iraqi plaintiffs who say they were tortured and abused while in the custody of the U.S. military.

IRAQ: Nation Within a Nation Takes Shape

Two years and three elections after the fall of the Saddam regime, Kurdistan is taking shape as a nation within a nation.

IRAQ: Shia Party Rises From the Ashes

In the early days of the U.S. occupation of Iraq, when the international media was discovering mass graves throughout the country, journalists of all types were documenting the full scope of the old regime's brutality.

IRAQ-MEDIA: All Flights Lead to Rome

It was the last despatch sent by Italian reporter Renato Caprile before he left Baghdad last week.

POLITICS: Peace Movement Gears Up for Global Protests on War Anniversary

At Fort Bragg, the largest U.S. army installation in the world and home to the famed 82nd Airborne Division, the mood is not exactly buoyant.

RIGHTS-BRITAIN: Justice Goes on Trial, And Does Badly

The conviction of three soldiers by a military court for abusing Iraqi prisoners is seen to have put the British military on trial. But reports on the way the trial has been conducted puts Britain's judicial system itself on trial.

IRAN: ‘Peaceful Dictatorship Better than Democratic Chaos’

The two Kurdish guerrilla fighters, if anyone, should have wanted the United States to overthrow the regime in Iran. They have just escaped after five years in an Iranian prison for membership of the banned Kurdistan Democratic Party of Iran.

POLITICS-U.S.: Jaafari Victory Win for Administration Pragmatists

The choice of Ibrahim Jaafari as candidate for prime minister of the majority United Iraqi Alliance (UIA) is seen as an important advance for the more pragmatic forces in the administration of President George W. Bush against their adversaries among the neo-conservatives and other hawks.

IRAQ: It Could Be Getting Worse for Women

The situation for Iraqi women has got worse in many respects since the U.S.-led invasion two years back, says a report from Amnesty International.

IRAQ: All Not Quiet on the Northern Front

Turkey holds the option of unilateral intervention in northern Iraq if Kurds declare independence and claim the oil wealth of disputed Kirkuk, considered the main spoils in the uncertain Iraqi equation.

IRAQ: Leaving Kurdistan, Like Leaving a Country

One of the best ways to understand the political dynamics at play in Northern Iraq is to hop into a taxi and travel north towards the Turkish border.

IRAQ-US: ‘Biggest Cultural Disaster Since 1258’, Says Expert

One million books, 10 million documents and 14,000 archaeological artifacts have been lost in the U.S.-led invasion and subsequent occupation of Iraq - the biggest cultural disaster since the descendants of Genghis Khan destroyed Baghdad in 1258, Venezuelan writer Fernando Báez told IPS.

POLITICS: Embedded in the Spin Cycle…

An incisive new documentary is taking aim at the U.S. media's one-sided coverage of the war in Iraq, arguing that its collective complicity deceived the populace and made the war possible.

IRAQ: Media Held Guilty of Deception

A peoples tribunal has held much of Western media guilty of inciting violence and deceiving people in its reporting of Iraq.

IRAQ: Iranian Shadow Falls Over Baghdad

The main victors in the Iraq elections appear to be a slate of Shia politicians inspired by Grand Ayatollah Ali Sistani, and led by Sayyed Abdel Aziz al-Hakim, head of the Supreme Council for Islamic Revolution in Iraq. That makes Hakim a key man, whatever shape the government takes.