POLITICS: Unclouded by Doubt, Bush Vows Freedom-Spreading Mission

Kicking off his second four-year term, President George W. Bush Thursday delivered an inaugural address filled with the righteous resolve and soaring rhetoric that are music to his core constituency, but will almost certainly grate on the nerves of almost everybody else, both here and abroad.

POLITICS: Bush Bad for Global Peace, US Image, World Believes

As George W. Bush prepares to be sworn in for his second term as U.S. president, a strong majority of the world's people are concerned his tenure is likely to produce more setbacks to the cause of world peace and security, according to a major international poll released Wednesday.

IRAQ: The Guilt Is In the Camera

The court martial of three British soldiers for abuse of Iraqi prisoners has established that a soldier is only as bad as the photographs of the abuse that get taken.

IRAQ: Welcome Back to Kurdistan

My journey back to Iraq began, as most trips to the north of the country do, at the airport in Diyarbakkir, the largest Kurdish majority city in Turkey.

IRAQ: U.S. Military Resorting to Collective Punishment

The U.S. military is resorting to collective punishment tactics in Iraq similar to those used by Israeli troops in the occupied territories of Palestine, residents say.

IRAQ: Election Begins to Worry Neighbours

Iraq's neighbours have begun to worry seriously about its national election scheduled for Jan. 30.

POLITICS-U.S.: Neo-Conservatives At Sea

Jubilant over President George W. Bush's re-election victory just two months ago, neo-conservatives who played a leading role in shaping the radical trajectory of U.S. foreign policy after the Sep. 11, 2001, terrorist attacks appear increasingly divided on key issues and uncertain of their position in Bush's second term.

WORLD SOCIAL FORUM: In the U.S., Polls and Bullets Blot Out Upcoming Summit

Activists from the United States are heading to Brazil for the upcoming World Social Forum, determined to refute the widespread belief that their country has "gone Republican". They’re also in search of fresh inspiration for the fight against the exploitation of people, and natural resources.

POLITICS: Apparently, Death Squads Neither Quaint Nor Obsolete

On Sunday, the U.S. periodical Newsweek revealed that the Pentagon is actively considering an effort in Iraq that human rights groups say more closely resembles a dark and desperate homage to D'Aubissonism than an actual policy initiative.

POLITICS: Doubts Multiply as Canada Prepares to Back Iraqi Polls

Although Canada conspicuously stayed out of the war in Iraq two years ago, Ottawa's decision to help monitor the controversial Jan. 30 elections in the violence-torn country has some critics wondering about the choices being made by a national government that styles itself as a promoter of democracy internationally.

US-IRAQ: Families of the Fallen Unite in Grief – And Anger

It has been nearly two years since Fernando Suarez del Solar's son Jesus, a lance corporal in the U.S. Marines, died during the invasion of Iraq.

POLITICS: Misdemeanors But No Felonies in UN Oil-for-Food Audit

A series of 58 internal audits of the multi-billion-dollar oil-for-food programme in Iraq has revealed overbilling and management lapses by its U.N. supervisors, but no large-scale fraud.

POLITICS-U.S.: More Dissent in Pentagon Ranks Over Iraq War

For the second time in as many months, a report by a key Pentagon advisory group has implicitly taken the administration of President George W. Bush to task for major failures in pre-war planning, particularly with respect to Iraq.

RIGHTS: Fresh Horrors at Guantanamo

A leading civil rights group says that government records pertaining to an investigation of prisoner abuses at the Guantanamo Bay detention centre in Cuba are still being withheld, and those it has received under a court order are so heavily censored that they "raise more questions than they answer".

IRAQ: U.S. Military Families Bring Help

Families of some U.S. soldiers killed in Iraq plan a strong protest to mark the second anniversary of the invasion. The group 'Military Families Speak Out' will hold a demonstration in Fayetteville, North Carolina, in the United States March 19.

RIGHTS-US: Trickle of Prison Abuse Reports Becoming A Torrent

Even as the alleged ringleader of the Abu Ghraib prison abuse scandal faces court-martial Friday, human rights groups are questioning whether his case is really the "aberration" the Pentagon claims.

POLITICS: Meanwhile, Back in Iraq…

While the world's attention has been focused for the past 10 days on the catastrophic tsunamis in South Asia and the subsequent relief efforts, the situation for the United States and its dwindling number of allies in Iraq appears to have worsened.

CHALLENGES 2004-2005: If Not a Unipolar World, Then What?

With the United States piling up unprecedented trade and budget deficits and bogged down in Iraq without a clear exit strategy, the neo-conservative vision of a U.S.-dominated, unipolar world over which Washington would rule as the ''new Rome'' is seen increasingly by foreign policy elites here as a chimera.

POLITICS-US: Dead Soldier’s Dad Finds No Enemy in Iraq

Fernando Suarez del Solar is a busy man. He is busy opening boxes, counting pills, counting bandages; he is busy checking everything in the boxes that come addressed to him from all over the United States.

CHALLENGES 2004-2005: Bye Bye Unipolar World

This time a year ago, U.S. forces had just pulled former Iraqi President Saddam Hussein from his ''spider hole'' near the Euphrates River, and top military commanders were trumpeting the crippling of the unanticipated deadly insurgency that bedevilled the U.S. occupation for months.

U.S.-IRAQ: Career Soldiers Salute Bush – Poll

Despite escalating violence in Iraq over the past year, almost two-thirds of active duty U.S. soldiers approve of President George W Bush's handling of the situation, and 73 percent believe Washington is ''very'' or ''somewhat likely'' to succeed in its goals there, found the annual 'Military Times Poll', released here Monday.