MEDIA-IRAQ: Not an Easy Place to Cover

How does a journalist report from a country like Iraq where the dynamics of the situation and the danger level change so rapidly?

IRAQ: A Presidential Kind of Visit to Europe

U.S.-appointed Iraqi president Ghazi al-Yawar begins a visit to Europe this week amidst uncertainty over the future of Iraq.

NEPAL: Himalayan Tranquillity Shattered By Religious Violence

A haunting spectre grips Nepal as the Himalayan kingdom mourns the deaths of 12 of its workers murdered in Iraq. There is a strong possibility that the relatives of the dead will never see the return of the bodies of the victims and this has incensed many Nepalis.

IRAQ: Such Close Neighbours in Baghdad

Mohammad Rabat is a farmer in his seventies. He lives with his wife and nine children in a single storey cement house in what has come to be known as the Green Zone.

IRAQ: Peace Deal Is One Thing, Peace Another

Shia cleric Muqtada al-Sadr has ordered his militia to cease fighting as a step towards the political arena, but the peace deal remains fragile amidst uncertainty and sporadic violence.

POLITICS: U.S.-Backed Armies Firing Blanks

Fear of being linked to U.S.-backed regimes that lack authority has inhibited potential recruits in violence-prone Iraq and Afghanistan from heeding calls to join nascent or rebuilding national armies, say U.S. academics and political and military analysts.

RIGHTS: Athens Produces Some Losing Winners

The old wisdom that you win something by just playing the game could hardly have been more true than for the Iraqi, Palestinian and Afghan teams at the Olympics.

IRAQ: The Oil Is Still Flowing, Somehow

Saboteurs attacked an oil pipeline in southern Iraq over the weekend, sending up pillars of smoke and bringing a slowdown in supply. It was by no means an isolated incident.

POLITICS: Victims’ Lawyers Laud Abu Ghraib Reports

Lawyers of detainees allegedly abused at Baghdad's Abu Ghraib prison say two recently released U.S. reports strengthen their cases that employees working for private firms that supplied translators and interrogators for the military took part in the shocking abuses.

POLITICS: Iraq War Issue Dominates Massive Anti-Bush Protest

Despite fear of mass arrests and terror alerts issued by the authorities, hundreds of thousands of people took to the streets here denouncing the George W. Bush administration's policies and the occupation of Iraq.

IRAQ: Learning New Lessons, And Some Old Ones

As almost six million Iraqi children prepare to start their second year at school away from the shadow of Saddam Hussein's regime, officials see major challenges ahead.

POLITICS: Guantanamo Hearings ‘Designed to Convict’, Says Expert

Pre-trial hearings that began Tuesday at the U.S. military base at Guantanamo Bay, Cuba of prisoners taken in the U.S. "war on terrorism" are "designed to convict," says one expert.

IRAQ: In the Middle of a Battle They Do Not Want

Najaf was in the grip of eerie silence Tuesday despite the U.S. jets flying across clear skies and the sound of mortar blasts that shook the town.

RIGHTS-U.S.: Hippocratic Oath AWOL at Military Prisons

Secret detention centres in Iraq and Afghanistan must be included in U.S. military monitoring of prisoner mistreatment, according to an article in the 'Lancet' medical journal that details collusion between medical staff and abusive interrogators.

POLITICS-U.S.: ‘Staggering Amount’ of Cash Missing In Iraq

Three U.S. senators have called on Defence Secretary Donald Rumsfeld to account for 8.8 billion dollars entrusted to the Coalition Provisional Authority (CPA) in Iraq earlier this year but now gone missing.

IRAQ: Depression Spreads to the Market

Seventeen months after the fall of Saddam Hussein, many Iraqi traders say the economy is stagnating.

POLITICS: Better Security ‘Indispensable’ for Afghan Vote – Annan

With battle-scarred Iraq in shambles, the United States is now trying to showcase war-ravaged Afghanistan as a potentially vibrant multi-party democracy on the road to political success, say U.N. diplomats and Afghan experts.

POLITICS: War Overtakes Economy as U.S. Voters’ Top Concern

The war in Iraq and other foreign affairs are more important to voters in the coming presidential election than the economy, marking the first time since the Vietnam era that U.S. citizens are putting more weight on foreign policy than domestic concerns, according to a poll released Wednesday.

IRAQ: ‘Wrenching Questions’ for UN Still Unanswered, a Year On

The bomb attack on the United Nations offices in Baghdad a year ago Thursday posed "wrenching, fundamental questions" for the world body with respect to security, to which answers have not yet been found.

IRAQ: Dealing with This Man Called Sadr

The failed efforts of the U.S.-backed Iraqi government to reach a peace deal with Shia cleric Moqtada Sadr has raised questions what can or should be done next to confront his armed movement.

IRAQ: How Much Has Changed, And How Little

What a difference a few months can make. The last time I was in Baghdad was late November. The city, the whole country for that matter, acutely felt under occupation. There were signs of it everywhere.