SPECIAL REPORT: The ‘Prop-Agenda’ at War

In an interview with Arabic broadcaster al-Jazeera, President Bush's national security adviser Condoleezza Rice said in 2001 that she did not want U.S. networks to show Osama bin Laden tapes because "it was not a matter of news, it was a matter of propaganda."

MEDIA: The Price of Surfing Can Be Prison

When he downloaded some material on Syria and emailed it to his friends, Abdel Rahman al-Shaghouri did not think he would end up in prison.

JAPAN: Koizumi’s Iraq Policy Comes Under Test in Elections

Mariko Ishibashi, 26, a company receptionist, has already decided she will not cast her ballot next month in an election that could crucially determine Japan's deployment of troops to join a multinational force in Iraq.

HUMAN RIGHTS: Iraq, Afghanistan and Guantanamo in UN’s Sights

Independent human rights experts are asking the United Nations to send an urgent mission to Iraq, Afghanistan and Guantánamo, the U.S. enclave in Cuba, to monitor humanitarian conditions and legal status of the people being held on suspicion of terrorism.

POLITICS: Iraq War Analysis Paints Grim Picture

Unless you own a lot of stock in Halliburton or other big defence, security, or construction companies, chances are the Iraq war has turned out to be a pretty bad investment, both in human lives and taxpayer dollars, according to a new assessment by a progressive Washington-based think tank, the Institute for Policy Studies (IPS).

POLITICS: U.S. Abandons Move to Exempt Troops from War Crimes

Faced with the prospect of a humiliating defeat, the United States abandoned its proposal to seek Security Council exemption for U.S. soldiers from possible war crime charges in future U.N. peacekeeping operations overseas.

SOUTH KOREA: Public Pressure Grows Against Troop Deployment

Although the government announced that its decision to deploy 3,000 troops to Iraq is unlikely to be swayed by the beheading of a South Korean hostage, mounting public protests, however, could force it to cancel the deployment.

RIGHTS: Abu Ghraib Tactics Inspire Torture in Neighbour Egypt

In what may be the first concrete example of the effects of the Abu Ghraib prison torture scandal in Iraq, lawyers and human rights groups in Egypt, a major U.S. ally in the Middle East, say that local police are increasingly resorting to new torture tactics similar to those used by U.S. soldiers in Iraq.

POLITICS-AFGHANISTAN: No Fair Elections Without Security

While more than 140,000 U.S. troops in Iraq continue trying to impose security in advance of the Jun. 30 handover of limited sovereignty to the new Iraqi administration, the security situation in nearby Afghanistan continues to deteriorate.

IRAQ: A Wreck Will Be Hard to Drive

The authorisation was in writing. Brigadier-General Amer Ali, the second most senior officer of the Iraqi Police had given IPS permission to interview officers inside the Asha'ab police station in Baghdad.

MIDEAST: Mubarak’s Aches Bring Succession Anxiety

Rumours that Egyptian President Hosni Mubarak is suffering a serious health crisis have sparked fresh concerns about a possible successor.

POLITICS-U.S.: Bush Team Tries to Brazen It Out

''The reason I keep insisting that there was a relationship between Iraq and Saddam and al-Qaeda'', U.S. President George W Bush told reporters Thursday, is ''because there was a relationship between Iraq and al-Qaeda''.

MEDIA-MIDEAST: Yemeni Journalists Fight for Rights

The Eastern Court in Yemeni capital Sana'a suspended publication of the al-Shamoa weekly for three months last week and sentenced its editor Abdulbasit al-Shameeri to imprisonment for that period. He was also fined a half million Yemeni Riyals (2,800 dollars).

IRAQ: The West May Go On Trial with Saddam

A year after the fall of Saddam Hussein, the mountains and plains of Northern Iraq are still covered in landmines planted by the former Iraqi dictator's regime during the 1980s. That is when he fought a decade-long war with Iran and many battles with Kurdish guerrillas.

REFUGEE DAY: A Third Time Homeless

Standing amid the rubble of their homes demolished during the latest fighting last month, they said it was the third time they had been made homeless by the conflict.

POLITICS-JAPAN: Koizumi Ushers In Active Foreign Policy

The commitment made by Japanese Prime Minister Junichiro Koizumi to the international community that the country's Self Defense Forces (SDF) would join a planned multinational force in Iraq, has far-reaching implications globally.

POLITICS: Retired Top Diplomats, Soldiers Tell Bush to Beat It

In an unprecedented broadside, more than two-dozen top retired U.S. career diplomats and military commanders, many of whom reached their top positions under former President George HW Bush, have called for George W Bush to be defeated in his re-election bid in November.

POLITICS-U.S.: 9/11 Panel Challenges Bush on Al-Qaeda-Iraq Links

In a direct challenge to recent assertions by both President George W Bush and Vice President Dick Cheney, the special bipartisan commission investigating the Sep. 11, 2001 terrorist attacks against New York and the Pentagon has found ''no credible evidence'' of any operational link between Iraq and al-Qaeda.

POLITICS-U.S.: Halliburton Under Renewed Fire for Iraq Deals

U.S. military auditors have criticised construction giant Halliburton for the way it does business in Iraq, concerns amplified by former employees who are alleging financial abuses in the U.S.-occupied country.

POLITICS: Stymied in Iraq, Hawks Still Positioning US as Globocop

Although their hopes for transforming Iraq into a pro-U.S. base in the heart of the Arab world have been badly set back, neo-imperial hawks in the Bush administration are proceeding as fast as possible to reinvent U.S. forces worldwide as ''globocop'', capable of pre-empting any possible threat to its interests at a moment's notice.

IRAQ: Dinar Falls Victim to Violence

Egyptian speculators who stashed away "Bremer dinars" earlier this year in the hope their value would skyrocket have suffered enormous losses as the official Iraqi currency plummets.