POLITICS-US: Jews Give Bush, Republicans Failing Grades

Despite Republican efforts, led by President George W. Bush, to align the party squarely behind the policies of successive right-wing governments in Israel, U.S. Jews are expected to vote overwhelmingly for Democratic candidates in next week's elections.

MIDEAST: 50 Years After Suez, U.S. Hegemony Ebbing Fast

As the Middle East prepares to mark the 50th anniversary on Oct. 29 of the Suez Crisis that effectively ended European colonialism, a half century of U.S. hegemony in the region also appears to be coming to an end, according to a growing number of analysts here.

POLITICS: U.N. Security Council Edicts Challenged

The United Nations Security Council, the only body empowered to declare war and peace and also impose punitive economic and military sanctions, is being increasingly challenged by defiant member states.

POLITICS-US: Muslim and Arab Americans Ditch Republicans

Increasingly disillusioned with more than five years of the "global war on terror", Arab- and Muslim-American voters are poised to vote heavily Democratic in the Nov. 7 mid-term elections, according to two polls released this week.

HEALTH: Israel/Lebanon Conflict Leaves Deadly Legacy

The Israeli war against Lebanon was over soon after the United Nations brokered a ceasefire agreement last August. But while that may be true for outsiders, is not for the Lebanese.

EGYPT: Nuclear Ambition Could Mean a Presidential Dream

An announcement that the government intends to produce nuclear energy for peaceful purposes is provoking heated debate.

MIDEAST: Peacemaking Goes Into Deep Coma

The Qatari foreign minister proposing a six-point plan for a Fatah-Hamas government of national unity, including a two-state solution to the Mideast conflict. The U.S. Secretary of State visiting Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas and Israeli Prime Minister Ehud Olmert in a bid to revive long-moribund peace talks. Leaks to the press regarding a meeting between Olmert and a "very senior" figure in the Saudi regime, just as the Saudis are said to be actively trying to renew peace talks in the region.

MIDEAST: Appeals Grow For Comprehensive Settlement

Amid signs that the administration of President George W. Bush remains unwilling to take stronger steps to get Israeli-Palestinian peace talks back on track, a growing number of prominent U.S. and foreign figures are calling for a new international mechanism to set the framework for a comprehensive settlement between Israel and its Arab neighbours.

POLITICS-US/MIDEAST: “Strategic Consensus” Redux?

President George W. Bush and his peripatetic secretary of state, Condoleezza Rice, may believe that they have broken with 60 years of U.S. policy in order to "transform" the Middle East, but to long-time regional observers, their latest initiatives look painfully familiar.

POLITICS-US: Elite Project Proposes Bipartisan Grand Strategy

After two years of consultations with more than 400 members of the U.S. foreign policy elite, a project headed by two leading international relations academics is calling for the adoption of a new U.S. grand strategy designed to address multiple threats and strengthen Washington's commitment to a reformed and reinvigorated multilateral order.

POLITICS: U.N. Takes Beating from World Leaders

The United Nations took a severe political beating during the opening week of the 61st session of the General Assembly as several world leaders chastised the organisation - specifically its 15-member Security Council - for its failure to assert its authority in some of the world's battle zones.

POLITICS-US: Top CIA Expert Slams Bush Anti-Terror Actions

The Central Intelligence Agency's (CIA) recently retired top expert on radical Islamists has strongly denounced the conduct of U.S. President George W. Bush's "global war on terrorism" and the continued U.S. military presence in Iraq, which he said is "contributing to the violence".

IRAQ: Artists Speak For Lebanon

If art knows no boundaries, artists don't either. Through witnessing destruction all around them, Iraqi artists have found time to spare a thought and more for Lebanon.

MIDEAST: Embargo Squeezes Palestinian Workers

The U.S.-Israeli embargo on Palestinians imposed in the aftermath of the electoral victory of the Islamic Resistance Movement, or Hamas, in the occupied territories has lead to severe poverty and nonpayment of Palestinian workers, a new study by a U.S. pro-labour group says.

MIDEAST: Hezbollah Ahead of Govt Again

Sectarian political fissures are widening in Lebanon nearly one month after a United Nations brokered ceasefire went into affect, due in part to a muted political battle being waged internally between Hezbollah and the Lebanese government as both attempt to show displaced Lebanese residents that they are committed to rebuilding their lives and their homes.

POLITICS-US: Time Runs Out on Bolton Nomination

What looked like a virtually sure thing just one month ago - Senate confirmation of the Bush administration's controversial ambassador to the United Nations, John Bolton - is suddenly looking unexpectedly shaky.

MIDEAST: Blair Plays Dubious Statesman

It was not perhaps the best day for British Prime Minister Tony Blair to talk peace in Lebanon. The date was a reminder how closely Britain led by Blair has backed the U.S. led 'war on terror' since those attacks in New York and Washington five years back.

U.S.-9/11: Five Years In, Bush Is Losing Terror War

To consider whether U.S. President George W. Bush is winning his "global war on terror" (GWOT) five years after al Qaeda's devastating 9/11 attacks on New York and the Pentagon, one has only to look at the news of the past few days.

POLITICS-US/ISRAEL: The Conversion Factor

As Christian evangelicals in the United States grow their support for Israel, conversion of Jews to Christianity continues to be a thorny issue for both Christians and Jews.

MIDEAST: Olmert Faces His Battle Now

Israeli Prime Minister Ehud Olmert must be wondering from where the next blow to his increasingly tenuous hold on office is going to come.

POLITICS: Non-Alignment Survives Despite End of Cold War

When the Non-Aligned Movement (NAM) was launched in the early 1960s during the height of the U.S.-Soviet Cold War, it was the largest single political grouping of developing nations taking a unified stand at the United Nations.