CHALLENGES 2005-2006: Rogue State? US Spurns Treaty After Treaty

In 1989, the United Nations put forth the Convention on the Rights of the Child - a treaty that protects the civil and economic rights of children around the world.

RIGHTS-US: Is Condi Channeling Keitel or Condor?

According to his memoirs, Field Marshal Wilhelm Keitel considered the secret abduction and rendition to Germany of suspected Resistance members - otherwise known as the Nacht und Nebel (Night and Fog) Decree - to be the worst of all of the orders issued by Adolf Hitler for the western occupied territories of the Third Reich during World War II.

POLITICS: Arab World Remains Hostile, Fearful Toward US

While the past 15 months have brought a slight decline in anti-U.S. sentiment, public opinion in the Arab world about Washington's policies and intentions in the Middle East remains overwhelmingly negative and deeply sceptical, according to a major new survey released here Friday.

POLITICS-US: Realists Tighten Grip as Talks Open with Iran

In a new indication that the balance of power within the administration of President George W. Bush has tilted strongly in favour of the realists, Washington's influential ambassador to Iraq, Zalmay Khalilzad, has disclosed that Bush has authorised him to open direct talks with Iran about stabilising Iraq.

PAKISTAN: Militants Gain Legitimacy Through Quake Relief

It is a safe bet that at least some of the 5.8 billion dollars worth of relief that the world has pledged for the quake-ravaged areas of northern Pakistan will pass through the hands of several banned jehadi militant groups that have found new legitimacy in humanitarian work.

POLITICS: Friends Help Iran Win Nuclear Match

The fact that the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA), meeting in Vienna, has steered clear of referring Iran to the United Nations Security Council, is being seen here as a sign of wide support for the country’s right to enrich uranium.

POLITICS: U.N. Faces New Political Threats From U.S.

John Bolton, the abrasive U.S. ambassador to the United Nations who has been dubbed by one New York newspaper as "a human wrecking ball", is living up to every critic's gloomy expectations.

POLITICS: U.N. Chief Denies Making a “Grab for Power”

Responding to widespread criticism that he is bending over backwards to appease U.S. politicians and placate U.N.-bashing right-wing neoconservatives, Secretary-General Kofi Annan told delegates that all political decisions in the world body will continue to be made by member states, not by the U.N. Secretariat he presides over.

POLITICS-US: Cheney Tries to Raise the Stakes

Amid growing pressure to begin withdrawing U.S. troops from Iraq and mounting charges by Democrats that senior administration officials misled the nation into war there, Vice President Dick Cheney appears to have taken charge of defending his boss and taking on the critics.

POLITICS: Iran May Get Off Nuclear Issue Hook

As the fraught question of Iran’s nuclear activities comes up before the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) on Thursday, there are indications of a softening up of the stands of a number of countries on the issue.

POLITICS: South Korea Wields ‘Soft Power’

Not long ago if you mentioned South Korea and 'regional power' in the same sentence, your audience would have laughed you out of business.

POLITICS-US: More Wheels Spin Off Iraq Policy

In a major new blow to President George W. Bush's determination to "stay the course" in Iraq, an influential Democratic hawk with close ties to the uniformed military has called for Washington to begin withdrawing U.S. troops immediately.

POLITICS-US: Elites Chastened by Iraq War

U.S. opinion leaders who expressed strong confidence in Washington's global leadership in the late 1990s have been chastened by the Iraq war, which has also spurred a sharp rise in isolationist sentiment in the general public, according to the latest in a series of surveys released here Tuesday by the Pew Research Centre for the People and the Press.

CHINA: Moves to Dispel Wariness Ahead of Bush Visit

As United States President George W. Bush flies to China for talks with top Chinese leaders later this week, both Beijing and Washington are focusing on how China uses its rising economic power and new military clout.

POLITICS-INDIA: Nuclear Deal With US Turns Faustian Bargain

Indian leaders are finding, to their dismay, that they confront far tougher choices in implementing a controversial nuclear agreement they signed with the United States, than they had bargained for.

POLITICS-US: Congress Sends Mixed Signals on Detainee Rights

As U.S. President George W. Bush's poll numbers plummet, questions about how his administration "sold" the invasion of Iraq to the public and its treatment of prisoners seized in the "war on terror" continue to dog the beleaguered president, stalling his second-term agenda.

RIGHTS-US: Report on Covert Prisons Abroad Spurs UN, EU Probes

Pressure mounted on the George W. Bush administration Thursday to provide details of secret prisons abroad reportedly run by the Central Intelligence Agency (CIA), where terror suspects are held incommunicado in dark, sometimes underground cells.

RIGHTS-US: Rumsfeld Rejects U.N. Access to Guantanamo

Amid growing concern over the fate and conditions of inmates engaged in a lengthy hunger strike at the U.S. detention facility at Guantanamo Bay, Cuba, U.S. Defence Secretary Donald Rumsfeld Tuesday said he would not permit U.N. investigators to interview detainees there.

RIGHTS: Mexico Defies Washington on ICC

If Washington follows through on threats to slash aid to Mexico as punishment for its accession to the International Criminal Court (ICC), it risks further alienating key U.S. allies and drawing attention to its own increasingly shaky human rights record, say activists.

POLITICS: India Abandons Global Nuclear Disarmament

Seven years after blasting its way into the world’s 'nuclear club', India has executed a major shift in its policy stance by jettisoning its long-standing advocacy of global nuclear disarmament in favour of nuclear non-proliferation.

POLITICS-US: Frustrated Scowcroft Assails Neo-Cons, Cheney

One week after a top aide to former Secretary of State Colin Powell issued a blistering attack on foreign policy-making in the George W. Bush administration, Brent Scowcroft, who served as national security adviser under Bush's father, assailed neo-conservatives who persuaded the president to go to war in Iraq.