POLITICS-U.S.: The Good Soldier Abandons the Field

Monday's announcement that Secretary of State Colin Powell, by far the most popular of U.S. President George W Bush's war cabinet, has submitted his resignation marks the formal launch of a new scramble for top national-security posts that could bring an even more hard-line configuration to power.

U.S. ELECTION: The Test for the West

It is the future unity of the ''West'' that, more than any other basic factor in contemporary global affairs, is most at stake in Tuesday's presidential elections.

TRADE: G20 Gearing Up for Continued WTO Talks

The Group of 20 (G20), a voice for the developing South in multilateral trade negotiations, plans to expand its focus beyond the agricultural sector and seek closer ties to similar groups, according to the bloc's coordinator and spokesman, Brazilian Foreign Minister Celso Amorim.

POLITICS-U.S.: Poll Finds A Nation Chastened by War

Three years of the Bush administration's ''war on terrorism'' appears to have reduced the appetite of the U.S. public and its leaders for unilateral military engagements, according to a major survey released Tuesday by the Chicago Council on Foreign Relations (CCFR).

POLITICS-US: Three Years On, War on Terrorism Looks Like a Loser

Three years after al Qaeda-commandeered planes crashed into the World Trade Center towers in New York and the Pentagon, the leaked ruminations of Pentagon chief Donald Rumsfeld seem more pertinent than ever.

POLITICS-SUDAN: Ire on the Part of Government Officials

Sudan’s government has launched a scathing attack on the United States, accusing it of spearheading a campaign to have the United Nations apply sanctions against Khartoum over the crisis in Darfur.

POLITICS: U.N. Chief Seeks 30,000 More Troops for Peacekeeping

As the United Nations gets ready for the opening of the 59th session of the General Assembly next week, Secretary-General Kofi Annan has asked the 191 member states to provide more than 30,000 troops for an anticipated surge in demand for peacekeeping operations in the world's battle zones.

ARGENTINA: Small Far-Left Groups at the Core of Anti-IMF Protests

Small groups of far-left activists were at the core of Tuesday's sometimes violent street demonstrations in the Argentine capital, held to protest the visit by International Monetary Fund (IMF) Managing-Director Rodrigo Rato.

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.

POLITICS: U.S. Military to Extend Reach Into ‘Arc of Instability’

U.S. President George W Bush unveiled Monday one of the largest planned troop redeployments since the onset of the Cold War 50 years ago.

RIGHTS-U.S.: Groups Ask Court to Unlock Prisoner Abuse Info

Human rights, veterans and civil liberties groups on Thursday will urge a federal court to order the U.S. government to release records on the alleged mistreatment of prisoners at U.S. military bases and other detention facilities overseas, including Guantanamo Bay, Cuba and Abu Ghraib prison in Iraq.

POLITICS-U.S.: Attacking Neo-Cons From the Right

Why did the Bush administration invade Iraq?

POLITICS-LIBERIA: Policing the Police

Since the start of a United Nations disarmament programme in Liberia in December 2003, much attention has been paid to the painfully difficult process of reintegrating the country’s rebel troops into society.

POLITICS-U.S.: Hegemony Yes, Empire No in a Kerry Foreign Policy

If one were to reduce U.S. foreign policy under John Kerry - should he defeat President George W Bush in the November elections - to a four-word motto, it would probably be, ''Hegemony Yes, Empire No''.

POLITICS-US: Losing Arab Hearts and Minds – It’s the Policy, Stupid

If U.S. President George W Bush thinks his ''war on terror'' is winning Arab hearts and minds, he should think about conducting it much differently than he has over the past two years...

RIGHTS: U.S. Public Rejects Torture

Two-thirds of U.S. citizens believe their government should "never use physical torture" against detainees, and 90 percent reject sexually humiliating prisoners, as was done by U.S. soldiers at Baghdad's Abu Ghraib jail, according to a major survey of attitudes here.

POLITICS-U.S.: Neo-Cons Target Terrorism By Reviving Communism Foe

A bipartisan group of 41 mainly neo-conservative foreign-policy hawks has launched the third Committee on the Present Danger (CPD) whose previous two incarnations mobilised public support for rolling back Soviet-led communism but whose new enemy will be ''global terrorism''.

POLITICS-U.S.: Realists and Neo-Cons Renew Battle on Iran

A new round in the ongoing battle between realists and neo-conservative and other hawks over Iran policy got underway here Monday as a task force of the Council on Foreign Relations (CFR) published a new report urging Washington to engage Tehran on a selected range of issues of mutual concern.

POPULATION-U.S.: Bush Extends Jihad Against UNFPA

In what critics are calling its latest slap at women and multilateralism, the administration of U.S. President George W Bush announced Friday that the 34 million dollars Congress had earmarked for the U.N. Population Fund (UNFPA) will be used for other purposes.

POLITICS-EAST AFRICA: “It Is Not Our Intention to Stay Here Indefinitely”

The United Nations has voiced fresh concerns over the stalemate in efforts to end the border dispute between Ethiopia and Eritrea, saying it poses a security threat in the Horn of Africa.

POLITICS: U.S. Should Reach Out to African Muslims – Report

The United States should increase its military readiness for peacekeeping or counter-terrorist action in Africa, and make new efforts to reach out to the region's Muslim population, according to a new report by a 16-member bipartisan expert panel.