/UPDATE*/RIGHTS: Groups Protest Exclusion From Guantanamo Trials

Leading human rights groups say the United States plans to block them from attending trials of prisoners being held at the Guantanamo Bay naval base in Cuba as part of the U.S. "war on terrorism".

RIGHTS: Groups Protest Exclusion From Guantanamo Trials

Leading human rights groups say the United States plans to block them from attending trials of prisoners being held at the Guantanamo Bay naval base in Cuba as part of the U.S. "war on terrorism".

HEALTH-U.S.: AIDS Activists Slam New Bush Strategy

President George W. Bush's new, five-year, 15-billion-dollar strategy for fighting the global HIV/AIDS pandemic provoked dismay among health activists here Monday, just hours after the 103-page document was released and the first disbursements - totalling 350 million dollars - were announced.

IRAQ: Chalabi, Garner Provide New Clues to War

For those still puzzling over the whys and wherefores of Washington's invasion of Iraq 11 months ago, major new, but curiously unnoticed, clues were offered this week by two central players in the events leading up to the war.

AFGHANISTAN: Elections Could Worsen Ethnic Divide

With only four months to go before scheduled elections in Afghanistan, a growing number of observers are concerned that balloting might aggravate rising ethnic tensions between the northern and southern parts of the country.

IRAQ: Zarqawi Letter Delivers Mixed Message for War Hawks

A letter purportedly written to senior al-Qaeda leaders by a key associate, Abu Mus'ab al-Zarqawi, appears to undermine a major thesis of hard-core neo-conservatives who led the U.S. drive to war in Iraq.

POLITICS: New U.S. Plans for Nukes Hypocritical, Say Experts

Proposed new U.S. curbs on the proliferation of nuclear weapons are fundamentally hypocritical, U.S. academics, military analysts and peace activists said Wednesday.

POLITICS-EAST AFRICA: Will Axworthy Succeed Where Others Have Failed?

As the United Nations' new envoy to Ethiopia and Eritrea settles into his post, relations between the two countries appear as inflexible as ever.

POLITICS: Doubts Arise as U.N. Readies Iraq Elections Team

Pressed by the United States, the United Nations will send an electoral team to assess the feasibility of holding nation-wide elections in Iraq before the end of June.

SECURITY-AMERICAS: No Safe Port for Terrorists

The nations of the Americas yielded to U.S. insistence and pledged here Friday to redouble their anti-terrorism security measures at their airports and sea ports.

HEALTH: Small-Time Firms Smoke Out Tobacco Profits

While tobacco multinationals remain the most visible adversaries of anti-smoking activists, smaller companies flying under the radar have taken advantage of Big Tobacco's woes to boost their own profits and, some say, undercut strategies to curb smoking.

TRADE: Reforming WTO Still a Distant Goal

Consensus on how to reform the embattled World Trade Organisation (WTO) will not be easy to achieve, if a survey of experts is any indicator.

POLITICS-U.S.: Aid Budget Backs UNESCO, UN Population Fund

The 24 billion dollars earmarked for international spending by the United States this year includes more than 100 million dollars for two United Nations agencies that have been cut off from U.S. funds in recent years.

POLITICS: Small Island States Hope to Resurface on World Stage

The world's small island developing countries are preparing to launch sustainable development for a second time.

IRAQ: U.N. Agrees to Assess Early Elections

U.N. Secretary-General Kofi Annan agreed Monday to send a team of experts to Baghdad to assess the feasibility of holding direct elections in Iraq this year, an idea the United States has already rejected as impracticable.

POLITICS: U.S. Wants U.N. in Iraq to Back Election Plan – Experts

In a bygone era, whenever the United States was hip-deep in military trouble overseas, the resounding battle cry in the nation's capital was: ''Send in the Marines!''

POLITICS: U.S. Pushes ‘Entrepreneurial Spirit’ for Latin America

The United States says it will urge leaders from 34 Americas nations meeting this week to continue to democratise their societies, open up their economies, introduce property rights, commit to free trade and assist businesses to operate in their countries.

POLITICS: Resources Divide Delegates Drafting Disabled Rights Text

A proposed transfer of resources from the North to the South is shaping up as a stumbling block at a conference to draft a human rights convention for people with disabilities.

POLITICS-EAST AFRICA: New Peace Envoy Faces Blunt Rejection

The United Nations is meeting stiff resistance in its appointment of a special envoy to help end a border dispute between Ethiopia and Eritrea.

POLITICS: Squeezed Japan Threatens Cuts to U.N. Agencies

Faced with an increase in its mandatory contributions to the 2004-05 U.N. budget, Japan plans to cut voluntary contributions to more than a dozen U.N. development agencies and international humanitarian organisations worldwide.

U.S.: Business Boos Anti-Globalisation Forces – in the White House

If anti-globalisation radicals really want to tear down the world capitalist system they might want to go door-to-door next year on behalf of incumbent U.S. president, George W. Bush.