POLITICS-US: Requiem for Bush’s Unipolar Dream?

A week before the Group of Eight (G8) summit in St. Petersburg, Russia, U.S. President George W. Bush finds his power and authority - both at home and abroad - at their lowest ebb.

POLITICS: Israel Fears High Price for U.S. Strike on Iran

Israel has seldom been as quiet on Iran as in the last three months.

POLITICS: You Can’t Eat Peace

Against the backdrop of war and escalating violence in various parts of the world, participants at a five-day peace forum here urged a total ban on biological and nuclear weapons as well as the creation of a ministry that would be exclusively devoted to cultivating peace in all the countries of the world.

POLITICS-US: “Decent Respect” Might Help Image Woes Abroad

It was in 1776 that a group of British colonists living along the Atlantic seaboard of North America felt compelled to offer a public justification for their "Declaration of Independence" from their mother country out of "a decent Respect to the Opinions of Mankind".

POLITICS: German Urges Compromise on Iran Enrichment

German Defence Minister Franz Josef Jung's suggestion that Iran should be allowed to carry out a limited enrichment programme under the supervision of the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) has exposed a fundamental crack in the façade of unity among the six countries that have given Iran a proposal aimed at halting all its enrichment activities.

RIGHTS-US: “Unlawful Combatants” Do Have Rights, Court Rules

In a major defeat for President George W. Bush with potentially far-reaching implications for his conduct of the "war on terror", the U.S. Supreme Court Thursday ruled that military tribunals established by the Pentagon to try suspected terrorists held at Guantanamo Bay, Cuba violated the U.S. constitution.

POLITICS: Illicit Gun Trade Flourishes Despite Govt Pledges

As the 2006 Smalls Arms Survey was being circulated at the United Nations on Monday, Secretary-General Kofi Annan accepted a photo petition from one million people worldwide calling for tougher controls over the global arms trade.

RIGHTS: Pentagon Resists Ban on “Degrading Treatment”

As new reports detail further abuse by the U.S. military of its prisoners in Iraq and Afghanistan, a behind-the-scenes battle is being fought between the U.S. departments of state and defence about whether a key section of the Geneva Conventions should be included in new rules governing Army interrogation techniques.

MEDIA-IRAQ: Still Seeking Answers in U.S. Checkpoint Shooting

If one were to ask Italian journalist Giuliana Sgrena why she chose to report from Afghanistan, Algeria, Somalia and Iraq prior to February 2005, despite the many perils that face reporters in war zones and areas of conflict, her response would probably be similar to the one she gave to journalist Amy Goodman of the radio news show Democracy Now!.

POLITICS-US: Strategy Paper Reveals Bush Won’t Attack Iran

In every statement on Iran, officials of the George W. Bush administration routinely repeat the party line that "the president never takes any option off the table".

POLITICS: U.S. Image Abroad Takes a New Turn South

Three years after the U.S.-led invasion of Iraq, the image of the United States in Europe and the Islamic world has resumed its post-war slide, according to the latest in a series of surveys of public opinion in 14 countries released here Tuesday by the Pew Global Attitudes Project (PGAP).

RIGHTS-US: Groups Call for Probe of Guantanamo Suicides

The U.S. government sought to distance itself Tuesday from an official's statement calling the suicides of three Guantanamo Bay prisoners a "public relations move", as human rights groups, legal experts and newspapers in the Middle East renewed calls for the prison's closing.

POLITICS-US: “New American Century” Project Ends with a Whimper

Is the Project for the New American Century (PNAC), which did so much to promote the invasion of Iraq and an Israel-centred "global war on terror", closing down?

RIGHTS: Report Traces U.S./EU Covert Rendition Network

A long-awaited report by the Council of Europe on European complicity in "extraordinary renditions" secretly carried out by the Central Intelligence Agency (CIA) against suspected terrorists was hailed here Wednesday by human rights groups, even as the U.S. State Department tried to cast doubt on its findings.

RIGHTS: U.S. Groups Hail Censure of Washington’s “Terror War”

Human rights organisations here are hailing the recommendations of the United Nations Committee Against Torture that the United States close its Guantanamo Bay, Cuba, detention centre, cease holding detainees in secret prisons, and stop the practice of "rendering" prisoners to countries where they are likely to be tortured.

RIGHTS: U.S. Fights Redress for CIA Kidnapping “Mistake”

The U.S. government has again invoked the "state secrets" privilege, arguing that a public trial of a lawsuit against a former head of the Central Intelligence Agency (CIA) for abducting and imprisoning a German citizen would lead to disclosure of information harmful to U.S. national security.

RIGHTS-US: Gitmo Releases Suggest Numerous Mistakes

News that the Pentagon will soon release about a third of the prisoners still detained at Guantanamo Bay, Cuba has prompted the U.S. media and many in the blogosphere to recall Defence Secretary Rumsfeld's 2002 statement referring to Guantanamo prisoners as "the worst of the worst".

POLITICS-US: Amid Threats, Some Republicans Seek Talks on Iran

Amid a new escalation in threats between the United States and Iran over Tehran's nuclear programme, some prominent Republicans are calling for the administration of U.S. President George W. Bush to engage Tehran in direct talks.

POLITICS-US: Iran Crisis, Deja Vu All Over Again?

The drumbeat in some Washington foreign policy circles for "regime change" in Iran has striking similarities to the run-up to the Iraq invasion, and is being led by some of the usual suspects - like the American Enterprise Institute's Michael Ledeen.

POLITICS-US: To Battle Stations! To Battle Stations!

Led by a familiar clutch of neo-conservative hawks, major right-wing publications are calling on the administration of Pres. George W. Bush to urgently plan for military strikes - and possibly a wider war - against Iran in the wake of its announcement this week that it has successfully enriched uranium to a purity necessary to fuel nuclear reactors.

POLITICS-US: Iran Showdown Tests Power of “Israel Lobby”

One month after the publication by two of the most influential international relations scholars in the United States of a highly controversial essay on the so-called "Israel Lobby", their thesis that the lobby exercises "unmatched power" in Washington is being tested by rapidly rising tensions with Iran.