RIGHTS: EU Watchdog Probes Renditions, “Black Sites”

The 46-member Council of Europe, the continent's oldest political organisation, is investigating whether European governments have allowed Washington to use their airspace to ferry terror suspects to third countries or to secret prisons dubbed "black sites", where detainees were allegedly tortured.

POLITICS-US: Public Sees Bush as Getting No Respect Abroad

A large majority of the U.S. public believes that Pres. George W. Bush, whose carefully cultivated image of no-nonsense cowboy toughness has been a hallmark of his presidency, has become the Rodney Dangerfield of international politics, according to the latest in a series of annual surveys by the Gallup polling firm.

RELIGION: U.S. Christian Leaders Apologise For Iraq War

Christian leaders from the United States lamented the war in Iraq and apologised for their government's current foreign policy during the 9th Assembly of the World Council of Churches in Porto Alegre, Brazil, which ended Thursday.

RIGHTS-US: Remember Rendition?

A few months ago - particularly after The Washington Post broke the story of secret U.S. "black sites" in Eastern Europe - it would have been difficult to pick up a newspaper or watch television without hearing the words "extreme rendition".

POLITICS-US: “Leninists!” Cries Neo-Con Nabob, Suing for Divorce

The Washington foreign policy elite finds itself on pins and needles this week awaiting a response from the neo-conservative heavyweights at the Weekly Standard magazine to a scorching denunciation by one of their most venerable fellow-travelers, Francis Fukuyama, in Sunday's New York Times Magazine.

RIGHTS-US: Reports Find Tenuous Terror Ties at Guantanamo

Last June, U.S. Defence Secretary Donald Rumsfeld told reporters, "If you think of the people down there (at Guantanamo Bay, Cuba), these are people, all of whom were captured on a battlefield. They're terrorists, trainers, bomb makers, recruiters, financiers, (Osama bin Laden's) bodyguards, would-be suicide bombers, probably the 20th 9/11 hijacker."

IRAN: Last Chance for Diplomacy?

A meeting between the Iranian and Russian governments in Moscow on Monday may be the last chance for diplomacy before international sanctions and other punitive measures against Tehran become inevitable, according to most observers.

RIGHTS: UN Report Fuels Debate Over Guantanamo

Foreign policy and human rights experts appear to agree with a United Nations report calling on Washington to shut down its detention facility at Guantanamo Bay, Cuba, but most believe that simply closing it misses a larger point: What to do with the prisoners?

/CORRECTED REPEAT*/U.S.: Top Mideast Analyst Accuses Bush of Politicising Iraq Intel

The U.S. intelligence community's top Middle East analyst from 2000 to 2005 has accused the George W. Bush administration of distorting and politicising intelligence in the run-up to the Iraq war.

POLITICS-U.S.: In Public’s Eyes, Iran Biggest Foreign Menace

The escalating crisis over Iran's nuclear programme appears to have persuaded the U.S. public that Tehran now poses a greater threat to the United States than any other country, or even al Qaeda, according to recent surveys.

POLITICS: Snags Surface in India-US Nuclear Deal

The chairman of India's Atomic Energy Commission (AEC) has sent shock waves through the Indian establishment by accusing the United States of ''changing the goalpost'' while finalising a far-reaching, one-of-its-kind nuclear cooperation deal with India, initialled last July.

SOUTH KOREA: No Gain in Painful US-Pyongyang Deal

Brokering peace between Washington and Pyongyang is no easy task and experts here say that the South Korean government has not made things any easier for itself by being deliberately ambiguous.

IRAN: Confrontation on the Cards

Now that the Western powers have reached a deal with Russia and China to refer Iran's nuclear activities to the United Nations Security Council (UNSC), a serious escalation of tensions with Tehran is on the cards.

THAILAND: Free Trade With US Will Hurt Health Care

Will the hands that save the lives of Thailand's sick be tied once a free trade deal between this country and the United States is signed, later this year?

POLITICS: Sanctions on Iran, a Chinese Puzzle

As the international community weighs its options on dealing with Iran's disputed nuclear proliferation, ahead of an emergency meeting of the United Nations nuclear watchdog in Vienna later this week, Chinese leaders are faced with a serious security conundrum.

IRAQ: US Realignment With Sunnis Is Far Advanced

Two major revelations this past week show how far the George W. Bush administration has already shifted its policy toward realignment with Sunni forces to balance the influence of pro-Iranian Shiites in Iraq.

RIGHTS-US: Hamdan Case Tests Indefinite Detentions

Since Hurricane Katrina smashed into the Mississippi Gulf Coast last August, the U.S. government has come under scathing criticism for being slow to respond.

RIGHTS-US: Post-9/11 Dragnet Snares Class Action Lawsuit

Four Muslim men who were detained without charge for months in the aftermath of Sep. 11, 2001, eventually cleared of any connection to terrorism, but then deported to Egypt, have been allowed to return to the U.S. to pursue their class action civil lawsuit against the U.S. government.

POLITICS-US: The Demagogue Neocons Love to Hate

"Let us state the obvious," wrote Reuel Marc Gerecht, the resident Persian Gulf specialist at the neo-conservative American Enterprise Institute in the Weekly Standard's feature article Monday. "The new president of the Islamic Republic of Iran, Mahmoud Ahmadinejad, is a godsend."

IRAN: Keeping Nuclear Negotiations Critical

By allowing inspectors from the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) to visit and verify its nuclear programme this week, Iran has indicated readiness to work with the United Nations watchdog, while continuing to limit the role of the Western powers.

RIGHTS: US, European Hypocrisy Left “Leadership Void”

The Bush administration's "global war on terrorism" continued to set back the cause of human rights in 2005, according to a major U.S. rights group, which said that U.S. and European hypocrisy in carrying out that war led to a "global leadership void" that had been taken advantage of by more opportunistic powers, particularly Russia and China.