The top US general in Afghanistan, McChrystal, will soon formally order US and NATO forces to break away from fights with militants hiding in Afghan houses so the battles do not kill civilians. The author says that in the short run this could lead to ...

The Taliban's attitude towards the media in the Swat valley poses an alarming threat and terror to Pakistani journalists, says Sopoori. A climate of fear and self-censorship has turned this valley into one of the world's most dangerous places for journalists. ...

Almost 75% of Pakistanis live on an income below two dollars a day. Access to healthcare is difficult and expensive. For the large majority, government hospitals are the only resource and they are far and few. The amount of Rs. 6.48 billion allocated ...

The author tries to make sense over what is happening in Honduras. If Zelaya sides with Chavez, he will lose support throughout the world, particularly America. As much as Zelaya claims he wants a revolution, the truth is that Venezuela will never be ...

Robb explains why the US is such an indebted country. He believes it is because during the Great Depression, excessive lending was the only way to maintain the living standards of the vast bulk of the population at a time when wealth was being concentrated ...

An authoritative study from a UK think tank shows that the official statistics of the presidential election in Iran prove that election fraud has taken place. Cole says Khamenei has effectively made a coup, which threatens to abolish popular sovereignty. ...

The author contends that the Islamic Republic is at a turning point. So far the dispute is still between factions of the leadership, but depending on what happens it may begin challenging the basis of the Islamic Republic itself. The strategic decision ...

Sarkozy's new initiative to outlaw wearing a burqa in public in France has sparked quite a debate over the past week. MacDougall says there should be some other means of characterizing this oppression that has nothing to do with clothes. If any party ...

The author contends that US torture of detainees has not only been used against terrorists, but against regular people as well. He says thousands of civilians in Iraq and Afghanistan have been detained, many of them have been tortured brutally to the ...

Behind the scenes, Khamenei's arch rival Ayatollah Rafsanjani is believed to be working to remove the Supreme Leader and is even reported to be considering abolishing the post of Supreme Leader altogether in what would be the biggest constitutional change ...

Abraham tracks Russia's new initiatives in trying to become a key global commodity supplier. However, Russia's domestic and international ambitions are bound by the lack of funds and a tight global credit market. With commodity prices low, Russia's ambitions ...

Three decades ago Mir-Hossein Mousavi was waging a terrorist war on the US that included bloody attacks on the US embassy and Marine Corps barracks in Beirut. Stein quotes former CIA and military personnel who claim that when Mousavi was Prime Minister, ...

Schippert relays an eyewitness account of a government attack that occurred in Baharestan Square in central Tehran. Busloads of protesters were stopped and unloaded from their buses as Basij thugs commenced a massacre with axes, clubs, guns, and gas. ...

Obama is preparing an executive order that would reassert presidential authority to incarcerate terrorism suspects indefinitely. The author notes that wars only have "definite" endings in retrospect. Eventually the war on terror will end. When that day ...

Winship recounts the story of Secretary of State Seward's purchase of Alaska from Russia in 1867. He says the treaty was signed remarkably fast for the era. He then compares the time politicians had to discuss issues back then with today's 24 hour news ...