"A Problem from Hell": America and the Age of Genocide by Samantha Power. Pub: Basic Books, New York, 2002. Pp: 640. Hbk: $30.00.

Iraq handed UN officials a detailed dossier of its chemical, biological and nuclear research projects and facilities earlier this month, in accordance with last month’s UN resolution.

With virulent anti-Islamic fervour gripping policy-makers in the West, it is not surprising that the Islamic movement is also coming under intense pressure. ZAFAR BANGASH, director of the Institute of Contemporary Islamic Thought, discusses some of the approaches Islamic movements are taking to find a way forward.

A Palestinian citizen from Ghazzah revealed on December 9 that Mossad, the Israeli Intelligence Service, had attempted to enlist him to establish a terrorist cell in Palestine under the name of al-Qa’ida

Long-simmering tensions between Riyadh and Washington about money flowing from Saudi charities to people and groups classified as “terrorist” by the US have once again erupted.

For any deluded mind still harbouring doubts that America’s policy in the Middle East is hostage to Israeli interests, the twists and turns in US-Syrian relations since the attacks on the WTC and the Pentagon present food for thought.

More than two years after the collapse of the so-called humanitarian pause signed by Jakarta and the Free Aceh Movement (GAM) in Geneva, both parties met again on December 9, this time to sign a peace treaty and end decades of bloodshed in the North Sumatran region.

While attention is focused on the US-engineered Iraq crisis, the world’s real axis of evil, comprised of the US, Israel and India, is getting more involved in Afghanistan. Although the Americans have in effect occupied Afghanistan, they have failed to subdue the Afghans...

The US government is not a single-issue organization. While huge attention is now being paid to preparing the ground for America’s occupation of Iraq, another arm of the administration is engaged, with a lower profile, in pursuing Washington’s interests in Venezuela...