Bush's safe legacy?
Foreign Policy magazine suggests that the "freedom agenda" set out by the Bush administration's international policy will have a lasting effect on future governments, even if Democrats come to power through the November 2008 elections. Despite the unpopularity of the Iraq war, the Bush administration's drive to "export democracy" will continue to set the tenor of American foreign policy.
Keep up to date with the latest developments and sharpest perspectives in a world of strife and struggle.
Sign up for toD's daily security briefings by clicking hereHistorians are at odds with Bush's interpretation of events in his comparison of the situation in Iraq with that of Vietnam. Speaking in front of a conference of US war veterans, Bush claimed that it would be a mistake to withdraw from Iraq as Washington had done from Vietnam, since the retreat from Saigon resulted, according to Bush, in the killing fields of Cambodia and the boat people crisis.
An Asian "Arc of Freedom"
On his visit to India, Japanese prime minister Shinzo Abe called for the creation of an "arc of freedom and prosperity" in Asia, uniting India, Japan, Australia and the United States. There is substance to the rhetoric; Abe travelled to India with over 200 prominent business leaders.
Curfews declared in Bangladesh
Bangladesh's military-backed government has declared a curfew in six cities across the country, including the capital Dhaka, as riots and violent student demonstrations spill out from university campuses. Unrest flared on Monday when students attending a football match at a Dhaka college protested against the presence of the army on the campus. Students have struck across the country in solidarity with the Dhaka students, clashing with police and other security forces in violence that has left one dead and 50 injured.
Talabani snubs Paris invite
After Foreign Minister Bernard Kouchner became the highest ranking French official to visit Iraq since the 2003 US-led invasion, Iraqi president Jalal Talabani rejected a proposed "peace conference" in Paris that would bring all of Iraq's feuding groups to the negotiation table.
The trial of Ali Hassan al-Majid, the Saddam-era military commander known as Chemical Ali for his part in the gassing of villages in the north of Iraq in the 1980s, has gone on trial for his separate involvement in the brutal repression of a Shia uprising in the south of the country in 1991.
An American Black Hawk helicopter crashed in northern Iraq, killing all 14 crew and soldiers on board. The soldiers were part of Task Force Lightning.
Suspected militants linked with al-Qaida have assassinated Sheikh Yunis al-Tai, a Sunni leader in Diyala province known for his opposition to al-Qaida. Sunni militants collaborating with government and American forces against al-Qaida have come under heavy attack from the extremists.
Heavy fighting in the villages of Sheikh Tamim and Ibrahim Yehia north of Baghdad underscored the divide between local Sunni militants and al-Qaida. Two hundred al-Qaida fighters raided the villages, kidnapping 15 women and children. In fierce gun battles, 32 people were killed.
Australia's opposition Labour party has promised to withdraw the country's forces from Iraq should it win forthcoming elections.
Still in Gitmo
The lawyer of an Al-Jazeera cameraman held in Guantanamo Bay claims that his client, Sami al-Hajj, is "just losing it" physically and mentally, after going on a hunger strike in July.
Pro-Israel groups protest New York Arab school
New York State assemblymen along with right-wing and pro-Israel groups are protesting the creation of a bilingual Arabic and English school in New York City, suggesting that the school was little more than a "madrasa" set to indoctrinate its pupils against Israel and the United States. The school's principal - who herself is Jewish - insisted that the school will not teach Islam, and that it would be like any other New York City state school, only that fluency in Arabic would be mandatory.
Pressure on Germans in Afghanistan
German officials fear that its aid workers and soldiers in Afghanistan are being singled out for attack by Taliban forces in order to persuade Berlin to minimise its role in the country.
Arsala Jamal, governor of the southeastern province of Khost, survived an attack on his life. This is the second attack in a week against Afghan provincial governors.
Maghrebi Qaida take responsibility
The so-called Qaida affiliate organisation in north Africa, al-Qaida in the Maghreb, has claimed that one of its fighters was responsible for an attempt on the life of the former Islamist leader Mustapha Kertali. However, al-Qaida in the Maghreb claim that the group had not sanctioned the attack. Kertali was the founder of the banned Salvation Islamic Front.
Unrest in Khuzestan
Iranian authorities claim to have uncovered a militant insurgent group in the oil-rich southwestern province of Khuzestan that seeks to sow "sectarian division" in the region. Khuzestan, on the border with Iraq, is home to a large number of Sunni Arabs, a minority in predominantly Shia Iran.
Leftist deception in the Philippines
Communist rebels of the New People's Army in the Philippines entered a police station in San Isidro dressed as policemen, before proceeding to disarm all the actual policemen in the station and emptying the arsenal of arms and munitions.
Ron May dissects the troubled political and security situation in the south of the Philippines on terrorism.openDemocracy.
