Israel has spared no effort in bringing the world's attention to its seizure of a ship carrying tonnes of apparently Iranian-supplied weapons bound for Hezbollah in Lebanon, via Egypt and Syria. If history is any guide, the incident could be

This week's landmark visit by senior United States officials to Myanmar featured meetings with military leaders, pro-democracy figure Aung San Suu Kyi and ethnic groups, but none led to any diplomatic breakthrough. Critics claim Washington's engagement gambit, far from being

The Pentagon well knows that AfPak is the key land bridge between Iran to the west and China and India to the east; and that Iran has all the energy that both China and India need. The balkanization of AfPak

Allegations in a wiretapped conversation involving businessman Anggodo Widjojo, police and prosecutors, in which they appeared to plot against Indonesia's top anti-graft body, have also mentioned President Susilo Bambang Yudhoyono. The shadow over Yudhoyono's hitherto squeaky clean image is darkened

In an echo of the protests that demanded the ouster of dictator Suharto more than a decade ago, Indonesians this month put pressure on President Susilo Bambang Yudhoyono over the arrest of two anti-corruption commissioners, subsequently released. This time around,

Bilateral talks scheduled between Stephen Bosworth, the United States point man on North Korea, and the leadership in Pyongyang - purportedly over coaxing the North back into six-party talks on its nuclear weapons program - may just be a smokescreen

If the Mohammedans won't come to the mountain, then the mountain - or at least a stone from it - can come to the Mohammedans - or their closest neighboring compatriots. The visit of a female Israeli tennis player to

The Origin, Process, and Outcome of China's Reforms in the Past One Hundred Years by Enbao Wang Much of the English-language discourse on China's unpredicted rise is divided between those who are fascinated and those who are frightened. The author

The picture is familiar - higher oil prices, a lower US dollar, and rising US stocks. Missing from the picture is the leverage taken in China and related to monetary expansion there - and what happens once that expansion is

A volatile week saw exchanges trimming their losses, but absent an upbeat Shanghai and a downbeat Tokyo the period is best described as nondescript, with no clear engine to drive markets stronger in the immediate future. R M Cutler runs

Not quite the end of the world for Apple, but the introduction of the iPhone to China turned sour for the United States-based company and its mainland partner, China Unicom, with initial sales falling well short of forecasts. Doomsday, however,