Indian Prime Minister Manmohan Singh failed to realize the main objective of his visit to the United States - the "operationalization" of the US-India civilian nuclear deal. India and the US were more successful in other areas, including on defense

Beijing is actively promoting that the Communist Party should build a "study model of Marxism". Coupled with the visit by a senior party official to Taiwan to discuss - for the first time ever - political models, the signs are

According to data published by the US Defense Department, one in every four combat soldiers quit the Afghan National Army during the year ending in September. This high desertion rate not only flies in the face of US officials' long-time

Indonesian President Susilo Bambang Yudhoyono's vague response to an alleged attempt to take down a popular anti-corruption body raises fears of a return to Suharto-era impunity for top-level officials. Yudhoyono's belated reaction also leaves unanswered questions about his own possible

First Lady Michelle Obama, and daughters Sasha and Malia, not joining United States President Barack Obama's swing through Asia may have been a mistake. While Obama's town-hall session broke new ground, the beguiling sight of the first family mingling and

The fists are already flying in the lead-up to next year's Philippine presidential vote. According to opinion polls, popularity is now on the side of 49-year-old opposition Senator Benigno "Noynoy" Aquino. His rivals aren't giving up that easily though, and

Negotiating With Iran by John W Limbert The author, the Barack Obama administration's newly-appointed point man on Iran, shares a wealth of insights and recommendations in the cognitive map of Iranian negotiators. A major fault of the book is an

Brazil President Luiz Inacio Lula da Silva's warm embrace of visiting Iranian President Mahmud Ahmadinejad said it all - this is how to make progress between countries. And as Lula made clear his support of Iran's stance over nuclear power,

Russia has made clear that the Nord Stream and South Stream pipelines will not be used to divert gas from Ukraine's transit pipelines to Europe, a change of stance that will be welcomed by Moscow-friendly parties in Ukraine before January's

The United States Congress next week has the opportunity to question the wisdom of President Barack Obama's decision to keep Ben Bernanke - who played a key role in bringing about the global financial crisis - as Federal Reserve chairman

An ordinance that granted amnesty to a number of top Pakistani politicians, including President Asif Ali Zardari, expires in a few days. The military is preparing for the fallout, just as it is already in contact with leading players in

India and Pakistan have more common interests in Afghanistan than the two, with their residue of historical animosity, would admit. There are surprisingly convergent preferences between New Delhi and Islamabad to stabilize Afghanistan, provided they follow through with deft diplomacy

The massacre of at least 39 people on the Philippines' restive island of Mindanao brutally highlights outgoing President Gloria Macapagal-Arroyo's failure to stem political violence in provincial areas. The military has blamed the savage attack - which targeted a politician

The Sikh ethnic minority to which India's Prime Minister Manmohan Singh belongs is the butt of numerous jokes in India, but his electoral success - built on economic and foreign policy achievements - has left opponents searching for a punchline.

The latest and most popular releases from Hollywood present disturbing vignettes of where the West in general and the United States in particular are headed. Teenage vampires in New Moon represent the age-old quest for immortality, even as 2012 plays

With Iran rejecting a proposal from the "Iran Six" countries to ship its low-enriched uranium abroad for further enrichment, the group is now considering the next step: sanctions. The ultimate virtue of sanctions is that they provide a platform between

China produces the highest number of PhD graduates in the world annually, but many fear the number is vastly inflated with officials who - seeking rapid promotion - have paid universities for the prestigious qualification without doing any work. -

Russian oligarch Oleg Deripaska, international creditor banks and the Kremlin should know this week if shares of his debt-burdened United Company Rusal can be listed in the Chinese special region of Hong Kong. Closely watching are Libya's Muammar Gaddafi, a

The cancelation of a tender giving a Russian company the right to build Turkey's first nuclear power plant risks alienating the government in Moscow. The alternative, however, could have given too much power of a different kind to Russia, on

Critics of the US Federal Reserve are growing in number and volume as normal folk see little of the vast amounts of money it dispenses going into their pockets. That, and Congressman Ron Paul's move to have the Fed's books