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H1 Washington Post Global Governance: To Strobe Talbott, it's inevitable. To John Bolton,...

Dems Set to Vote in S. Carolina Polls show Obama holding a slight lead in an electorate polarized along racial lines

Daily Star Hebrew and Palestinian history, in reverse By Rami G. Khouri It was not exactly the Red Sea parting to allow a persecuted, enslaved people to flee to safety, but it was pretty close as far as political symbolism goes

Financial Times Slow but sure Recent events on nearly every continent give cause for concern to those who dream of a world governed by the ballot box rather than the bullet. Democracy appears to be in retreat, but Niall Ferguson says it would be rash to prophesy its death

Los Angeles Times Iran reformists threaten to boycott voteThey have appealed a hard-line council's disqualification of hundreds of candidates for parliament

Helena Cobban Gaza scenarios...

William Arkin Secret Operations: Supporting or Undermining the War on Terroism?

Time Can the World Stop The Slide? The U.S. is heading into its first recession in a truly globalized world. Here's what to expect --and why it will be different this time

Surging to a Stalemate By: Steve Chapman | Reason Are we really winning in Iraq? When it comes to the Bush administration's strategy, the Republican presidential candidates all seem to be auditioning for the lead in a remake of "Pollyanna." In their eyes, it has been the greatest triumph since the liberation of Paris

RFE/RLRussia: Gazprom's Advance Into Europe Continues Another day, another energy coup for Russia's state gas giant. Gazprom has been cutting deals and buying up infrastructure in Europe at a furious pace. Is Russia's total dominance of the European energy market a fait accompli?

EurasiaNet Azerbaijan: US Trying to Shore Up its Diplomatic Position in Caspian Basin The United States is reinforcing its diplomatic standing in Azerbaijan in hopes of making a "spring offensive" in the Caspian Basin.

New York Times Mosul Bombings Prompt Promise of New Offensive

Around the World, the U.S. Campaign Is Close to Home From Berlin to London to Jakarta, the presidential candidates’ destinies have become hometown news in a way that commentators cannot recall.

Guardian An unstable marriage

Jonathan Steele Defeat in Iraq? The paradox of Baghdad is that a fundamentally anti-western government is umbilically linked to US occupation

Leader Of risks and rogues
Financial markets: A week that started with a trading-room tsunami streaming right round the planet closes with at least the possibility that the whole thing was unleashed by a single 31-year-old with a passion for judo

Asia Times Forget about war with Iran? While some Beltway pundits are applauding the George W Bush administration's apparent rethinking of its plans to bomb Iran, their cheers may be premature. What if Israel got the "yellow light" and the US backed its faithful ally? Stranger things have happened - like two planes flying into the World Trade Center. - Leon Hadar

Daily Star Another assassination in Lebanon: What does this one mean?

Al Hayat The Struggle for Lebanon Patrick Seale - It does not look as if the long-running Lebanese crisis will be resolved any day soon. The main reason is that the election of a Lebanese President is not a purely Lebanese affair.

Washington Times Tireless Sarkozy promises the moon A visiting Arab potentate compared him to a "racehorse that has to be reined in" but President Nicolas Sarkozy continues galloping through issues, plans and projects showered on France with unprecedented profusion.

Foreign Affairs: "Public Footprints in Private Markets - Sovereign Wealth Funds and the World Economy" by Robert M. Kimmitt

In Time, founding Slate Editor Michael Kinsley explains why a stimulus package is the wrong way to fix the ailing U.S. economy. In a country where people spend more than they have, Kinsley equates the recently proposed congressional stimulus package to curing a hangover by pouring yourself another cocktail.—

Asia Times THE ROAD TO HYPERINFLATION Fed helpless in its own crisis The US Federal Reserve, desperate to prevent the home mortgage crisis from infesting the whole economy, is trying to inject funds into financial institutions - a counterproductive response to a credit crisis caused by years of excess liquidity. Hyperinflation lies down the road. - Henry C K Liu
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Jerusalem Post Six powers propose new Iran sanctions Plan includes bans on travel, sale of equipment that could be used for Teheran's nuclear industry

CER A new phase in EU-Iran diplomacy

H 2 Quiet bridge-building Washington Times - By Soner Cagaptay A Greek-Turkish partnership could build linkages between Europe and the Middle East.

Stratfor Turkey: Reversing the Headscarf Ban | Stratfor

Turkey's Brave New World -- Part II Turkey is a country in transition, attempting to rationalize its internal political system while seeking an opportunity for external projection. After securing internal political stability, Ankara's next step in looking beyond its borders is figuring out where its challenges lie, and that starts with Greece.

Der Spiegel Angering the Secular Elite: Turkey to Lift University Head Scarf Ban

Iraqi Official Says Kirkuk Referendum Can Be Completed Within 45 Days - Paper