Alpine bombshell
The European Union's sanctions against Austria's rightists are riddled with contradictions. But this is hardly a good reason for lifting the boycott, writes Dominic Coldwell, Belgian Foreign Minister Louis Michel

Whose economy is it anyway?
IMF-inspired policies in Latin America have often borne fruit at the macro level, but tell that to the people these programmes are supposed to benefit, writes Hisham El-Naggar from Buenos Aires

Circling the wagons
Despite the mountain of evidence that it is technologically infeasible and politically misguided, Marc Munro reports that the Americans are determined to realise their dream of a national missile defence system

Indonesia Balkanised
Riddled with ethnic warfare, separatist movements and a ruined economy, Indonesia is on the brink of an abyss, writes Faiza Rady

Island mentality
As leaders from the world's richest nations huddle together on the Japanese island of Okinawa for the G-8 summit this weekend, the plight of the poor will not feature on the agenda, writes Gamal Nkrumah

The gender gap
Small is not always beautiful -- especially when it means marginalising poor women, social anthropologist and EU consultant Jane Haile told Mariz Tadros during her recent visit to Egypt