An extraordinary violation
The plight of Canadian-Syrian Maher Arar is a disturbing example of how far the United States is prepared to go in its hunt for suspected terrorists, writes Jaideep Mukerji

Are we over the worse?
War-torn East Timor braces itself for life without the United Nations, writes Damien Kingsbury

More Europeans fear Israel
Iraq? North Korea? United States? Nope. According to a recent poll, most Europeans think Israel is a threat to world peace. Dawood Traboulsi reports from paris

Accessorising or secularising?
French attitudes on head covering are veiled in arguments about secularism, reports Jeremy Landor from paris

Mauritania's hour postponed
Mauritanian President Mouawiya Ould Taya's sweeping victory at the polls this week might set the country on an irrevocable course of authoritarianism and racial discrimination, argues Gamal Nkrumah

The money trail
In Iraq American multinationals cash in on cronyism and corruption, writes Faiza Rady

Spare us more progress
Appeals by the Bush administration for the public to look at the "positive side" of the situation in Iraq seem to be falling on deaf ears, Khaled Dawoud reports from Washington