Reuters

WASHINGTON, July 17 (Reuters) - U.S. Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice has been charged by the White House to lead a new Arab-Israeli peacemaking initiative but the prospects for a breakthrough seem dimmer than ever.With the Palestinian territories split between Islamist Hamas in Gaza and U.S.-backed Fatah in the West Bank, President George W. Bush's speech on Monday to revive his vision of a Palestinian state could hardly have come at a tougher time...Bush called for… more

PARIS, June 25 (Reuters) - U.S. efforts to promote Israel-Palestinian peace have made little progress, in part because of the internal Palestinian split between President Mahmoud Abbas of secular Fatah and Islamist Hamas, which came to power last year after winning parliamentary elections...

The power struggle erupted into outright warfare this month when Hamas forces defeated Fatah to take control of Gaza, effectively splitting the Palestinians between the coastal strip dominated by Hamas and the West Bank ruled by Fatah. more

KABUL, April 23 (Reuters) - The level of destruction in Afghanistan was far underestimated from the beginning which fuelled unrealistic expectations about how fast the country could be rebuilt, one of the country's top economic officials said.Ishaq Nadiri, senior economic adviser to President Hamid Karzai, pointed to a legacy of conflict and division that started almost 30 years ago with the Soviet invasion and continued into civil war and the rule of the strict Islamist Taliban...Donors… more

NEW YORK (Reuters) - The widening U.S. student lender scandal is putting new scrutiny on the ties between private loan companies like Sallie Mae and the government agencies that oversee federal loan programs.

A number of top U.S. Department of Education officials in President George W. Bush's administration previously had worked for student lenders or related groups. Critics say these links have led to weak monitoring of federal loan programs and contributed to the turmoil surrounding the $85 billion student loan… more

WASHINGTON (Reuters) - Controversy over a possible missed U.S. opportunity for rapprochement with Iran grew on Wednesday as former aide accused Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice of misleading Congress on the issue.

Flynt Leverett, who worked on the National Security Council when it was headed by Rice, said a proposal vetted by Tehran's most senior leaders was sent to the United States in May 2003 and was akin to the 1972 U.S. opening to China.

Speaking at a conference on… more

WASHINGTON, Oct 27 (Reuters) - As U.S. military losses mount steadily in Iraq, a document issued by a group linked to al Qaeda spells out new goals for America's most determined enemies and calls for a media war against the United States.

The document, which began circulating on the Internet this month, illustrates the techniques Washington's enemy is using in what President George W. Bush has called the "war of ideas."